Every week, Dallas Cowboys fans hope the defense will finally deliver, but once again, it didn’t. The team fell 44-24 to the Denver Broncos, struggling on both sides of the ball. But it was the penalties that hurt Brian Schottenheimer the most today.

The head coach was pretty composed throughout the post-game presser, but he got pretty blunt when asked about the penalties. “Yeah, absolutely. Presnap penalties (for example), that’s a discipline thing, you know?” he said.

“That’s something that needs to be looked at. Everything will be evaluated. I can promise you that everything will be evaluated,” he remarked. And it was about time he addressed it. Penalties have been a lingering issue, but tonight, Schottenheimer may have reached his breaking point.

Penalties absolutely killed the Cowboys against the Broncos. You can’t afford pre-snap mistakes when your defense is already giving up over 40 points, and yet, they did. Denver had their share of penalties too (seven for 42 yards), but Dallas topped that with nine for 80 yards. It was frustrating.

This has been a recurring issue all season. Coming into the game, the Cowboys were averaging around 8 penalties per week, and that number keeps creeping up. They committed multiple pre-snap mistakes again on Sunday, including a false start on third-and-goal from the one-yard line during the opening drive.

“To have six pre-snap penalties on the offense is awful, and it’s not going to be accepted. We’re not going to allow that to happen,” Schottenheimer said after the 31-21 loss to the Rams. But clearly, nothing has changed. The same issues, the same excuses, and the same results persist.

But of course, as frustrating as the penalties were, the issues stretched far beyond them. We saw the same old cracks that we’ve gotten accustomed to this season.

Cowboys were poor on both sides of the ball

The truth is, the Cowboys’ defense simply isn’t strong enough to compete at this level. Even when fully healthy, it’s a shaky unit. So when multiple starters in the secondary are missing, things unravel quickly. The Cowboys were already down three defensive backs due to injuries, and then lost safety Alijah Clark in the second half to a rib issue, and it showed.

The Broncos racked up 427 total yards. The Cowboys’ pass rush vanished; no sacks, just one quarterback hit on Bo Nix all afternoon. And when your defense is giving up 44 points, your offense needs to carry some weight. That didn’t happen either.

Quarterback Dak Prescott turned in his worst performance of the year. 19 completions on 31 attempts for 188 yards, no touchdowns, and two picks. He was under pressure most of the day, but that’s hardly an excuse. By the fourth quarter, the game was so far gone that Joe Milton came in to finish things off.

Bo Nix might’ve had the game of his career. Despite a couple of early mistakes, he finished 19-for-29 for 247 yards and four touchdowns. That stat line alone tells you everything about how bad the Cowboys’ defense was. The run defense was especially bad.

Denver gashed them for 179 rushing yards, averaged nearly seven yards per play, and scored their highest point total since 2018. It was a full-on collapse.

There’s a lot for Brian Schottenheimer to fix, and fast. The Cowboys’ playoff hopes are slipping further away each week, and unless something drastically changes, this team is going to keep finding new ways to disappoint its fans.