Stud: Aldon Smith, EDGE
What a story Aldon Smith is. After being out of the NFL for the past four seasons, he not only started for the Cowboys on Sunday but he also balled out. Smith led the team in tackles with 11 — tied with Jaylon Smith — and also recorded a late sack on Jared Goff that helped the defense keep the score close.
Leading up to this game, the talk about the Dallas defensive line was centered on how good thew pass rush could be. Unfortunately, they were kept in check as a whole but Smith was the one player who really made a difference on the line.
That’s a great sign for him as he looks to make the most of this chance he has in Big D.
Dud: Kellen Moore and Mike McCarthy
This is a weird season with the fake crowd noise and cardboard fans. Not only that, but there was absolutely no offseason work performed so teams changing their coaching staffs are at a disadvantage early on. That was expected to be the case for Dallas, but more so on defense than offense.
On defense, they were bringing in a new coordinator and there was a lot of change to the personnel. On offense, however, Mike McCarthy kept Kellen Moore meaning they were supposed to pick up where they left off. Not only was that not the case, but the play-calling had its share of questions.
The biggest was their fourth-and-three gamble late in the game. They should have gone for the tie but they got overly aggressive and never again had a chance to tie the game. They also seemed scared to death to throw the ball deep, as they ran the ultimate dink-and-dunk offense.
Another issue came when Greg Zuerlein missed a 53-yard field goal. McCarthy and the Cowboys had two kickers in the offseason but elected not to challenge Zuerlein, instead opting to cut Kai Forbath who was perfect last season.
There’s still a lot of football to be played but McCarthy and his coaching staff need to clean some things up from this game.