o Washington. They had a bad performance from their offense once more as the road continued to be terribly hostile to them. The Cowboys mounted a last minute charge [url=http://www.authenticsdallascowboys.com/cheap-tyrone-crawford-jersey]http://www.authenticsdallascowboys.com/cheap-tyrone-crawford-jersey[/url] , only to miss out on sending the game to overtime by mere inches.The table was set for this game by the defeat of the Philadelphia Eagles by the Carolina Panthers in the early slot. The come-from-ahead loss, where the Eagles gave up a 17 point lead in the fourth quarter, meant that the winner of this game would be all alone in first place in the NFC East. It came down to who wanted the division lead the most.But that turned out to be Washington, who dominated the line of scrimmage all day. Speaking of which, Adrian Peterson lived up to his AD nickname, getting almost 100 yards while Ezekiel Elliott was stymied, only totaling 31 yards on 14 carries. Dak Prescott was under constant pressure, including the back-breaking strip-sack touchdown given up late in the fourth quarter, while Alex Smith was only sacked once by the Dallas pass rush. It was a continuation of the road woes that have plagued the Cowboys all season. There were clear breakdowns in communication on the offensive line, and multiple big plays for Dallas were called back by holding penalties. After showing so much promise in the win last week, things reverted back to the bad, and once again this looks like an 8-8 team, at best.There was a brief flurry by the offense as time wound down in the game, including converting a fourth and 13 on a pass to Blake Jarwin. But it took too many plays to score, leaving only 1:37 on the clock. The drive was gritty and determined, but also too little and too late. Dallas managed to get it down to a field goal attempt, but a false start added five yards to the attempt, and Brett Maher doinked it off the upright. The Cowboys got off to a bad start in the game. On their first possession, a 22 yard run by Dak Prescott was wiped out by a Tyron Smith hold, and Dallas wound up punting. Washington took advantage of an uncharacteristically bad punt by Chris Jones to quickly march in, getting a 23 yard touchdown on a screen pass to Kapri Bibbs. Things kept going badly as Elliott struggled to gain yards, then on fourth and one, the ball was knocked loose from Prescott just as he got the first down, giving Washington the ball on the Cowboys’ 45 yard line. There was a very scary moment late in the first quarter as Prescott tried to run for the first down sticks and took a blow right to the head on the sidelines just short of the sticks. He had to go through the concussion protocol, but was cleared and returned to the game on the Cowboys’ next series, and threw a 22 yard strike to Michael Gallup on his next pass. And on a third and four play, he showed he was not afraid to run after his hit [url=http://www.authenticsdallascowboys.com/cheap-kavon-frazier-jersey]http://www.authenticsdallascowboys.com/cheap-kavon-frazier-jersey[/url] , diving to get the first down on a scramble. Meanwhile, Sean Lee returned to the field after missing three games due to injury and looked back to his normal self, snuffing out a screen play early in the second quarter to help stop Washington. That is perhaps even more important after Leighton Vander Esch left the field with an injury in the second half.However, the struggles were real for the Cowboys. Smith continued to struggle as he and Connor Williams were still having communications issues. Penalties kept hurting Dallas, and even Chris Jones was having a bad day with short punts or putting them into the end zone for touchbacks. Meanwhile, Peterson looked like he was 23, not 33, at times, making something out of nothing and putting some wicked moves on Dallas defenders. Pass protection was also in the home team’s favor in the first half, as Prescott was sacked while Smith wasn’t. An indication of how self-inflicted the damage was for the Cowboys was that they controlled the ball in the first half, notching a 17:07 to 12:53 advantage in time of possession, and limiting Washington to only one third down conversion in the first two quarters.But inside the two minute warning of the first half, the offense finally came alive. After Elliott barely converted a third and one, Dak got some protection and hit a streaking Michael Gallup down the left side for a 49 yard touchdown to even things up at 7-7 with a minute left to play. After having far too many mistakes, and Washington just missing on a couple of touchdown throws as the first half wound down, Dallas went into halftime tied, with the division lead still up for grabs.The Cowboys quickly let the momentum from the Gallup touchdown dissipate in the second half. First, Washington got the ball on the kickoff and drove down for a field goal. Dallas would be totally ineffective on offense, only running six plays in the third quarter as the pass rush kept the pressure on Prescott and Elliott continued to struggle. Then Washington would add another three points early in the fourth, but again the defense held in the red zone to prevent a touchdown. According to the CBS announcers, that made seven consecutive times the Cowboys’ defense has held opponents to just a field goal on red zone trips. Finally, Dallas got a little something going on offense to set up Brett Maher for his own 47 yard field goal. Then on the next Washington series, Sean Lee showed up again, to stop an option play that had worked earlier for and get the ball back for the offense with 6:18 left in the game. But disaster would strike. After a third down conversion to Cole Beasley was called back on a hold by Connor Williams, Dak would get sacked on the goal line and stripped of the ball, which was recovered for a touchdown by Preston Smith. That pushed the lead to ten points with not enough time for the Cowboys to come back. It was another road flop for Dallas, and a golden opportunity squandered. In case you missed it [url=http://www.authenticsdallascowboys.com/cheap-travis-frederick-jersey]Youth Travis Frederick Jersey[/url] , Amari Cooper is a Dallas Cowboy now. The former standout wide receiver from Alabama was taken fourth overall in the 2015 NFL draft by the Oakland Raiders. He quickly became their best receiver, topping 1,000 yards receiving in his first two years. However, Cooper’s production has fallen off in the last two seasons, leading some to make assumptions that he’s not a good receiver anymore. Let’s take a look at what exactly happened in order to try and determine if Cooper can be successful again in Dallas. Cooper’s first year in Oakland was also the first year for newly hired head coach Jack Del Rio. He took over a team that went 3-13 the year before and had averaged just 15.8 points per game. They had their franchise quarterback in Derek Carr, but nobody to throw to, so they took Cooper. He entered the draft from Alabama, where he had been an All-American and Heisman finalist in addition to winning the Biletnikoff Award and SEC Offensive Player of the Year. There was a lot of excitement around him, and former NFL GM Phil Savage compared him to Marvin Harrison. In his rookie year, Cooper was installed as the top receiving target from the start. New offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave quickly developed the connection between Carr and Cooper, and took advantage of his rookie receiver’s talents. Cooper was targeted 130 times that year, and he caught 72 of them for 1,070 yards and six touchdowns. He averaged nearly 15 yards per reception. In his second season, Cooper sought to become more efficient, and did so. He upped his catch percentage from 55.4% to 62.9% with only two more targets than his rookie year. He put up 83 receptions for 1,153 yards and five touchdowns. His yards per catch dropped to 13.9, which was to be expected after his impressive rookie mark. Cooper’s growth in his second season helped power the Raiders to a 12-4 record and their first playoff appearance since 2002, but an injury to Carr led to their loss in the Wild Card game. Still, Cooper was selected to the Pro Bowl for his efforts. After the season, though, the Raiders made a head scratching decision in letting Musgrave go and promoting quarterbacks coach Todd Downing to offensive coordinator, his first time calling plays. As a result, the Raiders’ offense stagnated and Cooper’s involvement in the game plan was specifically diminished. Carr was also slow to return from his injury, and a number of his passing stats were down from the previous year, most notably that his quarterback rating was the worst since his rookie year. As a result of all of this, Cooper’s targets dropped to 96, a 27% decrease in his targets from his first two years. Cooper was also less efficient [url=http://www.authenticsdallascowboys.com/cheap-cole-beasley-jersey]Youth Cole Beasley Jersey[/url] , catching 50% of his passes for 680 yards, but he did increase his average yards per catch to 14.2. Cooper also set a career high in touchdowns with seven. Three of those touchdowns came in the red zone despite Cooper only being targeted on 18.9% of red zone pass plays. By comparison, the Miami Dolphins targeted Jarvis Landry on 30.3% of their red zone pass plays and he came up with nine touchdowns that year. Despite his decrease in usage, Cooper was still one of the best after the catch. According to Football Outsiders’ YAC + ratings, Cooper was fifth in the league in YAC +, which seeks to estimate how many yards after the catch each receiver gained compared to the average receiver’s expected output. Now in 2018, Cooper has another new offensive coordinator in Greg Olson, though head coach Jon Gruden calls the plays. And through six games, Cooper wasn’t used much at all. He only had three targets in the season opener, and only two total targets in his last two games. There were two games where he received double-digit targets: against Denver, where he was targeted 10 times and caught all 10 passes for 116 yards, and against Cleveland when he was targeted 12 times and caught eight of them for 128 yards and his lone touchdown of the year so far. On the whole, Cooper is catching 68.8% of passes thrown his way this season, which is higher than any of his previous seasons. The Raiders have many other problems right now as well, particularly on offense. They’re only averaging 18.3 points per game and their rushing attack is 25th in the league. In 2016, Cooper’s best season, the Raiders had the sixth best ground game. That seemed to open things up more in the passing game, and an offense that prioritized Cooper as the top receiving threat allowed him to flourish. Now in Dallas, he’ll find an offense that currently boasts the third best rushing offense despite being manhandled in that aspect of the game on Sunday. Cooper may not get as many targets as he did his first two years in Oakland - in fact, he almost certainly won’t - but he can become the go-to guy for an offense that lacks any such player. At the very least, Cooper’s presence can draw attention from defensive backs and open things up for the likes of Cole Beasley and Michael Gallup. A lot of this depends on Dak Prescott’s chemistry with Cooper, but he has the route running ability to thrive in this offense and set the team back on track. As for his low numbers in Oakland, it seems that this was mostly due to coaches who decided to use their number one receiver significantly less than normal. It would seem that the Cowboys’ best bet to make this work is to do what Bill Musgrave did in 2015 and 2016: feed Amari Cooper.