There's a lot of blame to go around for the Dallas Cowboys' 44-30 loss to the Detroit Lions on Thursday Night Football.
Brian Schottenheimer coached way too conservatively, the offensive line had its worst game of the season protecting Dak Prescott, and the defense gave up 44 points. While those stick out like Dez Bryant at an Giants tailgate, the Cowboys' special teams was an abject disaster.
The Cowboys need to have a difficult conversation about KaVontae Turpin returning kickoffs and punts. However, the coverage on Detroit's kick returns was a huge storyline that might have gotten swept under the rug amid the 74-point barrage.
It's been an ongoing issue, and it might be time for Schottenheimer to consider moving on from special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen once and for all.
Cowboys special teams coordinator Nick Sorensen is not getting the job done
Schottenheimer was asked about the special teams coverage after the game, and he didn't pull any punches.
"We certainly didn’t cover very well," Schottenheimer said. "I thought that kind of flipped the field, gave them a bunch of short fields, and we have to look at why that was. And we’ll do that, certainly an area for us to clean up."
If you hadn't heard of Tom Kennedy before Thursday night, you certainly do now, and odds are he'll appear in your nightmares for the next few days. Kennedy returned three kickoffs for 141 yards (!), equating to a whopping 40.1 average. Just indefensible numbers from Dallas' coverage unit.
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If it felt like every Lions possession started near midfield, that's because it did. Even Jacob Saylors (again, who?) returned five kicks for 141 yards. That's 28.2 yards per return. Meanwhile, Turpin was lucky to return a kick beyond the 30.
It'd be one thing if Kennedy and Saylors broke tackles left and right and made something out of nothing. That wasn't the case. They largely ran straight lines with no more than two cuts before the first Cowboys special teamer contacted them 30 yards up the field.
The field possession battle was going to be crucial in a road game against a good Lions team that had its back against the wall. The Cowboys lost it in a landslide. Detroit scored on eight different possessions. None of those drives was longer than 60 yards. That can't happen.
The Cowboys had some self-inflicted wounds that certainly didn't help, and the defense has a lot of questions to answer. But allowing 32.6 yards per return on eight (!) attempts is inexcusable. Pair that with Turpin's sudden inefficiency and some serious conversations need to be had about Sorensen.