Cowboys Country

Cowboys Confidence Shaken? Playoff-Bound Dallas Gets 'The Yips' in Loss at Washington

The Cowboys' week-long talk turns out to be even more empty than the Cowboys' Sunday stat sheet in a loss at Washington.

Mike Fisher

Do Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys have "the yips''? In examining the psychology all that just went wrong in a 26-6 shellacking at Washington ... Is that possible?

Cowboys Nation will forgive us for scrambling for answers after an oddly unfocused Dallas club bumbled through its pre-playoff Week 18 meeting against the Commanders. But after an afternoon featuring drops, muffs and shanks on special teams, a run-of-the-mill pass-rush on defense and on offense, a shriveled-up rushing attack and yet another maddening interception from Dak Prescott ...

Does anybody else have a better explanation?

“We played poorly and that’s on me,'' said coach Mike McCarthy. "We need to practice better than we did last week. … Very disappointing.”

In fairness, the Cowboys sort of knew they'd land in the No. 5 seed in the playoffs regardless of the score at FedEx, and it worked out that way.

But all of the locker room talk at The Star about wanting to pound have-not Washington and its debuting rookie QB Sam Howard into submission with the intention of tuning up for a Wild Card playoff opener at Tampa Bay next week?

The Cowboys' week-long talk turns out to be even more empty than the Cowboys' Sunday stat sheet.

That stat sheet for the 12-5 Cowboys?

*Prescott was a mess, sometimes seemingly unsure of himself as he tried to set up to throw, allowing himself to be victimized by a pick-6 (one of his NFL-leading 15 interceptions) and finishing with a horrid 14-od-37 boxscore.

In the last 10 games, he's averaged 253 yards passing. Through three quarters, he had 93. He finished with 128.

*That shriveling run game? Again, through three quarters, Tony Pollard got to 1,000 yards for the season but averaged only 2.7 yards per carry. Of course, that's way better than Ezekiel Elliott did.

Zeke had eight carries ... for 10 yards.

And a Cowboys offense that for the last 10 games had averaged 35 per here scored once. And couldn't even manage the extra point.

*The playmaking defense? It didn't much bother Howell, under center for a team that was a seven-point underdog amid a QB controversy (due to the failure of Carson Wentz) with a hot-seat coach in Ron Rivera.

Indeed, the most bothered guy on the field might've been Micah Parsons, grimacing in pain while playing with a ripped-up hand - Oh, and why, with Dallas down 23-6 with seven minutes left, were Parsons and other premium talents still on the field in this slopfest?

Mercifully, at the 5:19 mark, Prescott was pulled in favor of Cooper Rush - finally, a white flag.

Anyway, add it all up and we argue that it will be challenge for team leaders Prescott and McCarthy to convince all around them that this outcome is meaningless and that their confidence should remain intact.

Why?

Because if the Cowboys intended to use a win in Washington as a momentum-getter for the playoffs ... why mightn't this shocking loss have the reverse effect?

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.

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