Javonte Williams Gave Dallas a Start, but the Offense Never Found Its Rhythm

The first nine plays offered Dallas a tidy little blueprint. Dak Prescott opened with an incompletion, then found Javonte Williams for 8 yards and George Pickens for 8 more. Williams ran for 4, then burst through the middle for 21.

Prescott followed with a 21-yard completion to Pickens, and Tampa Bay’s penalties kept the Cowboys near the goal line. After a Williams run went nowhere and Prescott missed Pickens, Williams finished the 70-yard, nine-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown.

Then the offense became intermittent. The Cowboys lost 24-16 to Tampa Bay at AT&T Stadium on Thursday, dropping to 2-3. Dallas showed enough on its opening and late touchdown possessions to make the offense look viable. The problem was everything between those two bookends.

Williams carried 12 times for 45 yards and a touchdown. His 3.8-yard average was ordinary, but the early 21-yard run changed the opening field position and helped turn a promising start into seven points. He also caught passes for 8 and 9 yards, contributing to an attack that initially moved with balance rather than asking Prescott to solve every down through the air.

The challenge was sustaining that balance. Dallas finished with 50 rushing yards on 13 attempts, while Tampa Bay ran for 241. That gap explains why the Cowboys’ offense spent so much of the evening leaning on Prescott, but it does not support a lazy claim that Dallas simply abandoned Williams and hoped the passing game would rescue it.

The play sequence was more revealing. Williams lost 2 yards on a second-quarter carry, gained 7 on a third-quarter run and added 4 during the fourth-quarter touchdown drive. Those productive moments were present, just scattered.

Dallas produced five plays for 12 yards before one second-quarter punt, then another five-play, 12-yard possession before halftime. The run game was involved; it was rarely strong enough to keep the whole possession on schedule.

Turnovers widened the consequences. Tampa began the third quarter with a two-play, 86-yard touchdown drive: Bucky Irving ran 72 yards, and Emeka Egbuka scored on a 14-yard run. Dallas answered with a 41-yard march that included a 27-yard completion to Pickens, but Prescott’s pass intended for Ryan Flournoy was intercepted at the Tampa Bay 24.

The Buccaneers drove 75 yards from there, using Tez Johnson’s 64-yard reception before Irving finished the possession with a 1-yard touchdown.

KaVontae Turpin’s return fumble created a different kind of damage. Tampa recovered at the Dallas 37 and settled for a field goal, turning a special-teams mistake into three points. Dallas committed three turnovers; Tampa committed none.

The Cowboys did not need every possession to become a touchdown, but they could not keep handing Tampa extra chances while also struggling to produce first downs on the ground.

Prescott’s two interceptions require a fairer reading than a box-score verdict, though not an exemption from responsibility. Both passes deflected off the intended receivers’ hands. The first came after Dallas had advanced to the Tampa Bay 27, with the interception made at the Tampa Bay 24.

The second, aimed at Jake Ferguson, ended the Cowboys’ final serious threat at the Tampa Bay 12 with 1:16 left. Those deflections complicate the quarterback diagnosis; they do not alter the three-turnover total.

The late 99-yard drive showed why the earlier stalls were so frustrating. Starting at its own 1-yard line with 8:32 remaining, Dallas reached the end zone in 10 plays over 3:06. Prescott found Flournoy for 16 yards, Turpin for 15 and Pickens for gains of 13 and 20.

Williams added a 4-yard run, and Pickens completed the march with the touchdown. The failed two-point pass left Dallas down eight, but Tampa’s ensuing three-and-out gave the Cowboys another opportunity.

That final possession moved 52 yards in seven plays before Alex Anzalone intercepted a Ferguson-bound pass at the Tampa Bay 12. It included Flournoy’s 26-yard catch and another 9-yard completion to Pickens, enough movement to keep the comeback plausible without making it complete.

Dallas has a workable offensive outline. Williams can provide useful ground-and-passing contributions, and Prescott has explosive options around him. What Thursday lacked was continuity between the possessions that worked. That is a quieter problem than finding a miracle play, and probably the more important one for the next week of football.

Sources

ESPN: box score and play-by-play

Dallas Cowboys: game reporting

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: game report

Dallas Cowboys: game reporting