Dallas Cowboys 2021 NFL Season Analysis

The Dallas Cowboys finished their season with the NFC East divisional title and qualified for the Playoffs, but were immediately eliminated in the Wild Card Round, so in the end their season can be described (again) as a disappointment.

The 12-5 record feels otherwise misleading and the thunderous One and done leaves many more questions than answers around Mike McCarthy and his squad.

The 2021 Cowboys season

This was a very noisy year for the Cowboys. Great moments, great statistics at the individual level; but equally big falls and disappointments as a team, especially at the end.

They opened facing the Buccaneers. Usually the team facing the most recent champion looks like the victim, but the Cowboys closed the game on the Bucs to end the loss anyway. Regardless, there were nice feelings about how good the team looked.

From the second to the eighth week, they had six wins against the Chargers, Eagles, Panthers, Giants, Patriots and Vikings. In this period the emotion filled the team and its fans alike because they were showing a great level of football. The offense averaged more than 32 points and defensively they allowed less than 22.

Right around that time, they realized they had something special in a couple of players: Rookie Micah Parsons became a sensation lining up all over the defense, getting pressures, sacks, tackles and forced fumbles. For his part, second-year cornerback Trevon Diggs had seven interceptions in the first eight games of the season.

From the following week the problems began, since a game that seemed manageable against the Broncos got out of control very soon and they ended up losing by blowout, thus beginning a streak in which they won only one of four games.

This bump had all kinds of complications, from injuries to CeeDee Lamb, COVID to Amari Cooper, an offensive line that changed starters due to injuries or to get their best version, and inefficiencies in general that raised all kinds of questions around the team.

The following four games were consecutive victories with which they tried to silence the critics (Saints, Washington twice and Giants) and put the team with a record of 11-4 and the division title assured, with two weeks of the regular season still to play.

In the penultimate game they faltered again when they were defeated at home by Arizona and closed the season beating the third team of Philadelphia, which rested practically all its relevant players knowing they qualified for the Playoffs.

The 2021 NFL season delivered a team with a QB who threw for 4,000+ yards (Prescott), running back (Elliott) and receiver (Lamb) with 1,000+ yards, a defensive back with 100+ tackles (Jayron Kearse), one player with more than 10 sacks (Parsons) and another with more than 10 interceptions (Diggs).

For talent and individual performance, the above would be enough to suggest a totally dominant team for whoever faced him; however, they never passed the eye test as a team at the level their numbers indicated.

The postseason arrived and they received the 49ers in the Wild Card Round, only to go out for a game that exposed all the recurring failures and alarms in the regular season: constant punishments that killed their offenses or extended those of the rival, obvious coaching errors , an offensive line that lives on its fame, but today leaves much to be desired, passes released by their receivers due to lack of concentration, a ground game that goes nowhere, among others.

Thus, the season ended in the midst of voices indicating the possibility that the Joneses, owners of the team, could make the decision to run Mike McCarthy as head coach just two seasons in the position.

A season of a lot of noise and few team results. Again.

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The MVP of the 2021 season of Dallas

LB Micah Parsons

When he was selected in the 11th pick of the first round of the 2021 Draft, there were those who thought that they had to “settle” for him by not having gotten Patrick Surtain II or Jaycee Horn, the two cornerbacks who looked like the main targets of this team.

Pretty soon this prospect went out the window, Parsons becoming the most important player on the Cowboys’ defense. The linebacker tag eventually was just that, as Dan Quinn realized he could use it for a variety of roles ranging from chasing the running game, shooting the QB and even lining him up on the end of the line of scrimmage. What pass rusher pure and appointed.

He finished the season as the leader in sacks with 13 (more than double the next player), 84 tackles (20 of them for loss) and 3 forced fumbles.

The impact he had on the team in general and on the defense in particular made him the clearest candidate for Defensive Rookie of the Year, with many even mentioning him in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year.

The best moment of the Cowboys’ 2021 season

Weeks 6-8 were the high point of the Cowboys’ season. They came to face the Patriots on the road to seek their first victory in New England since 1996.

The game was close and the Cowboys ended up prevailing in Overtime with Dak Prescott’s TD pass to a completely unmarked CeeDee Lamb.

The problem was that, precisely on that play, Prescott injured his calf, a problem that would plague him constantly. In his favor, the bye week was coming and apparently there was time to recover. However, it was decided at the last minute that Dak would not play the week 8 game against the Vikings and at M&T Bank Stadium.

Thus, Cooper Rush was the QB that guided the team and, in the offensive series of the final minutes, with a pass to the corner of the end zone, he found Amari Cooper. The Cowboys ended up recording their sixth straight win of the season.

The notion that even without their starting QB this was a team that could win raised expectations even higher.

The worst moment of the 2021 Dallas Season

Just a week after the highest peak, the lowest valley came. In Week 9, the Denver Broncos visited the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in a matchup that featured two teams at diametrically opposed times.

The game marked Dak’s return after a week-long absence, and the team was poised to complete one more feat: beating the Broncos for the first time since 1995.

What nobody counted on was that the team would not come out to play. The dominance of the Broncos was total; in all phases of the game and for almost 60 minutes of the game, except for a few yards and points in junk time.

Wearing the red line on the helmet, typical of the uniform of the seventies, the team was erased from the field of play and that loss led to a losing streak in which they suffered three defeats in four games.

What is expected of the Cowboys in 2022?

The changes will not wait during the offseason, especially since their two main coordinators, Dan Quinn and Matt Moore, have great possibilities of becoming head coaches in another team for the good work they did with their respective units. This implies that we will see movements in the coaching staff.

Whether Mike McCarthy will continue to lead or not remains to be seen, but all signs point to his staying. Should the team get a new defensive coordinator, it will be important that he be able to maximize the potential of Micah Parsons and maintain the great pace this unit achieved throughout the season.

On offense, it looks like, with or without Moore, they will continue to focus on Dak Prescott. The relevant thing will be to get reinforcements in the offensive line, which is becoming more of a weakness than a strength.

The team has the 24th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, and it’s a range where you’ll be able to find good talent at whatever position you prefer. However, with a long list of players set to become free agents in March, led by Dalton Schultz, Michael Gallup, Randy Gregory and Leighton Vander Esch, the job will be tough and the chances of the roster improving after 2021 are slim.

Do not miss the analysis of the 2021 NFL Season of all the teams: