MNF Recap: Texans and Cowboys play thoroughly depressing MNF game

The Texans play with their food for three quarters, while the Cowboys are lost to the seas

Let me start with the Cowboys: This team is finished. We’re going to have to keep talking about them because it’s impossible to move them out of the sunlight, but it has never been more over. Without Dak Prescott they have scored 16 points in two games, and seven of those came because Jeff Okudah let the KaVontae Turpin quick slant to the house happen last night. The questions the Cowboys have are far removed from this season. I’d even argue they’re beyond “should Mike McCarthy be back?” because I watch this team a lot and they have like two offensive plays that go beyond 10 yards a game. Even with Dak they were dinking and dunking against the Falcons in Week 9.

The questions the Cowboys have are elemental. Should we pay Micah Parsons or is that too many stars under one roof to build the rest of the team? What should the next DC do to fix the run defense? What sorts of free agents can we pursue to keep this team running in the right direction, ala the early Joe Burrow Bengals? This season is a lost cause. The only question left is if Trey Lance will get a look to satisfy old curiosities, and lemme tell you, having watched some of him in that Eagles game, I’d let that curiosity die.

OK, your Houston Texans. It pains me to say this. I don’t think C.J. Stroud played well. The game plan seemed much better. The only way the Cowboys are going to beat you is if you let their pass rush tee off on you while you’re trailing, and while Parsons got his, the Cowboys became the first team since Week 4 to hurry Stroud on less than 40 percent of his dropbacks. (36.8% per NFL Pro.) The ball was getting out more quickly. Nico Collins’ return, of course, was a big boon.

But the sum of the parts just isn’t working. There’s no way this team should have been up by only seven points at halftime against a garbage Cowboys side. 5.7 yards per rush attempt in the first half. 9.0 yards per pass before the two-minute drill began. It would have felt a little different had they hit their early fourth-down go, sure, but that wasn’t the only reason it looked bad.

The line between “weird” and “smart” is pretty tight in the NFL. The Texans rushed Stroud to the line on two key plays, one of which was his only interception of the game: