This is just too marvelous not to paste in full:

https://theathletic.com/3586405/2022/09/12/cowboys-dak-prescott-injury-season-expectations/

Cowboys lose QB1 and doom arrives early this year: The Morning After

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By Bob Sturm
1h ago
28

It was just three quarters played into the new season that would have at least 65 remaining at that point. Yet, the situation already seemed very grim.
Here they were, a team still seen by many as a playoff contender with a QB in his prime ready to perform well, playing a formidable foe in the familiar surroundings of the place where their 2021 season ended with a thud. We know it all too well. The Cowboys spent the past two months with a knowing nod that on the evening of Sept. 11, 2022, they would be up and ready for battle. Just you wait. All of your “negative Nancy” rhetoric who see how silly it was.

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Pay no attention to this being the third consecutive time since the calendar turned to 2022 that they would be visited by a playoff-caliber team in their beautiful stadium. And likely the third consecutive time they swore they were ready to defend their home turf and probably the third consecutive time (Arizona, San Francisco, Tampa Bay) where some of us walked into the trap of extending Dallas the benefit of the doubt and trusting the Cowboys to take care of business.
Well, it should not surprise us that the Cowboys, in many ways, against Tampa Bay to start 2022 replicated that Week 17 visit from Arizona and the wild-card mess with San Francisco to end 2021’s season with the complete inability to answer the opening bell.
Let’s review, shall we?
In Week 17 vs. Arizona, the Cowboys opened the game by digging a quick hole. At the half, the Cardinals were up 13-7 and had outgained the Cowboys comfortably. They scored on every drive but one, but thankfully, the Cowboys had held strong at the end of long Cardinals’ drives and forced a few field goals. It was 13-7, but it could have been much worse. A slow start would put them in a hole, and then Arizona would quickly score nine more to start the second half and the game was virtually over at the end of the third quarter, 22-7. Dallas scored seven points on its six drives in the first three quarters.

The wild-card round vs. San Francisco was no different. Dallas was unable to match the physicality of the 49ers, despite the entire theme of the week being that Dallas better be ready for the street fight that was coming. San Francisco won the first half easily, up 16-7 and having nearly 100 more yards than the home side. San Francisco scored on its first four drives, but the Cowboys held strong at the end of several to force three field goals. It was 16-7, but it could have been much worse. A slow start would put them in a hole and then San Francisco would win the third quarter, too, by punching in another touchdown and the game was virtually over at the end of the third quarter, 22-7. Dallas scored seven points on their first seven drives through three quarters.

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Well, you would hope those last two memories of home games that were considered showdown opportunities would inspire a new approach for Dallas to start fast and raise their play.
Instead, Sunday night vs. Tampa Bay was virtually the same thing all over again. Tampa Bay started the game on the front foot with explosive plays and long drives and took control of the game early. Tampa would win the first half easily, up 12-3, outgaining the Cowboys by 125 yards and scoring on four drives to Dallas’ just one. The Cowboys’ defense kept the game from being considerably worse by forcing field goals and defending the end zone, but that was a minor victory. Tampa would win the third quarter as well, with another touchdown and Dallas trailed, 19-3, after three quarters and the game was over. Dallas scored three points on 11 drives.
It was pretty much the exact same thing. Home game that looks competitive on paper. Instead, Dallas gets its doors blown off at home for the third time in a row by the third different strong team. They are all doing it now to Dallas. If you have a team that is capable of being in the playoffs, then a faceoff with the Cowboys at their place is not very difficult these days. In fact, the last time the Cowboys have played well in a home game against a playoff-caliber team that wasn’t the Eagles, we might be looking at the Saints on Thursday in 2018.
I wish I was joking.
If you want answers and someone to shove, that sample size would have to confirm what we already know. This train is not what the guys engineering it must think it is. If we sprinkle in the Las Vegas game on Thanksgiving, the horrendous showings at home are now definitely a trend. They play a team that is putting up any resistance at home and there seems to be a difficult time to get to halftime even tied, let alone leading.

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The Cowboys don’t play well on offense at all. But, they also aren’t stopping anyone on defense. These teams, these four playoff opponents in a row have all come to Texas and won the game in the very early rounds. Dallas is down badly in each game and it gets progressively worse until maybe Dallas can draw somewhat close with a furious rally late.
And that is where things went from very bad to even worse. As the Cowboys were trying to put a drive together at the end of Sunday night’s mismatch, they also lost their QB, too. Dak Prescott had his hand hit by a hard-rushing Shaquil Barrett a few plays in a row and injured his thumb badly. He will require surgery Monday and is projected to miss at least a month, maybe two. That might put him out until the bye week.
That — we are left to assume — would very much doom their season that already had a fair amount of questions. To eliminate its $40 million quarterback from the proceedings when we already knew Dallas neglected its backup QB situation all offseason is certainly another rough development of its own choosing. We are now making quite a list, if you want to review my thoughts on their previous ideas this summer, I will link it here.
The general point to this matter is that without the discussion of Prescott’s fate and effect on everything, we still had plenty of questions to ask this morning. The offensive game plan appeared to be filled with all sorts of issues. The Cowboys drafted a WR in Round 3 to help mitigate the absences of Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup and then he was a healthy scratch. They added almost nobody to the wide receiver group and hoped CeeDee Lamb could get himself open and prove he — and, more importantly, this scheme — has no limitations. Like the playoff game against the 49ers, Lamb was targeted 11 times, but also like the 49ers game, caught only about one of every five. Opponents are locking him down because they know that will be Dallas’ plan of attack. Why allow Dallas to accomplish its primary objective without severe resistance? Beyond that, Noah Brown and Dennis Houston were the plan and trust me, Tampa Bay knew that they could deploy troops elsewhere to deal with other things.
Part of that would be to attack the Cowboys’ offensive line. The line was always going to struggle in this situation — we knew that. But, we also know that maybe Dallas could neutralize most of that by doing the same to the understaffed Tampa Bay offensive line. Neither O-line had its preferred talent available as Tyron Smith and Ryan Jensen did not play.
One team dealt with it significantly better than the other. The Bucs did not have a flawless day at the office as Micah Parsons did try to blow some things up, nicely. They also lost their left tackle — they cannot stand to lose yet another portion of that line — but they ran the ball comfortably all night. Big Leonard Fournette ran downhill on 21 attempts for 127 yards which is a cool 6 yards per carry. Much of that was attacking the outside flank on the offensive left to test Trevon Diggs’ run support. That was not an accident. They knew what they were doing and it will only continue until teams stop finding success out there. Fournette ran outside left repeatedly and effectively.
The Bucs also ran up the middle and found receivers down the field. Tom Brady was great and was attacking coverage down the field. One thing that Bruce Arians and Brady put in place in 2020 was the vertical threat component that is a major part of that offense. They want to stretch you early in the game to get everyone’s attention. They found three explosive throws and many other attempts that changed the posture of the defense. It is very lethal when it is working and Tampa got what it needed early.

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It reminds us of what we are dealing with here. This is a very good Cowboys defense, but one that feeds off takeaways. There are nice players on this defense, but to call it dominant requires it to stand tall in the face of a challenge from these playoff teams. Las Vegas, Arizona, San Francisco and Tampa Bay are all varying degrees of a contender, but they have multiple offensive threats that you must deal with, or they will find the one you are struggling against. It has happened in each of those four meetings, so I think we better stop short of this defense being elite. It has a few elite pieces, including a defensive player of the year candidate, but you probably have some spots that Brady wasn’t even slightly concerned about. He knew to be careful around Diggs, but was more than happy to find Anthony Brown or Jourdan Lewis and not require as much care.
We could go on and on, but it won’t serve any real function at the moment. The facts are ugly to continue to pour through the evidence of Sunday night and the ominous signs from the preseason and offseason. The Cowboys did not seem prepared to deal with the better teams this year and that situation is only grimmer. To lose Tyron Smith and Dak Prescott before the boat even leaves the harbor feels like 2015 all over again.
Cowboys schedule
WK
DATE
OPPONENT
TIME (CT)
1Sept. 11BuccaneersL, 19-32Sept. 18Bengals3:25 p.m.3Sept. 26at Giants7:15 p.m.4Oct. 2Commanders1 p.m.5Oct. 9at Rams3:25 p.m.6Oct. 16at Eagles7:20 p.m.7Oct. 23Lions1 p.m.8Oct. 30Bears1 p.m.9Nov. 6BYE WEEK10Nov. 13at Packers3:25 p.m.11Nov. 20at Vikings3:25 p.m.12Nov. 24Giants3:30 p.m.13Dec. 4Colts7:20 p.m.14Dec. 11Texans1 p.m.15Dec. 18at Jaguars1 p.m.16Dec. 24Eagles3:25 p.m.17Dec. 29at Titans7:15 p.m18Jan. 7 or 8at CommandersTBD
There will be time to figure out how to scratch out wins without both of them as the week goes on, but for today, let’s not sugarcoat this. The Cowboys’ season is in a very large mess right now and while we shall be shown brave faces, the early schedule does them no favors. They face several more showdown games before the bye week and the situation is critical. If this team has any designs on making 2022 anything more than an exercise to change out another coaching staff, then they better find a solution quickly.
Meanwhile, a penny for the thoughts of the Jones family? Did they realize how short-handed this thing was Sunday against a contender? Even though players like rookie Tyler Smith played reasonably well, to depend so much on guys all over this offense who are unproven was just the worst recipe if you were serious this year … and that is without discussing upgrading your QB insurance policies.
This begs the question: Were you serious about this year? Because the decisions made and the cap room saved doesn’t seem like winning is the only thing this year. We now see the dangers of cutting corners. Yes, once your QB1 goes down for two months, the ceiling caves in either way. We get that.
But, given how this looked before Dak needed surgery should tell us how well this team was put together this year — the indications were not very good.
Now, everyone goes to work to figure out how to save this thing. And it is only Sept. 12.

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Not great, Bob.