While the Dallas Cowboys vaulted themselves back into playoff contention coming out of their Week 10 bye with victories over the Las Vegas Raiders, Philadelphia Eagles, and Kansas City Chiefs—a three-game winning streak that took place over just 11 days, by the way—their chances of making the postseason would have obviously looked even better had they upped that streak to four with a Week 14 win over the Detroit Lions.
But as the world watched this past Thursday night in primetime, that obviously didn't happen, as the Lions, who desperately needed a win themselves after dropping three of their previous five contests coming out of their own bye in Week 8, capitalized on some critical Cowboys turnovers en route to taking a 44-30 victory.
However, turnovers weren't the only thing that hindered Dallas in the defeat. Did they help? Obviously not, as the touchdowns the Lions scored off Jake Ferguson's fumble and Dak Prescott's first interception (the second didn't matter, as it came with just over a minute to play) proved to be the difference on the scoreboard.
The Dallas defense's inability to stop the Lions' offense certainly didn't help matters either, but another big issue was that Matt Eberflus' unit was put at a disadvantage for much of the game, as the Cowboys surrendered 261 yards on eight kickoff returns. As such, Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer said during his Monday press conference that changes are coming to that specific area of special teams, including possible player swaps in kick coverage.
"The kickoff coverage leverage has not been very good," Schottenheimer said. "We've lost contain. The way it's all set up now is: if my left arm is free, I've got to keep my left arm free. Guys are trying to make plays, and the way you cover kicks well is to have everybody do their job, stay in their lane, keep their contain, play with the [correct] arm free. We haven't done that. We'll be looking at maybe some personnel adjustments as well."
The Cowboys have allowed the fourth-most kickoff return yards in the NFL this season
This isn't a new problem, as the Cowboys have allowed 1,620 yards on kickoff returns this season, the fourth-most in the NFL behind only the Buffalo Bills (1,719), Indianapolis Colts (1,683), and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1,646)But things were especially bad in Week 14, as the Lions' average starting position on the eight times Dallas kicked off was their own 36.5-yard line. The Cowboys simply would have been better off had Brandon Aubrey just kicked the ball through the back of the end zone each time.
The Lions' last two returns, which occurred when Dallas was attempting to make a comeback, were the worst of all, as Detroit started those two drives on its own 41 and 49, respectively, ultimately scoring a touchdown on each possession.
The loss to the Lions hurt, of course, but Dallas is still in the mix in the NFC East, as the Eagles threw America's Team a little lifeline on Monday night in taking a defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers. But the Cowboys have very little room for error moving forward and effectively have to win out to have any shot at the postseason, starting this Sunday night against the Minnesota Vikings.
And they'll have to hope these kick coverage issues are at least somewhat fixed before then, as the Vikings average 26.23 yards per kickoff return, which isn't far behind the Lions' 26.91-yard average. The Minnesota offense isn't nearly as dangerous as Detroit's, but with J.J. McCarthy finding a little something this last week with the best overall performance of his young career, the Cowboys' special teams don't need to give their defense any unnecessary disadvantages.