The Cowboys have been playing a high-stakes game of Jenga for about a month.
Credit to them, they’ve been pretty good at it. Between a rash of injuries and turnover issues, there have been a good many blocks missing from the tower for quite a while.
Eventually, though, every game of Jenga ends the same way. And whereas they’ve had the dexterity and the audacity to keep things upright on days they shouldn’t have, it all came toppling down Sunday in Jacksonville.
“Frustration grows,” said Dak Prescott afterward. “To end the game on a pick-six, it’s tough. It’s frustrating.”
It will certainly be one of the more memorable sequences of this entire NFL season. In what is sure to become a meme, Prescott could only watch in disbelief as his third-down, overtime pass to Noah Brown clanged off his receiver’s hands and into the waiting arms of Rayshawn Jenkins, who returned it for a walk-off touchdown.
It’s emblematic of the issues that have plagued Prescott for a month. Earlier in the afternoon, he threw an ill-advised rope toward Dalton Schultz, only to see it sail and get picked — again by Jenkins — at his own 31-yard line.
There will be an ongoing debate about where the blame lies for the continued turnovers. The bottom line is that this was Prescott’s fourth multiple-interception game of the season. With three games to play, he has thrown 11 picks in just nine outings.
None have been this back-breaking, either. It has been well-documented that Prescott’s second interception last week against Houston was the first time he has turned the ball over in the second half this season. It wasn’t the case on Sunday. The first interception set Jacksonville up with a short field that helped them cut a 27-17 deficit to just three points. Obviously, the second one decided the game.
The irony is striking, too, because this started out looking like a day where the Cowboys would break out of their funk. Prescott completed 11 of his first 12 passes, the offense scored on three of its first four possessions and the Cowboys had mostly cruised to a 27-10 lead midway through the third quarter.
That’s why it’s important to keep in mind that there are more things plaguing this team than simply turnovers.
The Cowboys’ secondary officially looks like a problem spot. While DaRon Bland continued his fantastic run of play with a fourth interception on the season, Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars offense repeatedly targeted second-year corner Kelvin Joseph, tasked with the job of replacing Anthony Brown.
Jacksonville clawed back from that 17-point deficit in large part due to Joseph, who was targeted for two touchdowns – the most gruesome being a 59-yard bomb to Zay Jones, who put Joseph in a spin cycle with a double-move to get himself open.
The Jaguars also took advantage of the Cowboys’ season-long issue to play consistent run defense. Paced by Travis Etienne Jr., they racked up 192 yards on the ground, and Lawrence’s ability to escape pressure cost the Cowboys at least one or two chances at sacks.
It speaks to the insanity of the last few minutes of this game that it was almost Lawrence who made the back-breaking mistake. The second-year quarterback used that escapability to bail out of the pocket and pick up yards in a do-or-die situation, only to be stripped by Jayron Kearse. Micah Parsons recovered the seemingly game-winning fumble, because of course he did.
Tasked with picking up one first down to reach the Victory Formation, though, the Dallas offense faltered. They could neither run the ball well, nor could Prescott connect with Brown on a deep shot downfield — a decision that left Jackonsville with a crucial final timeout, allowing Lawrence to force overtime.
In a vacuum, these should all be correctable issues, particularly the turnovers. But that’s the maddening issue with the Cowboys. These one-off mistakes are now undeniably a season-long trend, and it gets harder by the week to expect them to stop.
On the bright side, it’s easy to start a new game of Jenga. You pick up the pieces and you go again. But this week of all weeks, with Philadelphia coming to town on Saturday, it’s fair to wonder how long they can go before the next collapse.
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David Helman covers the Dallas Cowboys for FOX Sports. He previously spent nine seasons covering the Cowboys for the team’s official website. In 2018, he won a regional Emmy for his role in producing “Dak Prescott: A Family Reunion” about the quarterback’s time at Mississippi State. Follow him on Twitter @davidhelman_.
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