Cowboys Struggle To Explain George Pickens 'Disappearing Act'

Last week the criticism was loud as it regarded George Pickens' performance for the Dallas Cowboys in the loss to the Detroit Lions, and we get the sense the volume might be turned up this coming week after the 34-26 loss to the Minnesota Vikings at AT&T Stadium on Sunday night.

Pickens would only catch three passes for 33 yards as Minnesota coordinator Brian Flores' defense essentially took away No. 3 from Dak Prescott.

You could argue that George was largely anonymous for the entire game, and indeed our Cowboys insider Mike Fisher reviews Pickens work here as "a disappearing act.''

CeeDee Lamb (six catches, 111 yards) picked up the slack in the passing game. And Ryan Flournoy (four catches, 40 yards) helped, too. ... but outside of that, there wasn't much to get excited about.

And considering the anti-GP noise last week, the Cowboys would surely have known that it would be in their best interest to get Pickens the ball - we figured, "early and often.''

But just one catch in the first half won't cut it.

Then only two the rest of the way isn't going to cut it.

What is coach Brian Schottenheimer's explanation for it all?

"A lot of Cover-2, a lot of technique things, they change their coverage up a lot," Schottenheimer said on how the Vikings took George away. "There was a plan to limit our explosives, I think he had six targets and only three catches, and that's not enough, that starts with me, and the offensive staff.

"We've got to find ways to get him the ball better."

Wait. "Cover-2''? That's it? That's the solution to making GP look so pedestrian? We're going to opine here that Schottenheimer's explanation is about as weak as Pickens' two-game production.

This now marks the first stretch of tough times for Pickens since arriving in Dallas via last spring's controversial (and largely successful) trade.

A fan fave and a media darling (and rightfully so) around here for the first 12 weeks, Pickens was phenomenal, as he only had one game under 57 yards.

But in the last two weeks, it's happened twice.

Just 37 and 33 yards from a player looked at as a co-No. 1 receiver isn't enough, especially one that we assume wants to be paid in excess of $30 million APY s he enters free agency in the offseason.

Fisher reports that Dallas' ultimate plan is to franchise-tag Pickens at $28 million ... a way to buy some more time to make more judgments.

We can see the logic of that even more clearly in these last two weeks.

The Cowboys needed Pickens and for the second straight week, he was completely taken out of the game.

The next three are going to be rather interesting to see how this narrative works its way through Dallas. ... and the next three months will be compelling as well.