The Dallas Cowboys lost to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night. On one level this is very frustrating. However, on another and perhaps deeper level, it is worrying. It’s not that the loss itself was worrisome, but that it was so predictable and that the Cowboys fell out of contention in the second half is highly concerning.

Keep in mind that generally no one here believed in the Cowboys on Sunday night.

Right now, the Cowboys are a group that anyone can walk past, point at, and humiliate while the whole world watches. It’s a weekly tradition that we constantly find ourselves on the wrong end of.

This entire disposition is reflected in our current share report. Let’s get down to business.

Stock Down: Dak Prescott

There have been many arguments about the Dallas Cowboys quarterback and his merits in holding the position he holds, and that applies to Dak Prescott as well as his predecessor Tony Romo and everyone else who has had to wear the crown that Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman made it so difficult.

But this isn’t about pity or self-hatred. All arguments and debates aside, the general consensus (at least it’s better) is that Dak Prescott is playing bad football right now. Terrible.

There were a number of reasons why Dallas lost on Sunday night, but he was certainly the main reason why. It may be true that he has very little to work with (in general), but at the end of the day he has to find a way to succeed or at least not make the situation worse. Both of Prescott’s interceptions on Sunday night were inexcusable in every way. He now has a three-game streak with two or more interceptions (coincidentally including Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield), something the franchise hasn’t seen since Troy Aikman in 1992 (which was mentioned on the broadcast).

This season is a far cry from that and the Cowboys appear to be doing the exact opposite. The quarterback has to be better. Plain and simple.

Stock Down: Terence Steele

We can only say the same thing so many times, and we’ve stated numerous times that Terence Steele could be the weak link on the offensive line. Dealing with Nick Bosa is no easy task, but my goodness, Steele tried his hardest. This isn’t to take blame away from Dak Prescott, but the first interception came largely due to the pressure Steele put on Prescott (this doesn’t justify the poor decision).

The Cowboys currently cannot count on the second oldest member of their offensive line, a homegrown prospect who is on his second contract with the team.

Stock Down: John Fassel

All in all, the Dallas Cowboys had done it four Penalties for their kickoff team. They formed an incorrect formation twice, once when receiving and once when kicking off. Hey, at least they’re balanced.

Brandon Aubrey also had a mishap that resulted in San Francisco starting with the best field position, perhaps the least catastrophic of all four penalties, and also had an illegal forward pass from KaVontae Turpin.

In hindsight, you can say we just like John Fassel’s good aggressiveness, but this all veers back to the days of 2020 when he had his group flying at 100 miles per hour all the time. Aggression and creativity are good and trying to find a spark is noble, but if you are so undisciplined about it you will only do more harm than good.

Stock Down: KaVontae Turpin

Not only did Turpin have the illegal forward pass, but he also had one of the better passes of the night from Dak Prescott, which hit him where he should have caught it. Had Turpin hauled in that pass, who knows what would have happened, but he is a liability in some ways.

To be clear, this is not Turpin’s fault. It feels unfair to blame him specifically. While he offers the team an interesting variety and dynamic opportunity to work with and execute, giving him an enormous amount of responsibility was a risky proposition at best. This is one of the many reasons the front office’s offseason decisions were poor.

Stock Down: Ezekiel Elliott and Dalvin Cook

Once again, we can only say the same thing a lot, and at this point, Ezekiel Elliott simply isn’t offering anything of note to the offense. Keep in mind that he had his longest run of the season on Sunday night and it went for 11 yards.

This run was just one yard shy of Dalvin Cook’s total on the night as he had six carries for 12 yards. This author never felt like he was going to save the day, but it was understandable that people felt the need to just do something different. Like Turpin, building a house on this foundation was a bold decision.

Stock Down: Eric Kendricks

It seemed pretty obvious that Kyle Shanahan wanted to attack Eric Kendricks with movement and creating certain favorable matchups.

Similar to our last few points, it’s hard to really blame Kendricks; However, he was the primary free agent (to use that word loosely) the team signed in the offseason and he has the best understanding of Mike Zimmer’s overall operation. It’s fair to have high expectations of him and he didn’t live up to them on Sunday night.

Stock Down: Donovan Wilson

We’ve seen quite a crash here. Donovan Wilson lacks coverage and occasionally delivers a big hit to make up for it, making it all seem like the worst days of the Dallas Cowboys defense that we’ll have a hard time forgetting. On one of George Kittle’s big runs after the catch in that game, he had a cutback that took forever, but he still caught Wilson off guard and kept him in the hunt. Another second contract.

Static Stock: Trevon Diggs

It’s hard to say that any Dallas Cowboys defenseman had a good game, but Trevon Diggs was pretty physical throughout the game, which was good to see. He has obviously faced criticism in the past for not having this quality.

But all of that goodwill was suddenly dashed after the game when Trevon confronted Mike Leslie of WFAA about a tweet Mike made during the game. This wasn’t the first time this season that a member of the Cowboys organization has attacked a member of the media, which is representative of the standard Jerry Jones set when he threatened the radio hosts two weeks ago.

From a football standpoint, Trevon Diggs was more than good on Sunday night. Unfortunately, this team shows us that there are many things that have nothing to do with football.

Stock up: Chauncey Golston

This may have been the best game Chauncey Golston played for the Dallas Cowboys. It’s a shame it got lost in all the chaos. He was tough, physical and one of the few players who stood his ground.

Stock up: CeeDee lamb

People will say that a lot of Lamb’s work was done in the “garbage era,” and I don’t really know what to say about that at this point. I don’t entirely disagree, times are just strange. He showed fighting spirit in a way that people didn’t doubt he could. That’s a positive thing.