Week 15’s humiliation at the hands of the Buffalo Bills further distanced the Dallas Cowboys from the NFC-leading San Francisco 49ers.
The Dallas Cowboys began their season in Western New York with their sights set on winning the NFC and a playoff berth secured. Rather, they made a complete collapse, losing 31-10 to the Buffalo Bills and providing talk show hosts with more fodder than they had in the previous two months.
Buffalo running back James Cook was nearly solely responsible for Dallas’ collapse. With a career day and an exclamation point, he continued his hot streak by gaining 221 yards through rushes and two touchdowns. That would be more than enough to get past the appalling offensive performance by the Cowboys.
Why did the Bills continue to hand the ball to Cook?
Sean McDermott, the coach at Buffalo, asked, “Why run away from it?”
Smellers do occur occasionally. However, the Cowboys’ defeat in Week 15 served as a harsh reminder that a brief victory in the NFC East is meaningless when the “road” – and we do mean “road” – passes through the San Francisco 49ers.
If the humiliating defeat was the result of unlucky injuries or a big play that was blown by an official, then there wouldn’t be as much cause for concern. Perhaps Dak Prescott could have promised to play better the next week after having an unusually poor night that only hurt the team.
Rather, they appeared to be an irredeemably thin linebacker team as they allowed 266 rushing yards. Was this solely due to nose tackle Jonathan Hankins’s injury absence? There must be more to it than that.
Although facing this Dallas run defense in the playoffs should make San Francisco salivate, nobody wants to play a quarterback as good as Prescott.
The 49ers have a history of relying on their runs. It is the offensive engine that has the potential to make Brock Purdy an MVP. When they eliminated the Cowboys from the playoffs the previous season, they ran for 113 yards. They ran for 169 the year before.
San Francisco, led by Christian McCaffrey, is a team that enjoys running the ball, especially when up against strong pass rushers. Its play action and run game are better matched in football than anyone else’s, and it has repeatedly targeted weak linebackers.
The Cowboys’ safeties had trouble tackling, their linebackers didn’t look the part, and there wasn’t much hope in the trenches on Sunday. When home-road splits are as pronounced as Dallas’, they must be discussed, but if opposing teams can force their will on the field, it won’t matter where the Cowboys play.
Dallas is suffering from the injuries and roster choices that have dropped the team to the bottom of the NFL in terms of allowed rushing success rate. It’s a difficult way to spend January.