Broncos felt Cowboys early fourth-down attempts were 'disrespectful'

Denver Broncos wide receiver Tim Patrick felt disrespected by the Dallas Cowboys’ play calling early in Sunday’s contest, as he felt the heavily-favored Cowboys were writing off the Broncos in Dallas.

The Cowboys ended up losing to the previously sub-.500 Broncos, 30-16, perhaps proving Patrick’s point — maybe Dallas had no right to treat Denver as a lowly opponent.

It started early on the Cowboys’ first drive of the game, when the Cowboys took a possession into the Broncos’ side of the field. On fourth-and-1, however, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy opted not to go for the 55-yard field goal; instead, he sent Ezekiel Elliott up the gut on a fourth-down conversion attempt, but he was stuffed in the backfield by safety Justin Simmons. That wasn’t the only play that Patrick pointed to, either.

The Cowboys’ defense responded by forcing a three-and-out, and on the ensuing possession, McCarthy again passed up a field-goal attempt. He let Dak Prescott throw an errant pass on fourth-and-2, gifting Denver with another possession.

“Disrespectful,” Patrick said simply of the Cowboys’ repeated decision to go for it on fourth down. “That s— disrespectful. They trying us. And that’s what happens when you try us.”

The Cowboys tried the Broncos time and time again, but to no avail — as Patrick alluded, a loss the likes of Sunday’s game is what happens when Dallas challenged Denver.

“You take the field with a little anger, honestly,” Broncos’ quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said, echoing Patrick. “It’s like, ‘Hey, man, they’re going for it because they’re saying our offense is not going to score or something.’ We talked about it in the huddle, and we used it as motivation. … It’s one of those deals where you take the field and OK, you have a little added motivation to it. You can see that today.”

Jerry Jones gives harsh assessment of Dallas Cowboys’ loss

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was not pleased with Dallas’ effort in Sunday’s lopsided home loss, labeling their play “inexcusable.”

“I thought they had a good plan against Dak [Prescott] and executed it well. We needed some plays to happen,” Jones said. “Certainly it’s inexplicable. … They played an outstanding football game against what we think is a good football team, and that’s the Dallas Cowboys.”

The Cowboys ended up losing 30-16. Despite having star quarterback Dak Prescott back from injury, Dallas showed no fight in the game Sunday, scoring all 16 of their points — both off passing touchdowns to wide receiver Malik Turner — in the fourth quarter. Prescott completed 19 of his 39 passing attempts for 232 passing yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

With the loss, the Cowboys — previously on a record-setting streak — had it snapped on Sunday. They entered the game with eight consecutive home games scoring at least 35 points with Prescott as their starting quarterback, the longest such streak in NFL history between a franchise and any quarterback. The Broncos held the Cowboys scoreless until the fourth quarter and even then, the Cowboys garbage-time touchdowns hardly meant anything, as the game was far out of reach.