The Dallas Cowboys opened the season with the victory against the rivalry NY Giants, but they were told who the boss was in the Mile High City, where they faced powerful Broncos. The Cowboys traveled to Denver confidently, led by Dak Prescott, the 2016 Rookie of the Year and Ezekiel Elliott lurking behind the best O-Line in the league.
However, that wasn’t enough to get a W against the Broncos who were superior in almost every stat category. The Cowboys end up losing 42-17 resulting in harsh criticism coming from the fans. Tyrone Starr wrote for thelandryhat.com: “The Dallas Cowboys made a trip to Denver this weekend — at least, that’s what the flight records will show. Apparently, the Cowboys forgot to actually show up for the reason of the trip.”
Just for comparison, Elliott had more than 100 rushing yards in the season-opener while he had a career low of eight yards one week later. Prescott threw two interceptions with the one caught by Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib. Not only did he catch this pass in his own end zone, but he ended up scoring a 103-yard TD. Even with this, looking at the stats, we can say that Prescott had a decent game with 30/50 passes completed for 238 yards and two TDs. He was still dissatisfied with his performance.
“It’s not a good feeling at all,” Prescott told the Dallas Morning News after the game. “It doesn’t matter who you play. When you play the way I did tonight, you’re not going to win any games in this league.” However, he praised Broncos defense: “They did a good job. They’re sticky defenders. They were on us, and they made me throw in tight, tight windows. I simply didn’t make some of them.”
Dallas head coach Jason Garrett agreed with Prescott on Denver’s outstanding performance on both ends of the field. But he was also aware of the shortcomings of his team. He stated: “When they play that style of defense, you have to be able to consistently attack with the passing game. At different times today, I thought we were able to do that, and at other times, we weren’t. We didn’t make the plays for whatever reason.”
In the next two games, Dallas will face the Arizona Cardinals tonight and Los Angeles Rams next week. Will they bounce back or will the other teams follow Broncos’ example?
