The Cowboys appear to have no answers as to how to salvage something positive from their 2024 season. Losing their fifth straight game 34-10 to the Houston Texans, they still managed to find new ways to be inept, even before kickoff, when they couldn't even open the stadium without a catastrophe almost occurred.
Several familiar bugbears were back, with penalties, turnovers, injuries, poorly executed tricks and questionable game management decisions all having a major impact on the outcome… and so in this week's roundup of the good, the bad and the ugly from it game appeared game. But that doesn't even include the crazy things that no one has ever seen in an NFL game.
As usual, there were barely a few bright spots for those who looked closely. Brandon Aubrey and KaVontae Turpin, for example, flashed individual highlights… even though only one of them counted in the end.
Here's a complete breakdown of what went right, what went wrong, and what went off the rails. It's the good, the bad and the ugly from Week 11.
The stadium's self-destruction before the game should have served as some sort of omen, because when the game actually started, Dallas almost collapsed. On the very first play from scrimmage, Texas wide receiver Nico Collins took a short pass, immediately left the building and raced 77 yards to the end zone. The Cowboys were only 16 seconds behind after the game began…until they weren't. Thank you, Laremy Tunsil. The Houston tackle, the most penalized man in the NFL this season, was warned for being too far down the field, bringing the ball all the way back and giving the Dallas defense a chance to take the game a second Let's start…
It's a shame they didn't use the gift. Mazi Smith gave the Texans five yards to the right on a hold call on the very next snap, which only helped jump-start the Texans' offense. Five plays later, Joe Mixon broke through the heart of the Cowboys defense, going untouched on a 45-yard run and giving Houston a slightly late one-touchdown lead. Mixon, another top running back who changed teams last offseason (the Texans only got him for a seventh-round pick), finished the night with 109 yards and three scores on 20 carries.
Oops, they did it again. After a fake punt failed miserably in Week 9 in Atlanta, the Cowboys' special teams unit went one better on their opening drive on Monday. Bryan Anger actually connected on that throw, but Juanyeh Thomas was returned five yards short of sticks to give the ball to Houston, who was already in field goal territory and taking a 7-0 lead. The play call caused Dak Prescott to throw up his hands in disbelief as he watched from an upstairs box. Special teams coordinator Fassel said Monday that players on the field checked the fake themselves based on clues they were trained to look for. Maybe so, but this one smacked of desperation.
Somehow it didn't cost the Cowboys to hand the ball over to the Texans at the Dallas 33, as the defense stood firm and managed an all-too-rare turnover. Instead of attempting a 48-yard field goal to extend their lead, the Texans opted to go for it on 4th-and-3. Houston quarterback CJ Stroud tried to tie up with Collins again and instead found Cowboys safety Malik Hooker, who easily intercepted him. It was just the Cowboys' ninth takeaway of the season and helped keep things close for a while on Monday night.
With fewer than 19 points per game (and an average of just 14 per game during the current loss), the Cowboys are unlikely to be able to take points off the board, no matter the circumstances. Still, they chose to parry Brandon Aubrey's recent 64-yard sniper shot that briefly turned the game into a one-score affair in the closing minutes of the third quarter. The idea was to take advantage of the 15 free penalty yards, extend a good drive and end up scoring seven instead of three. Except that the Cowboys put together an almost comical series of plays that included a fumbled snap, a pass that hit Texas safety Calen Bullock in the hands and what should have been a 93-yard pick-six, a holding -Penalty on Luke Schoonmaker, and an off-goal fourth-down pass attempt to freshman Jonathan Mingo that failed, giving the Texans the ball back inside their own 10. The result? Almost five minutes of possession wasted… and zero points. The Cowboys stayed at 10 until the last shot.
When the book of Cowboys history is finally — and thankfully — closed in 2024, perhaps no piece will encapsulate the whole head-shattering ordeal better than this one. First-round draft pick Tyler Guyton (who may have been pushed into the starting lineup earlier this season due to Tyron Smith's departure in the offseason) allowed defensive end Derek Barnett to sneak in behind Cooper Rush and get the ball out of his hands to beat. Suddenly Guyton had no one to block and ended up in his hands. And the 322-pound rookie decided to run through traffic with it. Safety Jalen Pitre knocked the ball away from Guyton; Barnett picked up the ball and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown. Yes, only the 2024 Cowboys could manage to lose two fumbles on the same play. The blooper reel moment also marked two consecutive plays in which a Cowboys offensive lineman on the run inexplicably tried to recover a loose ball instead of simply falling on it.
KaVontae Turpin has been one of the team's few bright spots this season. The speedster is already a Pro Bowl-caliber returner and is also making his presence felt in the passing game as the third-highest wide receiver on the roster, behind only CeeDee Lamb and Jalen Tolbert. The thing about Turpin is that he's always going to break one sooner or later. And that's what he did on Monday night, turning a routine short pass into a 64-yard run and a score. And Turpin used the jets to do it, reaching a top speed of 22.36 miles per hour on the way to the end zone. According to Next Gen Stats, it was the fastest speed by a ball carrier in the entire league so far this season. ESPN's Seth Walder points out that it was only the second slant route Turpin has run this year; Maybe this play should be rotated more.
The Cowboys' season has already been irrevocably altered by injuries to key playmakers: Dak Prescott, Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, DaRon Bland, Brandin Cooks, Marshawn Kneeland and Sam Williams, to name a few. On a night where they were also without Jourdan Lewis, the Week 11 contest has significantly expanded the number of players who are now worried about their progression. Tight end Jake Ferguson suffered a concussion in the first quarter and safety Markquese Bell suffered a serious shoulder injury in the second quarter. The O-line suffered a triple blow: Zack Martin left the game with an ankle injury, Tyler Smith suffered an ankle injury of his own, and Tyler Guyton suffered a blow to the shoulder that knocked him out of the game. With a short week heading into Week 12 and then just a few days left before the Thanksgiving Day game, the injuries suffered on Monday night could get even worse.
Things got tense as the game progressed, and the intrastate rivalry led to bad blood between the two Texas teams. Nine penalties on each side sparked more than a few skirmishes, with the biggest fight coming about four minutes before the end of the game. Cowboys linebacker Marist Liufau and Houston's Laremy Tunsil failed to stop a five-yard running play, and when several Texans got into the mix, several Cowboys did the same. It was over quickly as the officials threw out five flags – each for a different player. Liufau, DeMarvion Overshown, Mazi Smith and Trevon Diggs were all cited for unnecessary roughness on the same play, but that was all thankfully offset by Tunsil's penalty for the same foul. Emotions ran high several times in a frustrating game for a desperate Dallas team. It will probably continue like this until it drags on until 2024.