Dallas Cowboys News & Notes: Cowboys Lose Game And Lose More Players

Cowboys Vs Saints Goes To Overtime, But Dallas Falls 26-20 - Blogging The Boys
The Cowboys suffer a disappointing loss to the Saints.

Dallas Cowboys' season at crossroad with overtime loss - Dallas Cowboys Blog - ESPN
With the Cowboys missing their stars, it is imperative that they get wins on some of the easier teams on the schedule. This missed opportunity is setting the table for a difficult path ahead.

The undefeated New England Patriots visit AT&T Stadium next week coming off a bye. The Cowboys then get a week off before making a trip to the Meadowlands to take on the New York Giants, who have won two in a row. Then they play the Seattle Seahawks and Philadelphia Eagles.

Another injury blow: Sean Lee leaves Cowboys-Saints game with concussion | Dallas Morning News
It wouldn't be a Cowboys game if a key player didn't get hurt. And of course it's going to be the most important player on the defense.

He'll have to pass the NFL's concussion protocol next week in order to play against the New England Patriots. There is no guarantee he will. Defensive end Jeremy Mincey, who suffered a concussion during pregame warm-ups against Philadelphia, didn't play the following week against Atlanta.

GAME RECAP: Cowboys Lose to Saints in OT; Suffer More Key Injuries | Dallas Cowboys

And the hits just keep on coming.

On the opening kickoff of the third quarter, Lance Dunbar, who is tops on the team in receiving yards, was helped off the field with what appeared to be a serious knee injury. That was followed by wide receiver Brice Butler, originally acquired to help replace the loss of Bryant, being sidelined with a hamstring issue.

Source: Cowboys fear Lance Dunbar will miss rest of season with knee injury | Dallas Morning News
Of course. I mean the guy is finally having the best season of his career so logically it must be cut short with a season ending injury. We can't be having all that health and goodness infecting our team.

A source said the team fears Dunbar has a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee and will miss the rest of the season.

Three thoughts: Cowboys defense can't stop vintage Drew Brees | Dallas Morning News
Jon Machota offers up his thoughts on the game, including a how the defense is failing to make plays at critical times in the game.

1.) I understand a lot of key pieces were missing on defense, but the Cowboys have to come up with some stops in the fourth quarter and overtime. If not for a surprising field goal attempt off the upright, this game would've been over in regulation. Drew Brees isn't close to 100 percent, but this defense allowed him to be vintage Brees, allowing 359 yards on 33 of 41 passing. Getting Greg Hardy and Rolando McClain back should help greatly, but the Cowboys are going into a stretch against teams much better than New Orleans. If the defense continues to struggle, this losing streak could reach five. Next three games: Patriots, at Giants and Seahawks.

Bob Sturm: Cowboys are in dire situation on brink of disaster | Dallas Morning News
While there are plenty of things to point fingers at, Bob Sturm shares the fact that the defense had no answer for Brees in the second half.

The first thing that comes to your mind as a culprit, you would have to look at the fact the defense could not slow down Drew Brees consistently as the game went on. The veteran QB was able to put together four scoring drives after halftime and one more where they missed the field goal at the end of regulation. Drew Brees touched the ball on six occasions after halftime and basically scored on five of them. There were no real stops from the Cowboys to speak of, except for one punt.

Gosselin: Cowboys defense is overmatched and they have no answers | Dallas Morning News
The Saints took full advantage of a Cowboys defense that was without their talented, playmaking leader, Sean Lee.

Without him against the Saints, the Cowboys defense couldn't get off the field. Drew Brees was still favoring his tender right shoulder, which sidelined him last week in a loss to Carolina, and spent the night throwing short passes. At one point he completed 15 consecutive passes and 23 of 24. But they were all underneath throws and safe tosses.

There are a lot of different things that attributed to this loss.

Cowboys OL couldn't control the worst front-7 in the NFL. Cowboys Safeties must have missed close to 10 tackles. There are your scapegoats.

— Dan Turner (@dtsturner) October 5, 2015

Cowboys Injuries Too Much, Team Can't Compensate In OT Loss To Saints - Blogging The Boys
Just how good is this Cowboys team? We may never know. All their best players aren't out there playing.

Dallas finished this game without a handful of their very best players, and they have lost others along the way who play important roles. The defense didn't even know how to line up half the time because players were shuffling in and out.

Hot Air: Cowboys QB Brandon Weeden responds to Cris Collinsworth's jabs with Romo-esque drive | Dallas Morning News
The Cowboys needed their backup QB to pull a Romo and lead them down the field for a fourth quarter game-tying drive. Not a lot of people had much faith in that Weeden fella, including NBC's Cris Collinsworth.

"You really need to see his ability to win football games," Collinsworth said with the Cowboys trailing 20-13. "You haven't seen it enough in his career." So what does Weeden do? He leads a Romo-esque 91-yard touchdown drive to tie the game.

Saints 26, Cowboys 20: My Top 10 Whitty Comments | NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Richie Whitt makes light of 10 observations that most of us would have preferred not to be subjected to.

5. Tough night for Lance Dunbar. He buys 17 tickets for family members, and has his grandmother watching him play live for the first time. But for some reason he returns the second-half kickoff from eight yards deep in the end zone and promptly injures his knee. Game over. Season likely in limbo.

And we can't talk about silliness without mentioning the leaping pirouette move by Joseph Randle.

4. Joseph Randle obviously has talent, but not a lick of sense around the goal line. He fumbled last week diving across the goal line against the Falcons and tonight he, well, I’m not sure what to call it. Let’s try this: Randle took a hand-off at the 1 and attempted a spinning, whirling, Peter-Pan finesse move punctuated by him sticking the ball out with one hand and trying a George Gervin-like finger roll. That about right? It resulted in a touchdown, but also a tongue-lashing from both Jason Garrett and running backs coach Gary Brown. My $1 says Dallas’ next goal-line hand-off is to someone other than Randle.

Drew Brees gets 400th TD to win game in OT - NFL.com
That's nice and all, good for him, but it will have an asterisk next to it because he sorta cheated by not asking the defense if it was ready yet. Clearly, they were still sorting some things out and didn't give him the thumbs up. But hey, if you want to win that way, fine.

Cowboys confused. Brees recognizes. Ballgame.

— Ryan Ruocco (@RyanRuocco) October 5, 2015

Don’t Forget About These Five: Costly Penalties, Untimely Injuries & More | Dallas Cowboys
The game winning play was a play that should have never happened.

Non-call on Gachkar before final TD – The Saints’ 80-yard game-winning touchdown from Brees to C.J. Spiller will get replayed over and over this week and maybe for a while. What won’t get shown is the play before, which was the first snap of overtime. Brees threw a pass in the right flat for running back Khiry Robinson, who dropped the pass. But he was open because of a pick route the Saints ran to block linebacker Andrew Gachkar, who was injured on the play.

Had a penalty been called, it not only would have moved the Saints back, but also allowed Dallas more time to change out Gachkar and get themselves ready.

Christine Michael active for Dallas Cowboys - Dallas Cowboys Blog - ESPN
For those who have been waiting for weeks to finally see the Cowboys new RB, Christine Michael - I hope you didn't blink. Michael logged one play in the fourth quarter and was brought down in the backfield. Yay! That was fun.