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Todd Archer, ESPN Staff Writer
FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys‘ season ended a couple of weeks ago, but judging by the reactions on social media by fans, the home loss to the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round remains “raw,” to steal a word from coach Mike McCarthy, who used it four days after the game.
The ill will seems mostly about the Cowboys’ Super Bowl drought that will stretch on for a 29th season, rather than that specific defeat.
Since they had two potential playoff games at AT&T Stadium — where, before they bottomed out 48-32 against the Packers, they had won 16 straight — there remains a stinging feeling not just for the players, coaches, staff and front office, but also the fans.
The Cowboys were the only home team to lose in the wild-card round of the playoffs. The same thing happened to the Cowboys in 2021. At least the 2023 Buffalo Bills advanced to the divisional round before losing at home, and the Baltimore Ravens lost at home in the AFC Championship Game.
Make you feel better?
Probably not.
Let’s take a look back at some of the things that went wrong for the Cowboys in 2023 (in no particular order).
No production from the rookie class
Brandon Aubrey set an NFL record by making his first 35 field goal attempts. However, the NFL doesn’t count the kicker as a rookie due to his USFL experience, so who had the best rookie season?
Undrafted fullback Hunter Luepke? Undrafted guard T.J. Bass? First-round defensive tackle Mazi Smith made little impact. Ditto for second-round tight end Luke Schoonmaker, although he had some positive moments. Third-round linebacker DeMarvion Overshown missed the season with a torn left ACL. Fourth-round defensive lineman Viliami Fehoko Jr. did not play a snap.
The second-year jump in production that McCarthy likes to talk about will have to be Superman-type leaps in 2024 for a team that will badly need their 2023 draft class to succeed.
The linebacker plan
The run defense was an issue all season, and some of that had to do with the linebacker plan. They lost Overshown in the preseason. Leighton Vander Esch was done for the season in October with a neck injury. The Cowboys chose to go with an inexperienced Damone Clark and converted safety Markquese Bell for the rest of the season. They signed Rashaan Evans but never really played him before cutting him. They had interest in Shaquille Leonard, but he opted to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles, which may have been a blessing for Dallas, since he didn’t make a favorable impression with Philadelphia.
Was this the result of defensive coordinator Dan Quinn telling the front office he could make it work with what they had? That’s unclear, but the plan was bad, especially if the Cowboys felt the other in-house options were unappealing.
The rushing game never got going
Remember at last year’s NFL combine, when McCarthy said he wanted to “run the damn ball“? It never really happened.
Kudos to McCarthy for figuring out that the strength of the offense was quarterback Dak Prescott, receiver CeeDee Lamb and the passing game. He did not just beat his head against the wall.
It’s easy to think Tony Pollard (a single 100-yard game) could not handle the lead running back responsibilities, but he was not the problem. The run plan was off. The Cowboys never developed an identity, regardless of whether that was because run game coordinator Jeff Blasko took a leave of absence during the season, new line coach Mike Solari could not make it work or the line just wasn’t good enough.
With a ranking of 14th, it marked the worst rushing season (not including their No. 17 ranking in 2020, since McCarthy downplays everything from that season because of the pandemic) since 2013, when they were 24th in the league.
Penalties
Let’s be clear: This isn’t a McCarthy problem. This is a Cowboys problem. They were highly penalized under previous coaches Jason Garrett, Wade Phillips and Bill Parcells, too.
In 2023, they had 115 penalties (behind only the New York Jets), and they led the NFL in penalty yards with 964. Their opponents were penalized 104 times for 934 yards.
McCarthy talks about wanting an aggressive style of play, which is fine. You can live with some aggressive penalties. However, the Cowboys had 20 offside penalties, which was second most in the league. How does that happen over and over again?
Road record
The Cowboys were 4-5 away from home, which is why getting the chance to play two playoff games at AT&T Stadium was so important.
The 28-16 Week 3 loss at the Arizona Cardinals, who finished 4-13, was something they had to chase all season. They were embarrassed 42-10 at San Francisco and 31-10 at Buffalo, and they lost close games at Philadelphia (28-23) and Miami (22-20) when they could not overcome their own mistakes.
The wide variance between how they played at home and on the road was puzzling, especially since this is not an inexperienced group. Their four road wins came against teams that were a combined 17-51 in 2023. They need to figure something out in 2024, because they play four road games against teams that made the 2023 playoffs, including San Francisco again.
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