Lacie's Line-Up: NFL News
Lacie's Line-Up: NFL News
From Bad to Worse: Unpacking the Cowboys' Devastating Loss to the Bears
The heartache of being a Dallas Cowboys fan has never felt more palpable than after Sunday's devastating loss to the Chicago Bears. What should have been a straightforward win against a struggling team instead revealed the profound issues plaguing America's Team.
Our run game actually shows promise—Javante Williams averages an impressive 7.5 yards per carry while Miles Sanders contributes a solid 4 yards per carry. Yet inexplicably, the coaching staff called a trick play with CeeDee Lamb as running back, resulting in our star receiver suffering a high ankle sprain. This questionable decision epitomizes the team's baffling approach: abandoning what works in favor of unnecessary risks.
Meanwhile, our defense has become a sieve, ranking last in virtually every category. The absence of key players has exposed our lack of depth, but the problems run deeper than personnel. When facing adversity, the sideline shows a disturbing lack of passion and accountability. Unlike teams where players visibly demand better from each other, Cowboys players seem resigned to mediocrity. Dak Prescott particularly struggles in pressure situations, throwing two costly end zone interceptions when the team needed him most.
Looking ahead to Sunday night's matchup against the Packers, we face Micah Parsons' emotional return to Dallas. With our offensive line depleted and Parsons likely motivated to prove himself against his former team, this primetime game could become another painful chapter in what's shaping up to be a lost season. Though Jerry Jones holds valuable draft picks for the future, that provides little comfort during this current spiral.
Are you feeling the same frustration with the Cowboys this season? Share your thoughts on what needs to change most urgently for Dallas to salvage this campaign before it's too late.
Now that I'm done pulling my hair out, hating what I've watched, just a typical day as a cowboy fan, I guess if we must, we can talk about the Cowboys versus the Bears last Sunday. Hope you guys tune in. It's gonna be difficult to talk about, not a lot to talk about, but cheers to depicting this game. Lacey's lineup starts right now. Cowboys versus Bears, you know, game of the week, Sunday, 325. We are central time, right? But we're all hoping that we can get this win. This is a must-win. I mean, bears have been destroyed before playing us for the first last two games. They were actually they got a new coach, they're not gelling. It just looks bad for the Bears. So, Cowboys, we go in here thinking that we're just gonna steal this win and go. Wrong. Guys, you know that I'm one of the most loyal fans of the Cowboys. I've been with them. Obviously, we're in a huge drought. The seasons have gotten worse and worse, yet I still watch. It's like a train wreck, but I still watch. I'm not even kidding. I turned it off at the end when Dak threw his last interception. It was just it was horrible. It was worse. Like my son plays eighth grade football, and they were more fun to watch last week than the Cowboys. It was horrible. No one had passion, no one cared. We were doing things that just did not make any sense. Like, what is happening? You had our defensive coordinator coming home showing that he was good enough and shouldn't deserve to be fired. Shoot, why did we hire him? He doesn't even belong in the NFL. His defense has been atrocious. Anyone that plays the Cowboys, go on to win offensive player of the week. If you watched, remember we talked about the Giants the week before and how they were just destroying our secondary and just making it look easy. We saw when Giants tried to play that the second week. Good teams figured it out, and Russell Wilson was getting picked off one by one and ultimately is now benched for Jackson Dart. But I'm just saying Cowboys gave Russell Wilson, should be thinking the Cowboys, because he gave him at least one more week before he was the backup quarterback. But let's stick with this Sunday game. I'm gonna try to keep seriously, like I think I have pulled all my hair out. I think I have come to peace with it. Didn't think it could be worse than last year. I actually thought our offense was gonna be decent. Defense, I wasn't sure about. I know defense wins championships, and I hate that we've gone away from getting good defenders. We're kind of keeping like the oldies. I mean, Trevon Diggs, I loved you in your prime. You had good moments, but let's be honest, you get beat all the time. Even in your prime, you got beat. You had that one season where you were picking it off and gave yourself a name. Congrats to that. But you were getting burned. I don't understand why we are giving up the deep ball. Like, if you're gonna give something up, give up the short ball and at least don't give them the long ball. I mean, they're just throwing it up, and it is just it's hard. It's really hard. It's even hard to talk about because now I'm like reliving the game and I'm I'm getting mad again. But here we are. It's a must-win. It's a must-win. I mean, we're about to go into the gauntlet for the cowboys, the gauntlet. And we can't even we go into overtime with the giants and somehow pull off that win when it shouldn't have even been close. And then we get destroyed, embarrassed by the bears. What is happening? What is happening? And of course, I'm here just to talk about the Cowboys, and I think that's why it took me till today, guys, to record this podcast because I'm still angry and I'm still thinking, what the heck happened? So let's talk about what a little bit what did happen. Um, where do we start? I mean, we know defense is atrocious. I talked about it last week. Nothing changed this week. We didn't have Bland. Um, we didn't have him last week. It does show that he is a full participant, so we'll see if that brings anything. But we it's just bad. Defense is horrible. I mean, you can't we rank last in everything. Defense is a huge problem, very huge problem, and it's only gonna get worse when we play actually good offensive teams. Like it could be basketball scores. Seriously, guys, it could be basketball scores. But this is where I'm so confused. And hear me out. Tell me if you agree with this. But what is the one good thing that the Cowboys have? Now I know we have the kicker, and I dedicated a whole podcast to him last week. I don't think anyone's ever done that. I mean, it's terrible when you're just talking about the kicker, which I know he's special, but he's our one consistent saving grace, best kicker in the league, maybe best kicker kicker in the country, or what we'll see in the NFL time. So we know Brandon Aubrey, so I'm gonna go ahead and take him out. He's a kicker, special teams. But the Cowboys, right now, what is their best option? Like, where are we doing the best? And what skill? And what position? Surprisingly, because it's been a while, it's the run game. Javante Williams is averaging 7.5 yards a carry. That's unbelievable. He's creating, as cowboy fans, we're like, what is this? We actually have a run game. We're actually being able to get third and ones because we can run the ball. Javante Williams is special. He definitely has not aged out. Um, I think Denver was bad for letting him go. He's been a huge spark for us, and we're not utilizing him enough. And then you also have Miles Sanders, who is averaging four points a car or four yards a carry, which is just as good. So we are stacked. And then you have like, you know, the Jadon Blues, Malik Davis waiting in the wings who give us so much depth in this position, which we haven't had before. I mean, run games, I don't know why we're not utilizing it more because we have it. So here's my issue. So we just decided that run is not our problem. So please tell me why we take the ball out of Williams or Sanders' hands, and we have C D run as a running back. Anyone understand that? It makes zero sense to me. It makes zero sense to me. I the trickery, I get trying to deceive the defense, but why? It was working, and the cost of that is you had a receiver running the ball and got tackled up and sprained his ankle. Down goes CD in the first quarter. It was insane. I mean, that looked a lot worse. Um I know it's just a high ankle sprain, but it looked like his ankle was completely a different direction. So I'm happy to know that it is a sprain. But why are we putting him in that position? I do not understand it. We don't need to do it. I get Turpin at times because of his speed and like his quick, like his small and he can get through and he has explosive plays. Like I get throwing him in the mix, but C D, no. C D is someone you throw the ball up and he's gonna go catch it. I don't get it. And what happened? We lose our starting wide receiver one. So that was the first mistake that we had there, and that happened in the first quarter, and I think everybody was like, oh no, we don't have CD. So I think that kind of set the mood on that. Then you have defense who can't stop anything, can't stop a cold, can't stop traffic, can't do anything. I mean, we literally can't stop anything. It's terrible to watch. So score tries to stay a little close and then it just gets terrible. Dak Prescott, horrible, horrible that week. I've been praising him, thinking that he's done good the first two weeks, enough to win. He was putting the ball where it needed to. But we saw when the pressure is on, which is where we see when good quarterbacks are good quarterbacks and handle that pressure, this is where Dak falls apart. This is, you know, postseason, this is playoff games, this is a must-win game. Dak does not know how to handle that pressure. Yeah. When you're winning and you're relaxed, he balls out. But when the pressure is on and you need him, this is when his mouth opens, and I call it catching flies. He does a freak out, he's looking at the screen, like acting like he didn't know what just happened, that he has to see it in a replay. And he did not, when CD goes down, this is where Dak has to step up. He has to pour, he has to get confidence into his other wide receivers. You have pickens. He was a wide receiver one at one point in time. He knows how to do it. He can do it. Not as good, I don't think, as CD, but he can do it. Then you have Tolbert that comes in. I mean, he's a little back and forth. You have Turpin, but these guys need that confidence. Dak has to look them in the eye and be like, we are not losing this game. We are gonna do this for CD, we're gonna do this for whatever, whatever gets them motivated. Like he has to be the leader in that moment. When they're all freaking out, because one, someone has to come in that wasn't playing to replace CD, we're losing by a lot, time's running out, and they look to their leader, who's supposed to be Dak, and he has his mouth open, eyes big, and he looks uncertain. What do you think that does for your guys? That has to get better, and then you still have like, I'm not trying to get on shoddy. I know he's never been a head coach, which I don't understand why we give these opportunities. I guess everyone needs an opportunity. I don't not like the guy, but it's another type of like Jason Garrett. No one gets mad whenever Dak throws an interception, he gets in high five, pat on the butt. You know, when our defense is getting destroyed, there's no passion, there's no one yelling at him like this is unbelievable, unacceptable, mad. When they turn the ball over, there's no upset on the sideline. It's like it's expected. It's like I don't care. I make money. We're Cowboys team, we're still gonna be in the media. I'm still gonna get all these doors to open for me. I don't care if we win. I'm tired of seeing it. I watch other teams and I see like the Derrick Henry, right? He's fumbled now in the last two games and cost his team the games. Do you see his reactions on the sideline? He's throwing his helmet, he's frustrated, he's taking blame, he's talking to his players, he's taking accountability. Like he and he's demanding the ball again because he wants to earn the right to redeem himself. You have Patrick Mahomes, who doesn't even have a receiver because he doesn't have rice, he doesn't have um uh Xavier Worthy, and he's in there giving his wide receivers who are like, you know, wide receiver threes and fours who have to play ones and twos, he's pouring confidence. He's like, just run this route, catch the ball. And it's just simple, and they believe in him and they trust in him. And I know Kansas City, I'm just saying what you look at in specific positions. When things go awry with other teams, they get mad, they get angry, they turn on their gamer, and then they give it all they got. Cowboys, when you watch them, they sit in sulk, they fake an injury, they have their mouth open, they think they have to do trick plays, they don't have a defense, no one cares. There is no leader. Micah Parsons might have been the only leader. I wouldn't even count at that. And I'm not even saying it's because Micah Parsons really wouldn't have done anything, but maybe applied a little bit of pressure. But when you have four steps on a guy, it doesn't matter if the pressure is coming in two seconds, just launch the ball. They'll get it. I'm just I'm so tired of it. And then you sit there and the week coming up this week, right? So we're done. I'm done with this game. Dak terrible threw two interceptions in the end zone, mouth open, CD's out. Tyler Booker is out. Obviously, we had already had lost Cooper BB. We were out. Um Duron Bland. I mean, we are getting clowny this week. We'll see what he can do. I think the game changer will be if we can get Overshawn back, but I don't think that's gonna be until it's too late because I think that's November, maybe early December before we see him. And why rush him back if we're already tanked, right? Like, let's save him, especially since he's been injury prone. But you have you still had chances to win that game, even though your first half was horrible. And Dak couldn't do it. Two interceptions in the end zone. Guys, I had to turn it off. I literally had to walk away and turn it off. It was horrible. So when you look ahead to who we play Sunday night, prime time again, because cowboys will always get prime time. Micah's return. The Packers. I know they just lost to Cleveland, but Packers are good. I mean, they went all in. We talked about this with the Micah deal. They went all in. This is their year, or it's a bust. So they're gonna figure it out, and they're probably mad about their loss last week. Micah Parsons is gonna play with passions. I just pray he doesn't hurt Dak Prescott or hurt anybody else in this process. Just get away with the loss and like let's move on. Last time we played the Packers, they embarrassed us when we were supposed to be the better team and they were a young team. So I'm not expecting anything. I think it's gonna be worse than it was last week. Um, I think it's gonna be an embarrassment at home. I think people are gonna be up late and be angry because they were up late watching what's about to happen. But then again, you look on the other side. Cowboys somehow weirdly pull off random wins against teams they have no business even playing with. So I know it's the NFL any given Sunday. I'm just thinking prediction-wise, injury-wise, you know, personnel-wise, coaching-wise, owner-wise. I mean, we are the huge underdogs at home for sure. We might get all the media press. We might be talked about the whole time on the TV, but at the end of the day, Packers are gonna go on and keep in the win column while we dig ourselves deeper into a hole. So that's my prediction on that. It's hard. Uh, there's not a lot to talk about, guys. I don't know what the answer is to make us better. He's holding those picks closely. I don't, I don't think he should use all these picks in the draft coming up. I mean, are we just gonna be a young team and then figure it out? Maybe, maybe we just have two or three years before we can say that we're close to a contender, but defense is where it's at. We got to get better defense, and it is it's not looking good. I mean, our defense we got rid of so many, we had so many holes and only replaced a few. Uh, we most mostly went offensively, which I know we had a lot of holes there, so it's gonna be bad, but if terrible mixture, when your defense is giving up 30 plus points a game, getting burned every which way, and then your quarterback is throwing, turning the ball over, that's a recipe for disaster. And that, cowboy fans, is what we're dealing with right now. So we'll see. Packers, Micah's return home. They already said no tribute video. I don't know if that's just trying to cause controversy. I don't know if there's more bad blood there than we can imagine, but you know one thing, Micah's gonna come fired up, our offensive light is depleted. I think he's gonna get to Dak quickly. I think Dak's gonna have that in his mind and make terrible decisions. That's what I think's gonna happen. There's no way Micah walks in after feeling betrayed by the Cowboys and does not perform well. This might be Micah's performance of the year, because I'm not saying that he's the end all, but I think this game means a lot to him, and I think he's gonna prove it. So, oh guys, it could be another train wreck. It could, could, could. So hopefully you guys have your drinks ready, your popcorn ready. If you like watching, I mean, bloopers, maybe it might be bloopers this weekend, but I'm not saying I'm giving up on the cowboys, but they're making it really, really tough. So I'm hoping that I have a little bit better, maybe some signs of improvement after this week, or if we just keep digging that hole, then we'll be back to talk about another train wreck. So good luck, cowboys. Welcome home, Micah. Um, it will be sad to see him in another jersey, and I just hope what we gave up, we can turn around and make it to where the cowboys can be a contender again. So we will see. Thanks for tuning in, and hopefully, I can bring you guys some good news soon. Hang in there, cowboy fans. We'll get through this together. Your girl is signing off.