With 7:23 left in the first quarter, everything that had been wrong with the Dallas Cowboys appeared to be right.

After weeks of slow starts, they finally came out hot, jumping to an early 7-0 lead over the Buffalo Bills. The offense was hitting on all cylinders and appeared on the precipice of another 30-plus-point performance, as Ezekiel Elliott was gobbling up yards on the ground and Amari Cooper was getting open with ease in the pass game. The defense was flying to the ball and appeared ready to stymie the Bills’ offense, allowing just 18 yards on five plays on Buffalo’s first drive.

All the criticism levied on the Cowboys during the short week following their disappointing loss to the New England Patriots seemed like a thing of the past.

Until the Bills rattled off 26 straight points en route to a dominant 26-15 victory on Thanksgiving Day. After falling behind early, Buffalo outschemed, outexecuted and were tougher than the Cowboys for the rest of the game.

As bad as it was for the Cowboys, it could have been much worse. They ended the game with two turnovers that could have easily been four, as two potential Dak Prescott interceptions were voided by penalties and Dallas was able to fall on two of its three fumbles.

On the bright side, this loss doesn’t do much in terms of hurting the Cowboys’ playoff chances. Given the strength of the NFC this year, their playoff chances hinge on the ability to win the NFC East. At 6-6 and regardless of what happens this weekend, the Cowboys still control their destiny.

There’s a chance the Cowboys’ season has a fairy tale ending, as Jerry Jones intimated postgame, but given their play the past two weeks, that doesn’t seem likely.

With that in mind, let’s dive into a few things gleaned from Dallas’ Thanksgiving Day letdown.

Garrett’s hot seat just got much, much hotter

It’s never fun to advocate for another human being to lose their job -- especially two weeks in a row -- but Jason Garrett is not it as the head coach of the Cowboys. He’s just not.

Garrett seemingly can’t get out of his own way. A couple of days after he defended his decisions to not be aggressive on fourth down, he suddenly got aggressive on fourth down, going for it three times Thursday -- one of which came from Dallas’ own 19-yard line.

The aggressiveness on fourth down wasn’t the issue -- they were smart plays, in a vacuum -- but does anyone think Garrett is as aggressive on fourth down if he didn’t receive a ton of criticism for being conservative the previous game?

That kind of reactionary coaching to outside criticism is the opposite of what the Cowboys need. They need a coach who is always trying to maximize possessions and scoring opportunities, not just when his seat gets hot.

On top of that, Garrett ruined Dallas’ opportunity at scoring a touchdown before the first half with terrible time management.

With 1:39 left in the half, the Cowboys were in a second-and-10 situation from their own 30-yard line. They then, inexplicably, ran five straight plays (only one of which went out of bounds to stop the clock) before calling a timeout:

5 plays, only one of which stopped the clock, before DAL called a timeout. There was 1:39 left in the half when that sequence began and just 18 seconds left when it was over.



Please tell me why Garrett didn't call a timeout after the first Amari Cooper reception. #Cowboys pic.twitter.com/Mk24iUxQRN — John Owning (@JohnOwning) November 29, 2019

· Second-and-10 from the Dallas 30 (1:39 left in the half): A 10-yard completion to Cooper.

· First-and-10 from the 40 (1:15 left): Prescott was sacked for an 8-yard loss.

· Second-and-18 from 32 (0:51 left): An 11-yard completion to Michael Gallup.

· Third-and-7 from the 43 (0:30 left): A 12-yard completion to Cooper, the one play in this sequence that went out of bounds to stop the clock.

· First-and-10 from Buffalo’s 45 (0:25 left): A 14-yard completion to Elliott.

This put the Cowboys at the Buffalo 31 with just 18 seconds to go, essentially forcing Dallas to settle for a field goal.

There’s certainly a good argument as to why Dallas didn’t call a timeout after the 11-yard completion to Gallup on second-and-18 with under a minute left, because a timeout would have saved enough time for Buffalo to potentially get in scoring position if it stopped Dallas on third down (it didn’t).

But why didn’t Garrett call a timeout after the initial Cooper reception? Cooper was tackled with 1:35 left in the half, but the Cowboys didn’t run their next play until there was 1:15 left. Not only did Dallas lack urgency in getting back up to the line of scrimmage during a two-minute drill (which falls on coaching), but Garrett allowed a precious 20 seconds to run off the clock for no reason while he had three timeouts in his pocket. This came back to bite Dallas, which didn’t have enough time to take a real shot at the end zone once it crossed into Buffalo territory.

All of this is on top of the fact that Dallas was once again outperformed on special teams, which looks bad on special teams coordinator Keith O’Quinn but also reflects poorly on the head coach. There was also a myriad of other questionable decisions from the coaching staff, such as calling for two low-percentage fade routes near the goal line when the Cowboys had to score points.

The Cowboys possess one of the most talented rosters in the NFL, and there’s no reason they should be 6-6 given the competition faced this season.

Think about it.

The Cowboys possess elite talent at every level of their offense and defense.

On the offensive line, they have three former All-Pros (Zack Martin, Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick) to go along with another piece who has played at an All-Pro level for stretches this season (La’el Collins).

At receiver, they have one of the best route runners in all of football (Cooper), a promising No. 2 (Gallup) and an electric veteran in the slot (Randall Cobb).

At running back, they have a supremely talented runner who has led the league in rushing yards twice (Elliott) and an electrifying rookie who seems to make the most out of every touch he gets (Tony Pollard).

At quarterback, they have someone who has displayed considerable improvement in each season since turning pro and showcased MVP-level play for stretches this season (Prescott).

On the defensive line, they have one of the most technical and well-rounded defensive ends in the league (DeMarcus Lawrence), a speed-rushing maven who penetrates the pocket within 2.5 seconds more often any other pass rusher in the NFL (Robert Quinn), one of the most underrated interior rushers in the league (Maliek Collins) and a versatile chess piece who can be effective from each and every spot on the line (Michael Bennett).

The Cowboys were supposed to have the most talented linebacker corps in the league with two young studs (Leighton Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith), one of the smartest LBs in the league (Sean Lee) and one of the best and most versatile backups who could undoubtedly start elsewhere (Joe Thomas). Each member, however, has underperformed to varying degrees this season.

In the secondary, the Cowboys have arguably the most athletic player in the league who is also an effective CB to boot (Byron Jones), a rangy free safety (Xavier Woods), another supremely athletic corner (Chidobe Awuzie) and a fiery yet effective slot cornerback (Jourdan Lewis).

And yet, despite all that talent littered at every level, the Cowboys are 6-6 with zero wins against teams with winning records. That’s just not acceptable.

Thanksgiving is about being thankful, but given Dallas’ performance this year, the number of people who are thankful that Garrett is the Cowboys’ head coach is probably eclipsed by the number of points they gave up Thursday.

Garrett’s hot seat is about to get set on fire.

Prescott had one of his worst performances of the season

As far as timing goes, Prescott picked a pretty bad time to have a poor performance.

Prescott’s box score didn’t look too bad, finishing 32 of 49 for 355 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. But that ignores his two fumbles, one of which was recovered by the Bills, and the interceptions that were voided by Buffalo penalties.

For what it’s worth, Prescott never hung his head and continued to try to attack the Buffalo defense throughout, showing the type of toughness, leadership and resolve that gives you confidence in his future as the Cowboys’ QB, even with this poor performance.

Part of Prescott’s struggles came from an erosion in his footwork and base, which caused him to miss easy throws and put poor placement on others, thus limiting yards-after-catch opportunities for his weapons. Here’s a great example:

Because it was a seemingly easy throw to the flats, Prescott got lazy with his footwork, resulting in a failed fourth-down conversion in the red zone. Instead of being diligent with his footwork and throwing from a balanced base, Prescott drifted backward and kind of skipped as he let go of the ball, causing it to be too far in front of Elliott.

On top of the funky footwork that eroded his accuracy, Prescott also made his fair share of poor decisions when pressured, the worst of which was his interception in the second quarter:

Buffalo sent a well-timed blitz to apply pressure, messing with the timing of the screen.

Prescott compounded the issue by trying to fit the ball into a poor throwing window to Pollard, where defensive tackle Star Lotulelei was in position to intercept the pass.

This is the kind of play where Prescott needs to just throw it at Pollard’s feet and live to fight another day. Prescott‘s process was sped up by the blitz, and he made a poor decision among the chaos.

Speaking of chaos, Prescott also did a poor job of managing the pocket at times. On one occasion (above clip), he escaped the pocket going into pressure instead of away, something we saw a lot more of last year.

Prescott is great because he is an ever-improving player who made a giant leap from last year to this year. Unfortunately, when a QB is pressured and his process sped up, he tends to revert to bad habits, which is exactly what happened to Prescott against Buffalo.

Bright spot on a sad day: Zeke’s 30-yard run

It was a dreadful performance all around by the Cowboys, but Elliott’s incredibly impressive 30-yard run was one of the few bright spots, illustrating the subtle traits that make him one of the league’s best backs.

Let’s take a look:

Here, the Cowboys run an outside zone sweep in an attempt to laterally stretch the Buffalo defense. When the ball is snapped and Elliott receives it, he does a great job of running with the proper pace to stay in sync with the timing of the blocks while staying on track to hit the hole between Collins and Jason Witten.

Right as Elliott crosses the 20-yard line, pay attention to how he subtly reduces his inside shoulder to avoid Tremaine Edmunds (No. 49), who undercut Collins’ block, before immediately dipping his outside shoulder to run through Micah Hyde’s (No. 23) arm tackle.

That kind of body control in tight space is rare, and it’s a big reason why Elliott is good at accumulating those dirty yards that Garrett loves to talk about. He wasn’t done there.

After breaking through Hyde’s tackle, Elliott immediately got his eyes turned to the next defender. Elliott identified that Jordan Poyer (No. 21) was leaning outside, leaving himself susceptible to an explosive cut inside. Although he didn’t see Jerry Hughes (No. 55) in hot pursuit, Elliott’s explosive cut across Poyer’s face was enough for him to split the two Buffalo defenders and get into the open field.

That open space afforded Elliott the ability to accumulate almost another 20 yards before being dragged to the turf by Taron Johnson (No. 24).

This was the kind of play that reminded the world that Elliott is still one of the premier backs in the NFL, displaying the vision, power, elusiveness and balance that has made him a two-time rushing champion.

In a game in which the Cowboys had a ton of issues, Elliott wasn’t one of them, finishing with 12 carries for 71 yards (5.9 yards per carry) and seven catches for 66 yards on 10 targets. It was a winning performance among a losing team effort.