National Football League

Daryl Johnston concerned with Cowboys' red-zone offense, maturity after Week 3 loss

Updated Sep. 26, 2023 5:47 p.m. ET

The Dallas Cowboys were on the wrong end of the biggest upset of the NFL season so far, falling to the Arizona Cardinals, 28-16.

As the score indicated, Dallas wasn't great on either side of the ball. It gave up 400 total yards to a Joshua Dobbs-quarterbacked offense, with 222 of the yards coming on the ground. Offensively, it moved the ball well, posting 416 total yards. But Dak Prescott threw an interception on the team's final drive, ending in another failed red-zone drive as it scored just one touchdown on five red-zone trips.

While the Cowboys are managing the loss of Trevon Diggs on defense, NFL on FOX analyst Daryl Johnston is more concerned by the offense's showing on Sunday. Johnston is particularly concerned about the Cowboys' red-zone offense, which is tied for fourth-worst in the league following Week 3.

"Red-zone offense because it's continual," Johnston, who called Sunday's game, said on the NFL on FOX podcast. "Not a lot of chances [in the red zone] in Week 1. [They went] 2-for-6 in Week 2 and 1-for-5 in Week 3. So, there's an issue there. Now, the red zone is probably one of the more challenging pieces of the offensive game plan, especially when you're talking about a new system, and some new players in there."

The red-zone woes for the Cowboys were at the top of the list of reasons why Johnston thought they lost on Sunday, but he thought there were "a lot of things you add into the mix for Dallas that happened to them." He mentioned quality control and assistant defensive line coach Sharrif Floyd's collapse during their Week 2 win over the Jets possibly affecting them from a mental standpoint.

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In between their Week 2 and Week 3 games, the Cowboys suffered a major loss on the field with Diggs tearing his ACL during practice on Thursday. He also cited the late-week injury to starting center Tyler Biadasz and the absence of starting left tackle Tyron Smith as other possible reasons. However, he recognized that the Cardinals have been without Budda Baker all season long and were without a pair of starters on their defensive line on Sunday.

So, while there might have been a fair amount of excuses for the loss, Johnston still thinks the Cowboys should've won on Sunday.

"I'm going to hold Dallas accountable," Johnston said. "You know, they didn't play well. That's all it is. You went out and you had a bad game, you had a bad performance. There's a lot of reasons why, but you've got to own that performance that you had on Sunday.

"It's just one of those days, we had to enter championship seasons. We were 8-1 and got beat by the 2-7 L.A. Rams at Texas Stadium. Sometimes you just go out you don't play well. And that's what Dallas did on Sunday. They went out and they didn't play well. There's some reasons why. But in the football world, those are just excuses."

Sunday's loss was certainly a harsh reality check for the Cowboys, who were widely viewed as a top-five team through the first two weeks of the season after winning their first two games by a combined 60 points.

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Johnston wondered if some of that smoke got to their heads.

"Maybe there was too much talk about Dallas through the first two weeks," Johnston said. "Maybe they're not mature enough right now to handle or wear that moniker of, ‘Hey, to heck with Kansas City, Philadelphia and San Francisco. This is the best team in the NFL right now.'"

But Johnston believes that their Week 4 matchup against the Patriots (4:25 p.m. ET on FOX and the FOX Sports app) gives them a big opportunity to erase the Week 3 loss as a major Week 5 tilt against the 49ers looms.

"Bouncing back from [bad losses] after the fact is the easy part if you've got the right team," Johnston said. "A good team always bounces back. It's a response-driven league. Whether that's Sunday-to-Sunday, quarter-to-quarter or drive-to-drive, how are you going to respond?

"The game of football is very response-driven. That's the biggest thing. I think, more than anything, it's about handling success. … I think it's more challenging to handle success."