FRISCO, Texas -- With a 34-26 loss to the Vikings on Sunday night, the Cowboys drop to 6-7-1 with three regular season games remaining.
Dallas' struggles against Minnesota came on both sides of the ball, with the offense struggling to handle Brian Flores' blitz heavy defense causing trouble. Dak Prescott was pressured 21 times and sacked twice, with his 52.1% pressure rate faced being the highest he's seen in a game since 2022.
On the other side, the Cowboys' defense allowed Vikings QB J.J. McCarthy to throw for a career high 250 passing yards. Dallas' pass rush only registered six pressures on McCarthy all night, and gave up an average of 10.4 yards per attempt to Minnesota in the passing game.
With all that in mind, let's take a look back at some things stood out on film:
Offensive struggles vs. zero blitzes
Nobody in the NFL blitzes more than Brian Flores and the Vikings, and that was again the case on Sunday night against the Cowboys. Minnesota blitzed on 46.3% of their plays, and it was getting home on Dak Prescott, causing Dallas' offense to struggle. From not adjusting at the line of scrimmage to not being able to have quick routes available on blitz plays, the Cowboys had little answers for the looks that the Vikings presented, and gave the opposing defense their flowers.
On this play, the Vikings defense is in what Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer called "all up," which is essentially Cover 0. That means most, if not all of the players lined up at the line of scrimmage (seven in this case) will likely go after the cornerback, leaving the rest of the field in one-on-one man coverage between the receivers and defensive backs.
How do you diagnose who is and isn't coming at you on a blitz in these looks? Pre-snap motion and the offense's cadence, essentially trying to get defenders to move ahead of the snap and show where they're going. There was no motion on this play, and it's just a quick three step drop for Dak Prescott and a curl route from CeeDee Lamb to get some quick, easy yards. What ruins all of that is Harrison Smith coming unblocked on a blitz, and he gets a hand on the football here to cause the throw to be just off target, and it's incomplete.
Run game looked better
One bright spot for Dallas on Sunday night was their run game finding some more efficiency, as Javonte Williams finished with 91 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. His 6.1 yards per carry marked the fourth time this season that he's rushed for more than six yards per carry in a game this season.
As has been the case all year when the run game is clicking, the interior of the offensive line was doing work for the Cowboys. After spending some time on the sidelines with a shoulder stinger in the first half, Williams returned to the field to begin the second half and started things off with an explosive 15-yard carry on the first play of the half.
On this play, the offensive line slides right, and Williams runs right, two things that have been strongsuits this season. Both guards and tackles are working in tandem to handle their assignments, leaving Cooper Beebe one-on-one in the middle where he won his battle and turned the defender to the outside, giving Javonte Williams a lane behind him. That leaves Tyler Smith as his lead blocker, and he's worked his way up to the second level to put his hands on the linebacker and there's nobody else at the second level for Minnesota, leading to a big gain for Dallas.
Success on play action
Against a team that blitzes as much as Brian Flores and the Vikings do, it's very difficult to run play action, which has been a staple of the Brian Schottenheimer offense and of Dak Prescott's throughout his career. Prescott only threw seven play action passes on Sunday night, completing five of them for 67 yards.
Even with success in the run game, the aggressiveness that Minnesota played with limited the opportunities that the Cowboys could turn to their play action game. When they did, it was successful, like on this 30-yard pitch and catch between Prescott and CeeDee Lamb.
To set it up, KaVontae Turpin comes in motion and at the snap, both he and Malik Davis go into the flat as receiving options, which brings the corner and linebacker on the left side of the field down just enough to give the space necessary for Prescott to layer his pass over the linebacker's head to a crossing CeeDee Lamb who is wide open in the soft spot of the defense. George Pickens taking the safety on the left side of the field vertically was the final step to get the ball thrown as well.
Minnesota's offense finding their spots
Speaking of finding their spots, Minnesota did plenty of that as well in their own passing game against the Cowboys defense. Dallas was pretty balanced in their coverages between man (44.4%) and zone (55.6%), but a majority of J.J. McCarthy's passing production came on zone coverage looks, despite having the lowest completion percentage in the NFL when facing zone coverage going into Sunday night.
In this instance, Dallas rolls out in cover 2 zone with all three of their linebackers dropping straight back into coverage. To counter that, all four of the Vikings' receivers ran vertical routes, and TE T.J. Hockenson was ultimately the beneficiary of it once he got behind the Cowboys' linebackers.
Before Hockenson has even broken to the inside of his route up the seam, the ball is already out of McCarthy's hands, which is great anticipation from the young quarterback. Instead of maybe putting too much or too little on it like McCarthy has this season, he delivers a perfect strike to Hockenson, who extends to make the catch and picks up 29 yards to get into Cowboys territory. Eight plays later, Minnesota found the end zone to take a 24-23 lead late in the third quarter.
