Good, Bad, Ugly: Prescott’s 4th quarter not enough to overcome Cowboys’ defense, penalties

The Dallas Cowboys provided another subpar effort in the 36-33 overtime loss to the Las Vegas Raiders and the outcome left many Cowboys fans regurgitating Thanksgiving dinner. The flag fest masquerading as a pro football contest surely gave most watching a case of agita.

The Cowboys have now lost three out of four and are suffering from their first back-to-back losses of the season. What once was thought of as a comfortable lead in the NFC East is now just two games in the loss column as the Philadelphia Eagles have been playing their best football.

Even though the Cowboys will be getting several injured players back in Week 13, the bigger issue is the team didn’t play well for the entire month of November.

Before turning the page to December, here’s a look at the good, the bad and the ugly against the Raiders.

The Good: Quarterback Dak Prescott

It was a slow start to the game, but when the offense needed him, Prescott came through. In the fourth quarter, Prescott turned it on to bring the Cowboys back and helped get the game to overtime.

The best sequence from Prescott came with Dallas down 30-22 with 3:41 left on the clock. Prescott went 3-3 for 68 yards on the game-tying drive and two of the throws had pinpoint accuracy. The 32-yard strike to wide receiver Michael Gallup got the offense moving and just two plays later Prescott threw a perfect 32-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dalton Schultz.

It was vintage Prescott with the game on the line against the Raiders.

The Bad: The pass defense

It would be easy to single out cornerback Anthony Brown for his putrid performance, but the entire secondary had a rough game on Thanksgiving. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr carved up the Dallas defense, frequently finding open receivers on his way to throwing for 373 yards and a score.

Cornerback Jourdan Lewis was one of easiest targets for Carr to throw at and he gave up the long touchdown to Raiders wide receiver DeSean Jackson on the Raiders’ first possession.

The Good: Micah Parsons

The defense gave up over 500 yards of offense, but Parsons did his part to limit the damage. The rookie came close to giving the Cowboys another chance to win the game in overtime after his tackle for a loss on first down, and then followed it up with a sack on second down.

Parsons’ sack was his ninth on the season, a rookie record for the Cowboys, to go along with two more tackles for a loss to bring his season total to 15.

It was another mammoth game for Parsons, who didn’t get enough help from the rest of the defense to help get the win.

The Bad: The running game

The Raiders are one of the worst teams in football against the run, giving up over 132 yards a game coming into the contest. Dallas couldn’t get anything going on the ground, rushing for just 64 yards on 20 carries. That wasn’t nearly good enough.

There weren’t many holes to run through and rotating the offensive linemen wasn’t a sound strategy. Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore needed to put together a better game plan against a soft rush defense and didn’t get the job done. It may have been the most disappointing aspect of the game for the Cowboys.

The Ugly: The penalties

It’s easy to blame the officials, who were downright terrible in the game, but the Cowboys did themselves no favors with sloppy play and technique. There’s no excuse for having 14 penalties for 166 yards, including five on the defense that led to Raiders first downs. Those penalties extended drives where the Raiders capitalized with 20 of their 36 points.

Brown was the biggest offender with four penalties for 91 yards, and his last infraction sealed the Cowboys’ fate.

Left tackle Tyron Smith also had a penalty that took a touchdown off the board that cost the team points, while linebacker Luke Gifford had a block in the back to start overtime to hurt the teams field position.

An alarming lack of discipline finally caught up to the Cowboys in the loss.

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