What’s going on with the Dallas Cowboys offense?

The Dallas Cowboys offense has been the champion horse for a few years and with Dak Prescott reaching new heights as a quarterback, the expectation was this is only the beginning of what should be an entertaining next few seasons. For the most part this season, that’s held true. In fact, Steven Ruiz of the Ringer wrote about how Kellen Moore’s offense is everything the NFL isn’t doing in today’s game.

But it’s been fairly discouraging to see that in three of the last four games, ironically all against the AFC West, the Cowboys’ offense has looked incredibly pedestrian against the Denver Broncos,  Kansas City Chiefs, and Las Vegas Raiders. Obviously, things were different in the final quarter of the Las Vegas game, but for the most part, the offense has struggled to move the ball at the same rate it did at the start of the season.

What’s been going on with the Dallas Cowboys’ offense?

Here’s a quick summary of all three losses:

Against Denver, the Cowboys’ offensive line didn’t put up a fight against the Broncos’ high motor defensive line. Vic Fangio’s defenses are typically super aggressive, but their willingness to seal the line of scrimmage with as many people as they could to prevent the Cowboys from gaining any momentum in the game until the very end.

Against Kansas City, the Cowboys once again looked like they lacked energy. Kansas City was willingly pressing them all game while constantly stacking the box with 7 or more defenders on early downs to combat early-down runs. With CeeDee Lamb in the game, the team struggled to generate a passing attack; that didn’t change when he sat out with his injury.

Against Las Vegas, there was a lot that went wrong. Offensively, the team tried to emphasize running the ball early in the game and Dak Prescott couldn’t establish a rhythm until the second half. There were some bad drops and an exorbitant amount of penalties, the Cowboys couldn’t take advantage of Las Vegas’s lighter boxes in part because they refuse to play their best five offensive linemen.

With the AFC West behind the team, what does Dallas need to beat in order to return to the offense that whooped Atlanta at home? With New Orleans Washington up next, how do the Cowboys get things rolling against both teams with losing records?