CHARLOTTE, N.C. – If you play with fire too many times, eventually you get burned.
Well, the Cowboys, thanks to a regulation walk-off-into-overtime field goal and then the overtime walk-off field goal to beat the New York Giants, 40-37, as well as then hanging on for dear life against the Green Bay Packers in an overtime cliffhanger, unfortunately giving up the tying field goal with only one second left to avoid losing, escaping with a 40-40 tie, have survived these close shaves.
But on this Sunday afternoon here at Bank of America Stadium, with a porous defense once again needing the Cowboys offense to bail them out – certainly requiring touchdowns on drives inside the Carolina Panthers' 10-yard line but instead having to settle for two field goals –the defense once again crumbled when needing a stop in the final 6 minutes, 7 seconds of a 27-27 game.
And thus, the Cowboys got singed bad this time dancing around those precarious flames.
Panthers 30, Cowboys 27. Carolina kicker Ryan Fitzgerald's gimmie of a walk-off field goal from but 33 yards out, no more than an extra-point kick worth three this time, was the reason for the Cowboys suffering third-degree burns while falling to 2-3-1.
Pee-yew.
Said on Friday this game against the erstwhile 2-3 Panthers would be somewhat of a litmus test for where the Cowboys team would be after six games, knowing in their two losses and the tie they had chances to win. First in the opener against the Eagles and several more to beat the Packers. Seemed after the first five games of a 17-game season, these Cowboys could be trusted.
Nope, not yet anyway. Not after this loss.
Their test results turned up red, indicating high acidity, probably indicating an acid reflux taste in their mouths after this one. And when they go back to look at this loss on Monday, preventing them from winning back-to-back games for the first time this season or going three straight games without a loss, they will be sick to their stomachs, likely taking some of the sweetness off Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' 83rd birthday cake on Monday.
Opportunity squandered. This defense – a loose use of the term – that has given up 107 points in the three games they failed to win, got run.
That's run right over and over again, including during the Panthers' final possession when they drove 71 yards in 15 plays, eating up the entirety of the final 6:07. They made no bones about what their intent was with the football, since they had shoved it down the Cowboys'throats all game long.
Worse part?
They had fair warning what was coming. Former Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle, who went for a career-high 206 yards the previous Sunday against Miami, somewhat full of himself, told the Dallas defense to "buckle up." The Panthers rarely hid their intent to do so in the running game since they played the majority of the day in a two-tight end formation and sometimes, heck, three of them.
Coming right atcha, 'Boys.
But instead, the Cowboys "buckled under" the 3-3 Panthers physicality. Why, you've heard the likes of a hot knife cutting through butter? This was more like sticking a fork through Jello. And look, not exaggerating here.
Not only did Dowdle rush for 183 yards on 30 carries, all together the Panthers ran for 216 yards on 38 attempts, the most rushing yards against the Cowboys since San Franciso went for 223 17 games ago. And on that final clock-eating drive for the winning field goal, Carolinaran for 37 of those 71 yards and were gifted another 12 thanks to a so-so pass interference call on a third-and-7 incompletion that should have forced the Panthers to punt from their own 17 with 5:22 left. That likely would have given the Cowboys plenty of time even on a 50-yard punt with no return to reach Brandon Aubrey's 60-yard field goal range. Like, wide receiver Xavier Legette got his feet tangled with Kaiir Elam, falling to the ground.
But again, that is why leaving yourself susceptible to so many of these close calls is dangerous. You win some. You tie some. But you also lose some.
"They were able to run it, and we weren't," said Cowboys head coach Brian Schotteneimer, knowing the Cowboys' string of five consecutive 100-yard rushing games cameto a screeching halt with just a measly 31 in this one (matching the fewest since an identical 31 nine games ago). And they had to strain to even reach that, needing 19 carries for an anemic 1.6 yards per attempt.
"Yeah, absolutely, no question about it," Schottenheimer said. "We've got to coach better;we've got to play better. The physicality of it all. We're a physical football team. We didn't show it today. This is a game where you've got to win the line of scrimmage, and we didn't win the line of scrimmage today. I told the team that. It's disappointing."
No worse an indictment than that.
And how Dallas tried to stop the run. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Cowboys began countering with a five-man front. Then putting eight men in the box, daring Panthers quarterback Bryce Young to throw the ball. But he said thank you very much, ending the game by completing 17 of 25 pass attempts for 199 yards and three touchdowns with a season-high 114.8 QB rating, the second highest of his three-year career.
"Our gap control was not very good," Schottenheimer conceded. Too many times, as he pointed out, the Panthers were running for four and five yards before any contact. The holes, not trying to be funny, were gaping.
And this has become a troubling trend as the Cowboys defense now ranks 32nd in the NFL in total yards allowed, 29th against the run, 32nd against the pass and 31st in points against. And after struggling in pass defense, the Cowboys have now given up more than 144 yards rushing in four of their six games, with this season high of 216.
But Sunday, here is the other side of this pancake. The Cowboys held the winless Jets to a season-low 22 points – all of which might have been a mirage since Sunday across the pond the Jets were beaten 13-11 by Denver, suffering nine sacks and finishing with minus-10 net passing yards – but the Dallas offense also did its job, scoring 37 points in that game.
Great, but there is no margin for error. This offense is required to put up at least 30 points a game to have any chance of winning, and sometimes more than 40. Why, in the now three losses and a tie, the Cowboys have scored 20, 14, 40 and 27, not enough to compensate for the NFL's statistically worst defense.
And even to score the 27 points on Sunday, that took a Donavon Wilson interception return to the 21-yard line and an ensuing half-the-distance taunting penalty on Dowdle to set up the Cowboys at the Carolina 12 for their first touchdown. Even that required Schottenheimer's bold move at the outset of the second quarter on fourth-and-1 at the 3-yard line to go for it –possibly gambling out of some clairvoyance knowing touchdowns would be at a premium in this game – with the score tied at 3.
Then, with 7:10 left to play and the Cowboys trailing 27-24, here came the offensive failure. Dallas drove to a first down at the Carolina 8-yard line after a Dak Prescott 45-yard completion and run by George Pickens, who had another fabulous performance with a career-high nine catches for 168 yards, which included a 34-yard touchdown to give the Cowboys amomentary 24-20 lead.
But the Cowboys never moved an inch from the 8. In fact, lost 36 of them, having to settle for Aubrey's 28-yard field goal to only tie the game. And as you've heard me say, the more field goals you kick, the closer you are to losing. Gosh darn, the Cowboys left eight points on the field when having to kick two field goals, one from the 5-yard line and then this one from the nine.
Worse, after the defense actually got a stop, forcing just the second Carolina punt of the day, the Cowboys were set up at their own 46 with 8:18 left in a 27-all game. And of all things, the NFL's No. 1 ranked offense, just maybe 15 yards away from Aubrey's field goal range,suffers a three-and out, only the Cowboys' second of the game and first since their opening possession.
Can't have that. Not with this defense.
"Not our best series of the game," Dak said, instead actually losing eight yards, and that after gaining four on a screen to Hunter Luepke on third-and-22. "They won the fourth quarter."
Won the quarter. Won the game. Won the "buckle up" edict.
"He told us to buckle up," Dak said of Rico's boast. "He got the last laugh."
And the Cowboys, well, this humbling loss backs them up, halting whatever momentum a tie and victory might have provided. But now, at 2-3-1, they are saddled with a losing record while knowing they must face the Washington Commanders this coming Sunday at AT&TStadium, a tall order. Almost hear that truck in reverse going beep, beep, beep.
A shame, too, since they had so much to gain here with so many Cowboys fans on handand far less in the stadium overall than the announced 71,614 tickets sold. Yep, just when you think this defense might be improving after holding the Jets to 22 points, they give up 30 and an atrocious 410 total yards. Plus, a Panthers' season-high 27 first downs to the NFL's 26th-ranked offense.
Now then, big picture. When once no team in the NFC East had fewer than the Cowboys'two losses, after the Eagles' defeat Thursday night to fall to 4-2, Philadelphia holds a 1½-game lead on the Cowboys with their three losses. And the Commanders, heading into Monday night's game, are still with one less loss at 3-2. And the struggling Giants at 2-4 now only have one more loss than the Cowboys.
Time to regroup. Fast.
"It's a long season. It's a long, long season," Dak said. "I've been 3-5 before, and we went and ran and made the playoffs. That's my point. We've just got to find a way to win these close games right here."
Needing to "buckle down" in a hurry.
