The Dallas Cowboys 30-27 loss to the Carolina Panthers has the potential to be a back breaking blow for the team’s season, the type of game that teams and fans look back on and point to as the turning point. 

Going into the game, we laid out some keys to victory that Dallas should heed.Let’s take a look at those, and see how they affected the game. 

Don’t Let the Panthers Hang Around

This was the big one. To review, going into the game, Carolina had a -53 first half point differential, -46 in the second quarter, +36 in the second half, and +31 in the fourth quarter. 

In summation, they were very clearly not just a second half team, but a fourth quarter team. We talked about how Dallas had to finish drives while pulling away from Carolina because, if they let them hang around, the Panthers had shown the capability to make a run. 

So, what did Dallas do? They outscored Carolina in the second quarter but didn’t finish drives, kicking two field goals below 30 yards, while being outscored by seven points in the fourth quarter. 

These were extensions of patterns for both teams, and a microcosm of each squad’s seasons. Suffice it to say, this key was not followed.

Take Away Tetairoa McMillan

There are two ways to look at this one. On one hand, Dallas limited McMillan to his lowest yardage output of the season while tying his low mark for catches in a game. 

On the other hand, they surrendered his first two touchdowns of the year, both of which were surrendered after Donovan Wilson got turned around in coverage. 

The thought was that no other receiver had stepped up to such an extent that, if Dallas could limit McMillan, Carolina would be one dimensional that they couldn’t keep up offensively. But, Dallas couldn’t contain the rookie enough for that to be the case and therefore, we’ll say this key wasn’t followed. 

Continue to Work Jaydon Blue into the Offense

After making his NFL debut in Week 5 against the New York Jets, we were pounding the table for Blue to get more touches. This seemed even more likely after Miles Sanders was ruled out for the season. 

With the veteran sidelined for the rest of the campaign and Javonte Williams hurdling towards a career high in carries, it made sense to get a more dynamic, cost controlled complimentary back going. It would seem that Dallas didn’t agree. 

Yes, the ground game as a whole struggled, producing only 31 yards on 19 ineffective carries. But it was still surprising to see Blue receive only three of those carries, although his zero yards probably didn’t inspire confidence in his coaches. 

This seems like an imperfect storm of poor gameplanning from the staff and ineffectiveness from both the offensive line and Blue, something that had up until now not happened for the ground game. It’s likely that this a hiccup for what will continue to be a productive rushing attack but, for this week at least, this key was not followed.