In Week 14 against the Detroit Lions, the Dallas Cowboys had two receivers who topped 100 yards, but the one who mattered most was nowhere to be found. George Pickens just couldn’t get going on Thursday night. And the reason’s pretty simple: Pickens usually eats on slant routes, but Detroit sat on those all game. With his go-to stuff taken away, his entire night fell flat, and so did his impact.

“They were sitting on the slant. I still caught a slant contested, they said it was PI on me. Caught a slant later in the game. Two of those slants just didn’t go our way, whether it was the call or play. A lot of stuff just didn’t go our way,” the wideout said.

Pickens looked annoyed after the game, and understandably so. The Cowboys leaned hard on quick-game stuff to slow down Detroit’s pass rush, but once those slants and in-breakers got smothered, the whole idea fell apart. Detroit’s defense flat-out jumped his slants, as the receiver was also penalized a couple of times. He even hauled in one contested slant, only for it to get wiped out by an offensive pass interference (OPI) call. Another slant later worked, but the comfort and rhythm he usually finds on that route simply never showed up.

George Pickens finished with just five catches on nine targets for 37 yards. It’s his second-lowest output of the season and a massive drop from the 378 yards he’d piled up over the previous three weeks. Heading into Week 14, Pickens had 19 catches for 292 yards on slants, per Next Gen Stats, both the most in the entire league. Even in the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving win over the Kansas City Chiefs, he racked up 73 slant yards alone, the most any receiver has posted in a single game this season.

“I got the go-ball, the stop route, slant. And now they’re kind of focusing on the slant, and I still got the go-ball. There’s a lot of stuff,” Pickens said earlier this week.

But against Detroit, none of it clicked. George Pickens’ routes felt out of sync; the production wasn’t there. And the version of Pickens we’ve seen dominate all season just didn’t show up. And he wasn’t the only frustrated one. The Cowboys’ first-year head coach, Brian Schottenheimer, didn’t hide his disappointment after watching the Cowboys’ poor performance.

Brian Schottenheimer addressed the Cowboys’ major struggles

The Cowboys rolled into Week 14 riding a three-game winning streak. And just when it looked like they were finally building momentum, everything fell apart, be it the defense or the special teams unit. Coach Brian Schottenheimer didn’t hold back either, calling out every major issue that fed into the Cowboys’ 44–30 loss.

“We certainly didn’t cover very well. I thought that kind of flipped the field, gave them a bunch of short fields, and we have to look at why that was. And we’ll do that, certainly an area for us to clean up,” the HC said, addressing the special teams. And you can tell why.

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Dallas’ special teams gave up 261 yards, and returner KaVontae Turpin delivered a brutal mistake. We’re talking about an invalid fair-catch penalty in the first quarter. After the game, Coach Schotty didn’t sugarcoat it:

“Turpin knows better than that. That’s pretty simple, just don’t do it. If you put the hand up, don’t run.”

The Cowboys didn’t help themselves elsewhere either. They turned the ball over three times, gifting the Lions 14 points off two interceptions and a costly fumble. The offense moved the ball, sure, but couldn’t keep Detroit from getting after Dak Prescott (31-of-47 for 361 yards and a touchdown), who was sacked five times.

And defensively, Dallas never found an answer. The unit allowed four rushing touchdowns, including three from Jahmyr Gibbs, and let Jared Goff go 25-of-34 for 309 yards and one touchdown. No surprise, Schottenheimer’s frustration was written all over him. With their playoff hopes still hanging on, the Cowboys now turn the page to a must-win matchup against the Minnesota Vikings next week.