The Dallas Cowboys had 10 days to prepare for the Minnesota Vikings, a team that has already been eliminated from the playoffs and has one of the worst offenses in the NFL. Dallas allowed over 30 points for the seventh time this season as they played like the already-eliminated team, lacking aggressiveness and urgency in all aspects of the game.

None of the three phases played well enough. The defense remains the main weakness, but the offense was held to field goals too often, and even Brandon Aubrey missed two attempts. The overall takeaway from this loss is that the Cowboys weren’t good enough to make the playoffs, but here are some more refined details.

Matt Eberflus hasn’t been good enough

The team is tied for the most 30-point games allowed this season with the Cincinnati Bengals and the Las Vegas Raiders. Each time Dallas plays a struggling team, or a team with a quarterback who has been playing poorly, the Cowboys have been the “get right game”.

In Week 2, Russell Wilson had his best game in multiple years and was benched two weeks later, and it continued from there. Going into the game against the Vikings, J.J. McCarthy was the worst quarterback in the league in completion percentage, including to wide-open targets. Against Matt Eberflus’ scheme, McCarthy threw for 250 yards for the first time since college. He had two touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 108. Jerry Jones says he wants continuity on the coaching staff, but Eberflus might not have earned that privilege with his performance this season.

Dallas couldn’t get stops on fourth down

The Cowboys were actually good on third down defensively against the Vikings. Minnesota had only two conversions on nine third-down attempts, a 22% conversion rate. Unfortunately, they were a perfect 3-for-3 on fourth-down attempts. This led them to kick only two field goals while scoring four touchdowns. Two of the conversions were on touchdown drives, while the last took Minnesota into field goal range to seal the victory.

A poor redzone performance plagued Dallas again

Dallas ended up settling for six Aubrey field goal attempts on their drives, scoring touchdowns on only their first two red zone attempts.

The Cowboys didn’t convert for a touchdown the rest of the game, scoring only nine second-half points. The offense has been poor all year in the red zone, and it hit them again in the final three quarters. On the flip side, the Vikings scored three touchdowns on four red zone attempts. It’s hard to win a game when one team is scoring touchdowns at a 75% rate in the red zone and the other scores at a 40% rate. The red zone woes are one of the significant reasons the Cowboys aren’t making the playoffs in 2025.