Obviously there are two actual games left, but this season is over for the Dallas Cowboys.
The Dallas Cowboys are fully and blatantly out of things to play for on this 2025 season. The black and blue fact of this was set in stone before the Cowboys even arrived to AT&T Stadium on Sunday, as their playoff chances were reduced to 0% Saturday night when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Commanders on the road. It was made even more evident and painful by the way the Cowboys lost to the Los Angeles Chargers in their final home game of the season, losing 34-17, getting just one defensive stop and being shut out offensively in the second half.
The Cowboys will need road wins at the Commanders and Giants to sweep the season series against both rivals to finish 8-8-1, a technically non-losing record that would feel as hollow as their most recent two home performances against the Vikings and Chargers.
For the second game in a row, everything the Cowboys offense did against the Chargers felt extremely hollow. Last Sunday night against the Vikings, it was mostly CeeDee Lamb carrying things for the passing game while George Pickens was quiet, but the defense did not put up enough resistance for any of it to matter. This week against the Chargers was more of a showing for Pickens while Lamb was held more in check, but the defense somehow being even more hapless made the fact the Cowboys can have two different players stand out at receiver in different weeks an afterthought instead of anything at all to build on.
The result of defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus moving up to the coaching box and defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton having a bigger role on the field was the Dallas defense being the first to not record a sack against Justin Herbert all season, and allow the Chargers to convert on 7-of-11 third downs. Mix in the fact the Cowboys were just one for three in the red zone, and this game was nothing more than 60 more minutes of football where the home team played in a way completely incompatible with winning, and unsustainable with an eye towards having a competitive culture and edge.
The Cowboys are on a short week for the final time this season, moving on from this game in a hurry and preparing for Christmas Day against old friend Dan Quinn. Let’s get to a few notes on the loss to the Chargers.
The examples of the Cowboys offense having good play sequencing and situational calls are few and far between over the last two weeks, but there were some glimpses of positives in this area early on against the Chargers. Against their shell style of coverage, the Chargers were playing to take away the quick inside routes from Pickens. After a third-down attempt on the opening drive went through the hands of Lamb, Pickens used this leverage to his advantage and won with an outside release to make a 28-yard catch on fourth down.
Three plays later in a goal-to-go situation, the Chargers safety on Pickens’ side was again leaning towards helping on an inside break from Pickens, but it left Ryan Flournoy space underneath to catch his fourth touchdown of the season. Flournoy had a second touchdown in as many drives called back by a Tyler Smith holding penalty after the Chargers tied the game at seven. The Cowboys settled for a field goal in a game where scoring three instead of seven doomed them to another loss with the way the Chargers dominated the Cowboys defense.
Smith started over an injured Nate Thomas at left tackle for the Cowboys in this game. Early on in the game script, having two natural run-blocking guards in T.J. Bass and Smith on the left side looked like a good way to help move the pocket for Prescott and create different looks for the offense, but as the game wore on it was difficult to establish these types of plays with any rhythm. From there, as the Chargers built a lead, it became difficult yet again to protect on the edges in pass protection with the Cowboys forced into drop back passing mode, and Dallas was held scoreless over the final 38 minutes and 14 seconds of this game.
Dallas will have two games worth of reps to continue evaluating this offensive line pairing on the left side, as Coach Schottenheimer announced after the loss that Smith will remain at left tackle for the remainder of the season.
The last scoring play of this game for the Cowboys was again a great design that ended in a great finish by Pickens. The Chargers were the much, much better team at setting up favorable situations in manageable down and distances for Herbert in this game, but here on a 2nd-and-2, the Cowboys were able to get Pickens behind the defense out of a heavy running formation. The 38-yard touchdown was Pickens’ first in four weeks, and put the Cowboys ahead 17-14.
Los Angeles already had two long scoring plays of their own though, similarly getting behind the Dallas secondary with Quentin Johnson against rookie Shavon Revel and Ladd McConkey behind Trevon Diggs. They added a short rushing touchdown from Herbert “tush push” style before the half to reclaim the lead 21-17 and put themselves in position to dominate the second half and increase their playoff odds.
The Cowboys have been weak at safety for so long it feels like a bit of a blind spot amidst everything else that’s wrong with the current roster, but they have been gashed to no end thanks to poor play at safety all season. With Herbert being one of the best quarterbacks in the game at extending plays and launching the ball downfield with ease, the Chargers were never truly under pressure of losing this game as they could rattle off chunk plays whenever needed.
Even defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey, in his team debut, making a run stop on first down to give the Cowboys some defensive footing in this final drive before the half was not enough as Keenan Allen beat Diggs on a simple slant to move the chains. The Cowboys played more man coverage in this game, perhaps limiting the effect of Eberflus having an “eye in the sky” to see the coverage structures better, and were not good in it with their depleted personnel in the secondary still getting beat by a Chargers receiving group not known for being dynamic. One of the best individual reps from a cornerback in this game actually came from a seventh-round pick by the Chargers this season, Trikweze Bridges, who earned the Cowboys a rare third-down stop on third and a yard when Herbert targeted him deep looking for Johnson. This led to the Chargers first punt immediately after the Cowboys punted for the first time all game, but the Cowboys were stopped with on fourth down. The Chargers then seized a two-score lead.
Hunter Luepke was stopped on a fullback dive after a Lamb false start penalty set the offense back, and Kenneth Murray missed a clear shot at Herbert on a pressure that led to a 33-yard QB scramble to set up a Cameron Dicker field goal that gave the road team a 27-17 lead.
Dak Prescott would throw just four more passes for the rest of this game, completing one of them to Pickens. His final two attempts in the comeback effort were a deep ball that KaVontae Turpin gave up on despite being matched up with a linebacker, and a fourth down heave he barely got rid of on the run while going down that went straight to the turf. The Cowboys waved the white flag and turned to Joe Milton after yet another Chargers touchdown, and made the rest of the game academic – a very likely glimpse into what the final eight quarters of Cowboys football this season will look like.
Candy canes on the jerseys and all, the vibes going into Christmas are the opposite of holly and jolly in Dallas.
Category: General Sports
