Clinched But Crushed: Buffalo Bills Pound Playoff-Bound Dallas Cowboys, 31-10

Transcript

00:00 The Dallas Cowboys went into Sunday afternoon at Buffalo knowing that they had clinched

00:07 a playoff spot.

00:09 Congratulations.

00:10 And maybe as a result of that played anything like a playoff team.

00:14 Cowboys lose 31 to 10 to the Buffalo Bills.

00:17 All kinds of credit to the Bills.

00:18 This is a desperation game for them, had to win it at home in order to try to remain in

00:23 playoff contention in the AFC.

00:25 And they did all things necessary.

00:27 Meanwhile, the Cowboys, who entered the game with talk about Dak Prescott as the MVP and

00:33 talk about Mike McCarthy as when we're going to get an extension and Micah Parsons, defensive

00:38 player of the year, put all that on hold after the Cowboys maybe worst performance of the

00:46 season.

00:47 A lot of this game taking place at Highmark in the pouring rain and the Cowboys reacted

00:51 poorly to all of that offensively and defensively.

00:55 Dak Prescott completes 21 of 34 passes, 134 yards and an interception.

01:01 His quarterback rating second lowest mark of the season at 57.7.

01:05 CeeDee Lamb, seven receptions for 53 yards, a rushing touchdown in garbage time.

01:10 I'm not sure the point of it.

01:12 Tony Pollard, 52 yards on 11 carries.

01:15 Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills did not rack up any big numbers.

01:19 Well, except for one guy.

01:21 Josh Allen completed just seven passes for 15, seven of 15 for 93 yards at a touchdown,

01:27 gets a score on the ground and then puts on a ball cap and we're done here.

01:32 The star of the show is James Cook, rushes for 221 yards and two touchdowns.

01:40 Latavius Murray added a rushing touchdown, but James Cook made it look like, oh my gosh,

01:46 why have the Bills ever thought about we need a running back?

01:49 Why haven't the Bills been a run first team more often?

01:52 And from a Cowboys perspective, oh, we can't stop the run anymore.

01:57 Forget blaming the referees, forget blaming the absence of Jonathan Hankins, the nose

02:04 tackle forget this idea that so many Cowboys had the flu.

02:08 They simply couldn't.

02:10 That's not the way this works.

02:11 The Cowboys collectively entered this game flat and exit this game flattened.

02:18 They are still going to the playoffs, but now because they lost the Eagles have also

02:23 cleansed the playoffs.

02:24 Eagles have a leg up in the NFC East 49ers, a leg up in the NFC and it doesn't get any

02:30 easier for Dallas.

02:31 They come home with their tail between their legs and then go on the road again.

02:35 And by the way, and we've pointed this out a lot, the last two years, the Dallas Cowboys,

02:39 as good as they've been overall are a mediocre or worse road team on Christmas Eve.

02:46 They're at Miami with the Cowboys covering the NFL fish out.