Ralph Vacchiano
NFC East Reporter
This was the moment the Dallas Cowboys could change the narrative and prove to everyone, including themselves, that they were capable of winning big games on the road. All they needed was one stop from him to do it. To show that they have the potential to quickly become the go-to warriors we need.
After all, this game ended just like every other big game on the road ended in a loss for the snake-bitten Cowboys this season, and they wonder how things could go so well again. I wondered why it didn’t work.
On Sunday, the Cowboys lost 22-20 at Miami when Jason Sanders’ 29-yard field goal went through the uprights as time expired. This is their second straight loss and second straight on the road, dropping a very talented team to 3-5 on the season outside of Dallas.
Without this, it wouldn’t have been this bad. The Cowboys (10-5) are almost certain to finish in second place behind the Philadelphia Eagles (10-4) in the NFC East unless his NFC defensive end undergoes a shocking collapse. is. We will overcome the tough schedule and do our best to win. That means the Cowboys’ path to the Super Bowl will likely take them through Detroit, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and possibly all three cities.
And at this point, it’s hard to believe that even they can win a big game there.
“My confidence in this group is high,” Prescott said. “We know we can (beat good teams on the road) and we will.”
That’s a good idea, but the Cowboys now have a season’s worth of evidence proving it can’t be done. They’re just a different type of team outside of Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, a friendly venue. They are 7-0 at home, with an astonishing point differential of +171. They defeated teams there by an average score of 40-15.
But once they leave their city, they seem to forget how to play soccer. The difference in points along the way is -6. They lose by an average of 22-21. The best team they beat on the road all year was the Los Angeles Rams, who were only 3-5 at the time.
This game was almost different. They fought back from a tough start to the game, trailing 19-10 at the start of the fourth quarter. And when they got the ball with 11:06 left, trailing just 19-13, they put together one of the drives that would turn their season around. He marched 17 plays, 69 yards, 7 minutes and 39 seconds into the game. clock.
“The key was high competitiveness.” – Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa’s thoughts on the win against the Cowboys
At one point, they ran seven plays inside the Miami 7, thanks in part to a double pass interference call to the Miami secondary on a fourth-down play from the Miami 4. This set up Prescott’s big moment, an 8-yard touchdown pass to Brandin Cooks. , made a great catch to give the Cowboys a 20-19 lead.
But with too much time remaining, the self-proclaimed “National Football League’s best defense” once again fell short, allowing the Dolphins a 12-play, 64-yard drive. The defense up to that point had been excellent, holding the NFL’s highest scoring team to just one touchdown. But all that went away when they couldn’t find a way to maintain the lead.
Despite Prescott’s shot to get the ball back at the end, he was unable to stop the Dolphins’ third-and-two from the Dallas 15 with 1:42 left.
As usual on the road, when they needed a big play, no one on either side could make it.
And their difficulties on the road don’t end there. Prescott’s final performance was good, going 20-of-32 for 253 yards and two touchdowns, but his offense was poor, going just 6-of-9 for 121 yards and one touchdown in the first half. There is no way around this. Prescott’s play has been strong overall this year, but at a completely different level depending on where he plays.
He completed 74 percent of his passes at home for 2,125 yards, 20 touchdowns, and two interceptions, good for a passer rating of 122.5. During his outing, he completed only 63.2 percent of his passes for 1.76 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. Away from home, his passer rating drops to his 87.1.
It takes a special kind of toughness for a team to do well on the road, and the Cowboys just don’t seem to have that this season. And now they have lost the opportunity to show that it is there. Their final road game of the season will be in Washington in two weeks against the woeful 4-10 Commanders. Even if he were to win there, no one would be impressed or satisfied.
That means, barring a miracle, the next big game will be in the wild-card round of the playoffs. The only bright side for them is that they will likely face Tampa (8-7), New Orleans (7-8), or Atlanta (7-8), the default winners of the NFC South. Even the Cowboys should be able to win games at either of those spots.
But Detroit, Philadelphia, or San Francisco? They may believe they can win anywhere, but they have squandered every chance they had to prove it. If they could somehow get home field advantage through the NFL playoffs, they would have been a true Super Bowl contender.
But on the road, they’re just a flawed Cowboys team that can’t win the big games they should be winning. And that means this promising season is likely to end in disappointment, as it often does.
Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports and covers the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles, new york giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants, jets He spent 16 years covering the Giants and NFL for SNY TV in New York and before that for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter @RalphVacchiano.
nfl trends
Get more from the National Football League Follow your favorites to stay informed about games, news and more