With the NFC East title on the line, the Cowboys laid an egg Sunday in a 17-9 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that was a frustrating microcosm of Dallas’ season as a whole.

The score may have been close, but Philadelphia controlled the entire game, possessing the ball for more than 36 minutes while generating 431 yards of total offense. If it weren’t for a couple of missed Eagles field goals, the game would have likely turned into a blowout.

Regardless, it was an incredibly disappointing performance from almost all Cowboys parties involved -- the players failed to execute at the level necessary to get the win and the coaching staff made numerous questionable decisions and play calls.

While it feels like this season should be taken behind the woodshed and put out of its misery, the Cowboys still have an avenue to make the playoffs -- an Eagles loss to the New York Giants next week accompanied by a Cowboys win over Washington would make Dallas the NFC East champion.

Ultimately, the Cowboys are in a precarious position where a playoff berth would be a suboptimal outcome given what’s transpired this season.

Hear me out: The worst-kept secret in Dallas is that Jason Garrett is gone unless this team makes a run to the NFC Championship Game, which has roughly a .01% chance of happening even if the Cowboys stumble into the postseason. If we assume the Cowboys aren’t bringing Garrett back, then it behooves them to move on as soon as possible. If they make the playoffs, then it puts them at least one week behind the other teams that are searching for a new coaching staff. The pool of potential coaching candidates shrinks every week that Dallas delays its search.

But enough about the playoffs and a potential new coaching staff. It’s time to dive into a few things we learned from the Cowboys’ loss Sunday.

Blame for offensive woes should be spread out

Coming out of this loss, you will likely hear about two distinct storylines regarding the Cowboys’ poor offensive output against the Eagles. They’re both right, but also wrong.

Let me explain.

First, many will place the blame on the offensive coaching staff -- namely Garrett and Kellen Moore -- for some questionable play-sequencing and decision-making that put Dallas behind the eight ball throughout the game.

Still don't get calling a speed option to the short side of the field.



Moreover, with the LB aligned with leverage outside of Tyron Smith, doesn't make much sense to have him release upfield when the speed option is going to cause the LBs to fast flow. That's an impossible angle pic.twitter.com/OTc2oht7AP — John Owning (@JohnOwning) December 23, 2019

For example, calling a speed option to the short side of the field -- when a speed option is predicated on attacking the edge -- was an awful decision in a high-leverage situation (third-and-1 near the red zone).

In the first half, Dallas continually ran the ball on first down despite getting suboptimal results, consistently putting the offense in second- and third-and-long situations. The Cowboys ran the ball on five of their first seven first downs, netting 6 total yards in the process.

This kind of ineffectiveness on first down is killer because it enables the defense to key in on the passing game on second and third downs. The key to effective offense is consistently putting yourself in situations where the defense must honor run and pass threats. This is what creates indecision, bad communication and missed assignments on defense.

The minute a defense can zero in on the run or pass in any given situation, its odds of success rise exponentially.

But acting like the coaching staff was the sole reason for Dallas’ offensive woes is foolish, as there are many other parties who deserve a share of the blame. This introduces that other storyline surrounding the offense: The players just flat out couldn’t execute and take advantage of the big-play/scoring opportunities they had.

The Cowboys’ receivers and tight ends had a bad case of the yips, with six drops often ruining opportunities to keep drives alive.

After running a great route, this was a killer drop by Amari Cooper on 3rd down. pic.twitter.com/TLTm53ZDk6 — John Owning (@JohnOwning) December 23, 2019

Amari Cooper’s drop on third-and-short, after running a phenomenal route, was one example of a drop killing a drive.

This drop may have been the worst of them all. Dak finally throws a dime on a vertical route and it bounces of Gallup's hands. pic.twitter.com/jPOh7qgcwj — John Owning (@JohnOwning) December 23, 2019

Michael Gallup’s drop on Dak Prescott’s best throw of the night might have been the most discouraging one because it would have at least put the Cowboys in position to tie the game with just over three minutes to play.

Despite being hindered by numerous drops by his receivers, Prescott deserves a fairly large share of the blame, too. While it’s impossible to know just how much his injured shoulder affected him, we do know Prescott was lacking in the accuracy department.

Even when Prescott threw a catchable ball, he rarely had pinpoint accuracy, so Dallas’ weapons routinely had to make catches behind them, above their head and below their knees. Seldom was a receiver hit in stride, which invariably limited their ability to generate yards after the catch (YAC).

Tavon Austin runs a great route to generate separation on the vertical route but Dak just misses him. pic.twitter.com/0xGACtyB1X — John Owning (@JohnOwning) December 23, 2019

Outside of that, Prescott just flat out missed open receivers on multiple occasions, with a wide-open Tavon Austin being the most egregious example (above clip).

No matter how you slice it, the blame for Dallas’ offensive woes deserves to be spread evenly among multiple parties.

Chidobe Awuzie’s disappointing season hits new low

Awuzie followed up his season-best performance against the Los Angeles Rams last week with a truly poor performance against the Eagles.

If Philadelphia’s first couple of drives proved anything, it was that the Eagles pinpointed Awuzie as a player they could successfully attack with their mismatch receiver unit.

It all started on Philadelphia’s first offensive play of the game. Awuzie tried to undercut the route to make a play on the ball before whiffing, allowing the pass to fall into J.J. Arcega-Whiteside’s hands for a 27-yard gain.

This was yet another case of Awuzie’s good coverage being offset by his poor ball skills. He put himself in position to make a play but just didn’t, which has become a routine occurrence in his career up to this point.

Six plays later, Arcega-Whiteside put Awuzie in a blender to get open and convert a third-and-long. Arcega-Whiteside used a simple stutter step after an outside stem to get Awuzie out of position and optimize the throwing window for Carson Wentz.

This is the same receiver who entered Sunday with just eight catches this season, yet Awuzie made him look like a receiver who averages eight catches per game.

On the second play of their second drive, the Eagles went back at Awuzie to pick up a first down, though that was more due to the coverage call than poor play by the Cowboys’ cornerback. Because he was playing press-bail technique, the indication is Dallas was playing a Cover 3 concept, meaning Awuzie was responsible for a deep-third zone, not the flats. It was a good job by Philadelphia to have the right play call against the coverage in this situation.

The straw that broke the camel’s back proved to be Awuzie’s passive run support on the Eagles’ second drive. He was benched in favor of Jourdan Lewis after that.

Instead of squeezing the edge to close Miles Sanders’ alley to the second level, Awuzie stayed flat-footed and even retreated one step, giving Sanders the ability to cut upfield and pick up the first down. If Awuzie squeezes Sanders’ lane, that not only gives him a better chance to make a tackle at the line of scrimmage, but it would have given Michael Bennett a better shot to bring Sanders down as well.

Overall, Philadelphia’s receivers (Arcega-Whiteside, Greg Ward and Robert Davis) finished with eight total catches, five of which came on the first two drives.

Is it a coincidence that Philadelphia’s receivers had just two catches once Awuzie was relieved of his duties in the base defense? Maybe a little, since Philadelphia started to find success throwing to the tight ends. But it’s not a good look regardless.

Cowboys must find way to re-sign Byron Jones

Re-signing Jones needs to be a high priority for Dallas this offseason.

While Awuzie was struggling to cover below-average receivers and in run support, Jones was doing the exact opposite, providing blanket coverage on Philadelphia’s top weapon (Zach Ertz) in high-leverage situations while making a positive impact in run support.

The best example of Jones’ outstanding day in coverage was his pass breakup in the first quarter:

You know who didn't disappoint today?



This guy. pic.twitter.com/hsYIHamnAq — John Owning (@JohnOwning) December 23, 2019

Here, Dallas is playing its usual Cover 3 concept while Philadelphia is in shotgun formation using 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end and three receivers), and it’s difficult to understate just how impressive this play was by Jones to force the incompletion.

Jones is playing press-bail, where the corner aligns in press before opening his hips toward the field and bailing downfield, instead of using the old-school backpedal technique at the line of scrimmage. His job is to defend the deep-third zone on his side of the field, so he correctly carries Arcega-Whiteside’s vertical route downfield.

But in an effort to give Ertz more room on his corner route, Arcega-Whiteside breaks inside on a post route in an attempt to goad Jones into vacating his zone for the post.

Jones wasn’t fooled, knowing Xavier Woods was waiting in the deep middle to overtake coverage of Arcega-Whiteside’s post route. From there, Jones did an excellent job of coming off Arcega-Whiteside to pick Ertz up and prevent the completion.

The key to this play was Jones’ eyes while he carried Arcega-Whiteside downfield. Because Jones was playing a bail technique where his hips are open toward the field, he was able to see Ertz breaking toward the corner. If Jones was playing a man technique where he turned his hips toward the sideline, he wouldn’t have been in position to see Ertz and prevent the completion.

Although the above clip wasn’t on a play where Jones shadowed Ertz, when he did shadow him, he had a lot of success. Turn on any play where Jones shadowed Ertz and you’ll likely see Jones blanketing Ertz in man coverage, preventing Wentz from using his best weapon in high-leverage situations.

Jones even did what Awuzie couldn’t against the ground attack, making a play in run support while filling from space. Notice how much more aggressive Jones was when he attacked his run fit. Not only did he squeeze down the edge, preventing Sanders from running off his receiver’s block on Jeff Heath, but he also dragged Sanders down when he tried to bounce the ball outside.

With Awuzie’s continued struggles, it’s becoming obvious that Dallas needs to make a concerted effort to re-sign Jones in the offseason. It’s nowhere near time to give up on Awuzie’s development, but can anyone really feel good about the secondary if he’s the No. 1 corner?

No, which is why bringing Jones back needs to be a huge priority for the Cowboys’ front office.