Pregame Shuffle Week 9: Cowboys at Falcons
Is Sunday a must-win for the Cowboys in your opinion?
The Cowboys’ hopes and dreams are hanging on by a thread. An extremely thin thread, at that. Following a loss to the 49ers, morale is at an all-time low, at least as far as seasons where the Cowboys aren’t missing their starting quarterback go.
The effort against San Francisco was certainly better than it was against the Lions, just before the team entered their bye week, but the team still played sloppy and unfocused football that ultimately doomed them. With the way the rest of the conference is playing, especially within the division, Dallas needs to start winning right now to even have hope of making the playoffs.
The path forward only gets harder from here. Their next four opponents have a combined record of 24-9, and Dallas is likely to be the underdog in all four. They could very well find themselves firmly out of the playoff picture by the time Thanksgiving rolls around.
The first challenge of that stretch comes on the road against the Falcons, who are in their first year of a new regime. Atlanta fired Arthur Smith a year ago after three consecutive 7-10 seasons and brought back Raheem Morris, a top lieutenant of the Dan Quinn era who had actually stepped in as the interim head coach when Quinn was fired.
Morris had since put together three strong seasons as the Rams defensive coordinator, which helped him convince Rams pass game coordinator Zac Robinson to follow him as the offensive coordinator. Another part of the new regime involved Atlanta handing out a four year contract worth $180 million to Kirk Cousins, who was a free agent leaving Minnesota.
Cousins joined an offense loaded with playmakers - Drake London, Kyle Pitts, and Bijan Robinson - all of whom had been woefully underused in the Smith era. While it took some time for Cousins and Robinson to get into sync, the offense has taken off in recent weeks. Robinson is currently fourth in the NFL in scrimmage yards, London just crossed 500 receiving yards on the season, and Pitts is picking up steam with four straight games of 65+ receiving yards.
Atlanta’s defense hasn’t been nearly as good so far, but their offense has powered the Falcons to a strong 5-3 start and, most importantly, a 4-0 division record. They just swept the Buccaneers, the only team that poses a real threat in the NFC South. The playoffs seem like a lock for this team right now.
Depending on how you feel about trap games, that’s either great or terrible news for the Cowboys. On one hand, the Falcons are picking up just enough steam to bulldoze the Cowboys and pound the final nail into the coffin of the 2024 season. Alternatively, this could be the perfect time for Dallas to finally play up to their potential and score a big upset win.
It will be quite the challenge, though. The Cowboys are still waiting to return two of their best defensive playmakers in Micah Parsons and DaRon Bland, and neither has practiced thus far this week. To make matters worse, Trevon Diggs also has yet to practice this week with a calf injury. This defense is already missing far too many players, but losing Diggs without returning Bland would be a crushing blow, especially against an offense like the Falcons.
Offensively speaking, the Cowboys are pretty healthy but just not playing good football. Dak Prescott hasn’t looked comfortable all season, the run game has been abysmal outside of Rico Dowdle (and even that has been just okay), and Mike McCarthy’s game plans have invited plenty of questions without many answers.
If the Cowboys are to win this game, it’ll likely come by way of the offense finally breaking out of their funk. We have yet to see that this year, so it’s hard to bet on it happening, though this Falcons defense presents a good matchup. Can they pull out the win and keep their (slim) hopes alive? Or will this be the point of no return for the 2024 season?
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