The Dallas Cowboys have played NFL games on Thanksgiving Day since 1966, becoming as synonymous with the holiday as turkey and parades. Thus, many have enjoyed a serving of pie—whether it be pecan, sweet potato, or pumpkin—while watching the Cowboys, and the players themselves have also surely enjoyed the Thanksgiving dessert.
However, a serving of pie came a couple of months early for the Cowboys, and it came courtesy of the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. Only, this wasn’t the pie you typically want, but it can often be the type of pie you desperately need.
“Humbling” was how linebacker Eric Kendricks said it felt to give up 44 points at home. “[We] can’t give up big plays and start the game off like that—get us on our heels. Got to come out faster. Obviously, we’ve got to stop the run later in the game, but I think we all played a part on it, on defense, so it’s a good piece of humble pie for sure.”
The 44 points was the second-most that Dallas allowed in a regular-season game over the last decade, trailing only the 49 it gave up to the Cleveland Browns in 2020. However, Dallas fans vividly remember the last postseason game the team played, which was in January to the Green Bay Packers.
Also at home, the Cowboys gave up 48-points in a 16-point defeat to Green Bay in the Wild Card Round. Thus, the Cowboys have allowed 48 and 44 points in back-to-back home games, including the playoffs, making them the first team since the 1968 Pittsburgh Steelers to achieve that dubious feat.
Saints running back Alvin Kamara was the main perpetrator of this attack on Dallas’ defense as he had 115 rushing yards, 65 receiving yards and four total touchdowns. He outscored the Cowboys, himself, and had more scrimmage yards than CeeDee Lamb, Ezekiel Elliott, and Brandin Cooks combined.
New Orleans receiver Rashid Shaheed had the biggest play of the game on a 70-yard touchdown reception, and the allowance of that huge gain was in stark contrast to the stout defensive unit that Dallas displayed last week. Against the Browns, the Cowboys didn’t allow a single play longer than 29 yards, and if you add up Cleveland’s three longest plays of the game, they didn’t combine to match Shaheed’s 70-yard gain.
“Everyone’s obviously disappointed,” Kendricks continued. “We didn’t want that, and especially at our home opener. But the NFL will humble you like that.”
Dallas’s offense played a part in setting up the Saints with scoring opportunities as quarterback Dak Prescott threw two interceptions after playing mistake-free football a week ago. Prescott wasn’t helped much by the running game as no Cowboys player had a rush go even 10 yards as the star of Dallas was its kicker Brandon Aubrey, who made all five of his kicks, including four field goals of at least 40 yards. Whenever your best player in a game is your kicker, that’s usually not a good sign for the team as a whole.
The inconsistency that the Cowboys have displayed over the first two weeks of the 2024 NFL season is a microcosm of what the franchise has displayed since its glory days in the 1990s. Dallas went on the road in Week 1, as underdogs, and knocked off a team that made the playoffs last season, only to return home and get blown out in Week 2, as favorites, by a team that missed the postseason in 2023.
If this trend continues, then there’s actually hope for the Cowboys, at least in Week 3. The marquee matchup on the NFL schedule has the Baltimore Ravens, and reigning MVP Lamar Jackson, coming to town in a matchup of the league’s top scoring offense from last year in the Cowboys facing the NFL’s top scoring defense from 2023 in the Ravens. Baltimore had the best record in the league last year at 13-4 and is favored in the matchup, just as Cleveland was in the season opener.
That could lead to the best of the Cowboys as they seem to play to the level of their competition and embrace the role as underdogs, at least it appears through two weeks. However, the Ravens have also been served humble pie in the early season as they are 0-2 for the first time since 2015.
