The Dallas Cowboys are still fighting to clinch the National Conference East title.
With the playoffs and the division title all but tied up, the final three games of the regular season will be spent trying to solve the mystery of an offense that has gone cold.
The Cowboys (10-4) are not out of the NFC race for first place, with Washington’s visit scheduled for Sunday night. Washington is on the brink of elimination with its loss to the Eagles on Tuesday, in a game that was postponed due to COVID-19.
Dallas’ defense was again tasked with leading the way in a 21-6 victory over the New York Giants, in which the Cowboys became the first team since Detroit in 2007 to force at least four turnovers in three. consecutive games of the same season.
Dak Prescott and the offense again struggled to figure out what’s wrong since he injured his calf in an overtime win against New England in Week 6.
Dallas scored on five possessions against the Giants. The three offensive series that ended in field goals (68, 58 and 37 yards) were longer than the two that ended in touchdowns (13 and 29).
In the first seven games, the Cowboys never had less than 380 yards on offense. In the seven most recent, they haven’t reached that number five times.
If Dallas wants to get past the divisional round for the first time since its last Super Bowl title in the 1995 season, the offense must regain the form in which it started the season.
“I mean, we had some success,” Prescott said. “Obviously we want to improve and we want to get more touchdowns and I think if we get touchdowns, we will feel much better about our performance in general.”
Dallas is tied with Indianapolis for the NFL lead with 31 steals. If the Cowboys get three more, they will have their most since finishing with 43 in 1987, two years before Jerry Jones acquired the franchise.
Another part of the offense’s recent woes is difficulty making big plays. In the first six games with Prescott, the Cowboys averaged nine plays per game with runs of at least 10 yards or passes of 20 yards or more. His average is five in the seven games since then.
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