Joe Mixon scored three touchdowns as the Houston Texans inflicted more misery on the Dallas Cowboys on MNF.
Mixon led a potent Texans offense and their defense did the rest as they got about Dallas’ stand-in quarterback Cooper Rush.
Rush, deputising for the injured Dak Prescott, was sacked five times, with the Texans also scoring on a strip sack.
It amounted to a 34-10 loss for a Cowboys team who were fancied for a deep postseason run at the start of the season but who now sit with a dismal 3-7 record.
It was their fifth straight loss, their worst run since 2015, and the first time they have lost their first five at home in a single season since 1989.
A hat trick for @Joe_MainMixon‼️
📺: ESPN/ABC pic.twitter.com/1Eus6nVJgj
— Houston Texans (@HoustonTexans) November 19, 2024
McCarthy admits frustration
Under-pressure coach Mike McCarthy is out of contract at the end of the season and looked like a man who knew the clock was ticking.
“I think it’s very frustrating. It’s frustrating for everybody. Frustrating for the players, frustrating for the coaches. I know it’s disappointing for the fans,” McCarthy said.
“But we just, we have a lot of moving parts going on, and we just have to be cleaner and more detailed in certain spots. We’re not playing well enough, not executing well enough, coaching well enough to overcome some of the mistakes we’re making in critical times of the game.”
Not all doom and gloom
Despite the repeated setbacks, McCarthy maintains there are good things happening behind the scenes, adding: “I feel in times of adversity, the confirmation comes into what you know from your past experiences but also just trust the people in the room, the people that are doing the work. And I do.
”I believe in this locker room. Our leadership, most of it has been injured. There is good coming out of this. You don’t see it because we’re not winning games, but there’s young men that are getting an opportunity to do more. And I do believe that will pay forward. It needs to hurry the hell up because we need it in six days. But this is just the reality of what we’re going through.
“I do believe because not only what they do for the organization but the energy and the effort they give me. I have every reason to believe that we can play better.”
Next up is a meeting with the Washington Commanders before a Thanksgiving clash against the equally woeful New York Giants.
Mathematically, the Cowboys aren’t out of playoff contention and McCarthy is still clinging to hope.
We gotta go – McCarthy
“This is it, man,” he said. “We’ve got seven losses. We gotta go. Backs against the wall. Gotta fight, claw, scratch. Gotta do everything we can to go win the next game. That’s where my mind’s at. That’s the way we coach and that’s the expectation. We gotta win. We deserve to win. We deserve the opportunity to win and that’s about putting the best people out there. Right now they’re young. Those guys, our young guys are getting a lot of experience.
“But we need to do whatever the hell we need to do to win.”
