Dallas Cowboys: Morris Claiborne grades low; more takeaways

Oct 11, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) is sacked by Dallas Cowboys linebacker Rolando McClain (55) and defensive end Greg Hardy (76) at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

The Dallas Cowboys are getting tough to watch with their play at times in recent weeks. They aren’t as bad as some other teams in the league, but like I said earlier this week, their offense looks stale, and the defense has no consistency.

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The pass rush was much improved in the first half during the Cowboys’ 30-6 loss to the first-place New England Patriots, as there were five sacks completely wasted by the team because of the trouble scoring points.

That is a tough pill to swallow because after five games, the Cowboys finally got the pass rush help they needed in Greg Hardy following his suspension, and the offense couldn’t and didn’t do their part to help matters when it came to scoring points.

In a quick glance at the box score, Cowboys quarterback Brandon Weeden was 26-of-39 for just 188 yards, no touchdowns and one interception.

A team can’t win nine out of 10 times when their quarterback has those types of numbers.

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The rushing game was led by Joseph Randle with 15 carries for 60 yards and no touchdowns, and his longest rush went for 14 yards. Next in line was Weeden with three rushes for 18 yards, with one of those runs going for 11 yards. Part of the declining numbers of the rushing game was one, they just didn’t get much going at the start of the game (most of the time), and secondly, they trailed the reigning Super Bowl champions and were forced to go to the passing game more than maybe they wanted to.

(But a big problem was they haven’t had the best of rushing attacks all season, not just this game.)

Dallas’ receiving leader was running back Darren McFadden with nine receptions for 62 yards, though rushing the ball he had just 16 yards on five carries, as his longest run was just seven yards.

In all, the Cowboys had just 264 net yards on offense, though they had possession of the ball for 33:12 minutes.

With this being the third consecutive loss, here are three takeaways from the game, and with this current week being a bye week, the Cowboys will have a week to rest, regroup and hopefully return for Week 7 against the New York Giants a better team than what we last watched.

Next: Starting CB needs to play like 1st round talent