Cowboys put up a fight but can’t seal the deal in 34-10 loss to Texans

Say what you will about the 2024 Dallas Cowboys, but they appear to be very good at this tanking thing. Many teams throughout time have been accused of tanking to get a better draft pick for a new regime. Technically, it is against the rules, so the trick is to lose as many games as you can but not look like you’re trying to lose games.

In that sense, the 2024 Cowboys are on an absolute heater.

Capping off the Week 11 slate with a Monday night prime time game against the slumping Texans, the Cowboys played a first half that very much looked like they were getting ready to play spoiler. They attempted a fake punt on their opening drive of the game – an odd but nobly aggressive move – and then picked off C.J. Stroud while defending a short field.

After the defense gave up a second rushing touchdown to Joe Mixon, Cooper Rush hit KaVontae Turpin on a slant that busted wide open for a 64-yard touchdown. Each team proceeded to trade field goals, and by the time we hit the two-minute warning the Texans only led 17-10. When Brandon Aubrey lined up for a 40-yard field goal, the Cowboys had a very real chance to trim the lead before getting the ball out of the halftime break.

But Aubrey, who’s been so money all year long, hooked it just enough to doink off the goalposts. A sharp move from the kicker of a team that definitely isn’t losing on purpose. In truth, Aubrey’s plant foot slipped.

All tongue-in-cheek jokes aside, the Cowboys stayed alive in this one for much longer than they had any right. Rush played better than he did a week ago, but his limitations remain the same. The backup quarterback completed 63.6% of his whopping 55 pass attempts for 354 yards, averaging 6.4 yards per attempt. That’s more than triple what he averaged last week.

CeeDee Lamb, who played despite being listed as questionable heading into Monday night, had a productive game. He caught eight of his 12 targets for 93 yards, including one impressive sideline catch in tight coverage. Jake Ferguson left the game early with a concussion, which meant an increase in snaps for both Luke Schoonmaker and rookie Brevyn Spann-Ford. Both played well, with Schoonmaker catching six passes for 56 yards – including a few really tough ones through contact – and Spann-Ford had 42 yards on four catches.

Still, though, this offense continued to have issues. Rush threw a terrible pick on a play where Lamb was easily knocked off his route by a passing defender. Rico Dowdle managed just 28 rushing yards on 10 carries despite facing a Texans defense that’s struggled against the run all year.

And the offensive line fell apart in the second half, quite literally. Zack Martin left the game with an injury just a play after getting badly beaten for a sack. Tyler Guyton left the game too, with Asim Richards replacing him at left tackle a week after starting in place of an injured Guyton. And Terence Steele did a rousing routine with Texans edge rusher Danielle Hunter where Steele pretended to be a pair of saloon doors and Hunter was the gruff cowboy who effortlessly walked right through them. Rush was sacked a total of five times on the night, including a strip sack that turned into a defensive touchdown.

The Cowboys defense, though, played admirably in this one, particularly in the second half. Stroud looked uncomfortable all game long, and Mike Zimmer got the ball out of his hands early a few times with some creative third-down pressure looks. Houston didn’t score a second-half offensive touchdown until there were three minutes left in the game, a testament to what this unit is capable of.

That was with two starting cornerbacks missing, too. DaRon Bland still hasn’t played all year, but Jourdan Lewis was out for this one too. In their places were Israel Mukuamu and Josh Butler, the latter of whom was signed from the practice squad and named the starter just hours before kickoff. All things considered, this was a good game from the defense.

It wasn’t enough, though. The Cowboys opted to take Brandon Aubrey’s 64-yard field goal off the board due to a Texans penalty on the kick, and then later the drive resulted in a failed fourth and short attempt, leaving the Texans’ lead at 20-10. The next time the Cowboys offense took the field, they fumbled it twice and Houston scored a touchdown. Things unraveled from there.

Not much in this game was terribly surprising, except for maybe how hard the Texans tried to lose this one. The Cowboys kept things close through three quarters, but then they fell apart. Which is exactly how a team that only has draft positioning to think about should want to play, not that anyone is accusing these Cowboys of intentionally losing games. If this season has taught us anything, it’s that these Cowboys don’t have to try to lose games.