Dallas, TX
Roof falls in on Cowboys as Houston Texans extend Dallas’s slump
Joe Mixon ran for three touchdowns to extend his TD streak to six games since coming back from injury, Derek Barnett returned a fumble 28 yards for a score, and the Texans beat the Cowboys 34-10 on Monday night.
The Texans (7-4) stopped just the second two-game losing streak of CJ Stroud’s young career while maintaining a two-game lead in the AFC South.
Houston pulled away in the second-half a week after a 26-23 last-play loss to Detroit at home, when the Texans let a 23-7 half-time lead get away from them.
“It’s not as bad as it ever seems, and it’s never as good as it ever seems,” Stroud said. “Those type of games, you have to come out with a win, especially going up like that at the half [against the Lions]. But what are we going to do about it?”
Amid a woeful season for the Cowboys (3-7) on the field, debris fell from their stadium’s retractable roof as it was opening a few hours before the game. There was no delay and no injuries were reported, just another mishap to foreshadow a fifth consecutive defeat for a team that lost five games total in each of the past three seasons.
Cooper Rush threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to KaVontae Turpin but lost his second start since Dak Prescott’s season-ending hamstring injury.
The Dallas losing streak is their longest since a seven-game skid in 2015, and the Cowboys dropped to 0-5 at home. Dallas are the first team in NFL history to trail by at least 20 points in six consecutive home games, including last season’s wildcard playoff loss to Green Bay, according to Sportradar. The Cowboys had reached the playoffs in each of their previous three seasons, but that run is all but over.
“Well, they better be frustrated,” Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy said. “I mean, we’re all frustrated. I think there’d be something wrong if they weren’t frustrated. So just very honest with everything and stay in tune with what’s right in front of us. And that’s the only way I’ve ever done it.”
The Cowboys were down 20-10 early in the fourth quarter when Barnett knocked the ball out of Rush’s hand. Dallas rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton caught it and was trying to run when Jalen Pitre knocked the ball loose again. Barnett scooped up the ball and scored, although he almost stepped out of bounds.
“The play he made really changed for game for us,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “It flipped the momentum. It got everybody juiced up on the sideline. It was just a huge play.”
Earlier, the Cowboys appeared to have pulled within a touchdown on a 64-yard field goal from Brandon Aubrey, but Barnett was penalized for slapping Terence Steele on the rush. Dallas erased the points by taking the penalty, but Rush’s fourth-down pass from the Houston eight-yard line was incomplete on the only good scoring chance of the second half for the the Cowboys.
“The defense played with elite energy,” Ryans said. “One big play that we gave up. Like to have that one back, but overall I think our guys played really well.”
Texans receiver Nico Collins returned after missing five games with a hamstring injury and took a screen pass 77 yards to the end zone on the first play of the game, only to have it called back because of an ineligible receiver downfield.
That possession ended with a touchdown anyway on Mixon’s 45-yard sprint up the middle, and he ran wide for a one-yard score and a 14-0 lead. Mixon had 109 yards rushing on the day and set up a field goal with a 37-yard catch-and-run on a screen.
“I really love that first play because it showed what we could do in this game,” Ryans said. “Even though it got called back, I just told all our guys, ‘We can go score on these guys again. Just get it in your mind we’re going to score again.’”
Already without Prescott, the Cowboys lost tight end Jake Ferguson to a concussion and perennial All-Pro right guard Zack Martin and left guard Tyler Smith to ankle injuries. Rush was sacked five times, three on the same possession when Martin and Smith were injured.
Stroud, who has been in a mini-slump, threw for 257 yards while avoiding any mistakes after an early interception on fourth down. It was the third time in five games he has gone without a touchdown pass, and he has two TDs and three picks in that stretch.
Rush was 32 of 55 for 354 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Turpin had three catches for 86 yards.
Dallas, TX
Here is everything you need to know about Sunday night’s Dallas Cowboys game
The Dallas Cowboys are playing their third game in a row at home that is in front of a massive television audience as they are now going from Thanksgiving Day to Monday Night Football to Sunday Night Football. America’s Team and all that jazz. It is the first time that they will be playing a game in general though as a team eliminated from playoff contention.
This time around the Cowboys will be hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and are underdogs even in their home building. While Dallas has won three of their last four, the Buccaneers have won all of their last four. Needless to say it is going to be a difficult outing.
We will see how well the Cowboys fare and if they are able to make it four out of five. The early parts of this season were extremely tough, but they have been playing very well for the last month or so.
This post will serve as our running recap throughout it all. We will update things on a quarterly basis and at the end of the game sort it so that it can be read in chronological order.
Let’s go Cowboys!
Follow Blogging The Boys Everywhere
Notable Recent News
This past week saw the trailer for the Netflix documentary chronicling Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys teams of the 1990s release… if you are into that.
Injury Updates
We have known for some time that Trevon Diggs’ season is over, but the Cowboys formally placed him on injured reserve on Saturday.
Dallas signed Andrew Booth to the active roster in response.
NFL News Relevant To The Cowboys
As noted up top… the Washington Commanders beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday and in the process they eliminated the Cowboys from playoff contention.
The Drought™ grows all the more large.
Up Next For The Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are set for their final road trip of the season next Sunday as they will visit the Philadelphia Eagles. After that they will return home to host the Washington Commanders before they wrap everything up.
Dallas, TX
Dallas police identify victim in Saturday morning shooting
DALLAS – Dallas Police have identified a man who was shot and killed before 5 a.m. Saturday morning.
Officers were called to a shooting in the 9000 block of Soverign Row, which is off of John Carpenter Freeway near Regal Row.
Investigators believe 21-year-old Joseph Ortega was shot by an unknown suspect.
Ortega died at the scene.
This is an ongoing investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Frank Serra at 214-662-4552 or frank.serra@dallaspolice.gov.
Dallas, TX
Dallas City Council meltdown over city manager search an embarrassment
An already questionable search process for Dallas’ new city manager has unfortunately lapsed into all-out dysfunction.
Dallas City Council, it’s the holidays. Please take a breath of fresh pine air and work out this search in a new spirit of cooperation before nobody ends up wanting the job.
Given what’s already happened, chances of that are dwindling. Three of the five semifinalists already pulled out of the running late last week.
There was trouble from the start with the resignation of former City Manager T.C. Broadnax in February. He said a majority of the council lost faith in his leadership, but the timing of his “involuntary resignation” rightly raised eyebrows. Mayor Eric Johnson questioned whether his allies on the council helped him orchestrate the move so he could take a job as Austin city manager and also collect on a hefty severance.
The City Council named Broadnax’s top aide, Assistant City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, as interim manager just days after his resignation amid reservations of some of the council. Since then, the table has seemed set for her to assume the permanent role, underscored by the lack of pushback Tolbert’s received as she’s implemented sweeping changes at City Hall during her interim role. We can’t help but wonder about the chill that’s had on other potential candidates.
Another wrinkle came when the outside search firm hired to vet candidates, Baker Tilly, circulated a draft brochure advertising for the job that featured a photo of the Houston skyline. That was in late August, and since then some council members have blamed both the firm and an ad hoc search committee for moving too slowly and without transparency to the full council.
Tensions erupted this month when three council members — Paula Blackmon, Gay Donnell Willis and Jaynie Schultz — tried to wrest control from the committee and hold an emergency meeting of the full council. That flopped when only two other council members showed up at the Dec. 16 meeting, not enough for a quorum.
Blackmon told us she expected a quorum, but “it became clear to me that some phone calls were made to pressure people not to show up, and that is their decision.” Another bad look for the city.
A meeting the same day of the ad hoc committee weirdly ended up in executive session for nearly three hours. Members emerged with a plan to virtually interview the semifinalists Monday, the day before Christmas Eve. That seems like a big ask of the candidates and a crummy process. Candidates deserve an in-person interview.
It’s been hard to keep track of who’s on whose team in this mayhem. There are clearly two sides on the council: those who want Tolbert to get the job, and those who aren’t yet sold on her and want a more extensive search.
Council member Cara Mendelsohn, a member of the ad hoc committee, told us any grievances with the search should have been handled privately and that council members not on the committee have wrongly injected themselves in what is a serious effort.
“This unprofessional behavior risks scaring off strong candidates and reflects poorly on our city,” she said.
That may well happen even more than it has and, at this point, who could blame them? From the start to now, the city has hardly put its best foot forward. We urge the City Council to embrace the quiet of the season, take a moment and begin again in earnest in the New Year.
Rushing this process serves no one and least of all the residents of Dallas.
We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com
-
Politics1 week ago
Canadian premier threatens to cut off energy imports to US if Trump imposes tariff on country
-
Technology1 week ago
OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change
-
Politics1 week ago
U.S. Supreme Court will decide if oil industry may sue to block California's zero-emissions goal
-
Technology1 week ago
Meta asks the US government to block OpenAI’s switch to a for-profit
-
Business1 week ago
Freddie Freeman's World Series walk-off grand slam baseball sells at auction for $1.56 million
-
Technology1 week ago
Meta’s Instagram boss: who posted something matters more in the AI age
-
News1 week ago
East’s wintry mix could make travel dicey. And yes, that was a tornado in Calif.
-
Technology2 days ago
Google’s counteroffer to the government trying to break it up is unbundling Android apps