The Dallas Cowboys suffered another loss on Thanksgiving Day. Here are four players who saw their stock plummet in the overtime loss to Las Vegas.
After a frustrating road loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 11, the Dallas Cowboys had a chance to turn things around quickly as they were taking on the struggling Las Vegas Raiders at home on Thanksgiving Day.
Instead of taking advantage and getting back in the win column, the Cowboys laid an egg on Turkey Day. They fell behind early and spent the rest of the game playing catch-up. In the end, they fell short as Las Vegas won on an overtime field goal, but there was a lot to take away before that fateful kick.
Dallas had several players stand out in a negative way and that leads us to look at four players who have plummeting stock following the Week 12 defeat.
Dallas Cowboys player with falling stock No. 4: Greg Zuerlein, K
Far too many times this season, Dallas has been let down by their kicking game. Greg Zuerlein has been solid at times with clutch kicks, including hitting a long game-winner early this season against the Los Angeles Chargers.
While that has been nice, he’s often put the team in bad positions with his whiffs. That happened again on Thursday as he missed the first extra point of the day. Later, he hit the upright on a 59-yard kick. While that one would have been tough due to the distance, he’s in Dallas due to his ability to drill the long ones — and distance was clearly not the issue as he hit the post about halfway up.
In a game that went to overtime, those four points left on the board ended up being vital. This team isn’t good enough to overcome such issues and Zuerlein has been a problem in 2021, with five missed field goals and three missed extra points to this point.
Dallas Cowboys player with falling stock No. 3: Tyler Biadasz, C
The Cowboys had several drives end way too early but one of them was especially infuriating. Down 14-6 and looking to get back into the game, Tony Pollard provided a much-needed spark as he ripped off a 31-yard run that put them on the Vegas 44.
Sadly, that was called back due to a hold on center Tyler Biadasz. So instead of being in Raiders’ territory with a first-and-10, Dallas was backed up to their own 15 while facing a first-and-20. That was a huge flip that led to the Raiders getting the ball back and going up 17-6.
Biadasz continues to struggle in his second season as he has been flagged often at some of the worst times while also being guilty of a few bad snaps — including a high one in this game that Dak Prescott was able to handle, but could have been a disaster if he didn’t see it begin to sail. He was also the one pushed into Prescott during their meeting with the Eagles that led to a fumble and touchdown for Philly.
Dallas has been toying with their offensive lineup, moving La’el Collins and Terence Steele in and out of the game at right tackle as well as Connor McGovern and Connor Williams at left guard. They may need to do all they can to figure out some way of doing similar at center since Biadasz is not making much headway on his current struggles.
Dallas Cowboys player with falling stock No. 2: Damontae Kazee, S
The entire Dallas defense could fall into this category since they were simply unprepared in this loss. While the Cowboys are on a two-game losing streak, the secondary was getting rave reviews in the loss to the Kansas City Chiefs since they held them to just 19 points.
This game was completely different. Las Vegas was able to move the ball at will as they had over 500 yards of total offense. 373 yards were surrendered to Derek Carr who was finding wide-open receiver at ease. If that wasn’t enough, the Raiders also benefited from one bad angle after another from the secondary.
Unfortunately, Damontae Kazee was guilty of this as much — if not more — than anyone else. It seemed whenever Hunter Renfrow (who somehow got a 54-yard reception despite being one of the slower wideouts in the game), Zay Jones, or DeSean Jackson caught the ball, Kazee was in a bad position to make any play on the receiver.
Overall, Kazee has been a good pickup for Dallas. He knows Dan Quinn’s system and has generally been where he’s supposed to be. Having said that, this week was a rough one for him and he probably won’t enjoy watching the film.
Dallas Cowboys player with falling stock No. 1: Anthony Brown, CB
It was hard to watch Anthony Brown on Thursday and not feel for him. He was constantly being picked on by the Raiders as Dan Quinn left him alone in single coverage and Derek Carr simply kept chucking the ball deep and hoping for a flag.
And it worked every time.
Some of the plays were really bad for Brown as he would get handsy with the wideouts. Sure, the refs were calling it way too tight but he needed to be aware and adjust to that style. Having said that, there were clearly some calls that were flat-out questionable by the refs — and the one that decided the game seemed to be suspect with Brown being guilty of not turning his head even though the wideout seemed to have a hold of his head.
Even so, Brown had to be aware of what was coming and while we can point out the refs desire to be on TV as much as possible during the big game, or Quinn’s lack of adjustments to help Brown out, the truth is No. 30 is the one who was flagged four times for pass interference and gave up over 100-yards of penalties due to this.
For that reason, his stock is falling through the floor which is really disheartening considering how well he was playing over the past couple of months.