There was reportedly a football game taking place at AT&T Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Someone should have let the Cowboys know so they could show up.

Seriously, this game was about as terrible for the Cowboys as anyone could have predicted. There was plenty of hype surrounding this matchup, the third straight year the Lions traveled to Dallas and the Cowboys sought their third straight win. Last year's duel was of course exciting and ended in controversy. This game promised to be full of fireworks.

It was actually full of fireworks. But only on the Lions side, who dominated this game almost from the start. Dallas won the toss and elected to take the ball early in the game, as they had done for the past few weeks. The offense got off to a good start, but like this year, the drive fizzled out and Brandon Aubrey came in for a field goal.

The Lions took the field and immediately paid tribute to last year's game. Additional offensive lineman Dan Skipper declared himself eligible to play before David Montgomery ran five yards on first down. Then Detroit set out to avenge last year's loss. Jared Goff hit Tim Patrick with a 45-yard strike, and a few plays later Montgomery held off defenders for a touchdown.

The Cowboys tried to respond and once again their offense started moving the ball well. They reached the red zone relatively easily, but then everything collapsed. For the second straight game, Dak Prescott threw a pick while targeting CeeDee Lamb in the end zone.

That was the moment things went off the rails for the Cowboys. Detroit only scored a field goal after losing the ball, extending its lead to 10-3, but the Cowboys punted on their next two drives, with a Lions touchdown in between.

Another field goal gave the Lions a 20-3 lead, beginning a sequence that felt like the end of the game for the Cowboys. After an incompletion against Lamb and a short pass to Jalen Tolbert, Dallas was forced to go for it on fourth-and-2 in the second quarter. The play was a slow-moving pass to KaVontae Turpin, whose small frame was overcome by the defender who broke up the pass.

Six plays later, the Lions entered the end zone again. A 79-yard kickoff return by Turpin set the team up for a field goal, cutting the score to 27-6 at halftime, but the game was over. Anyone watching the game could tell by the players' body language that the Cowboys checked out early, while the Lions – who continued to play tricks in the fourth quarter – were hell-bent on hurting their opponent.

Defensively, the Cowboys were unable to save their lives. That's not exactly a surprise considering how many starters they're currently missing and how talented the Lions' offense is. It was still discouraging to see so many open receivers and so little resistance to the run.

The offense was a much bigger problem. Dallas came into this game ranked second in pressure rate allowed (meaning only one team gave up less pressure) and Detroit's defense ranked 28th in pressure rate. Still, Prescott was under pressure on almost every play and rarely had a clean pocket to throw from. On the rare occasions he did, Prescott seemingly had no one to blame. Even after Lions superstar Aidan Hutchinson went down with a gruesome leg injury, the Lions continued to eat away at that offensive line.

This game had all the hallmarks of a nightmare scenario for the Cowboys, right down to reigniting the debate over windows in an east-west stadium with no curtains. Jalen Tolbert dropped a long shot from Prescott late in the game, and when he looked back to catch it, it looked like he was blinded by the sun. Later, Prescott's second interception of the day came on a play in which he stared directly into the sun as a Detroit defender advanced on him.

Things got so bad that Prescott and several other starters were pulled early in the fourth quarter. It made no difference as Cooper Rush threw a red zone pick of his own and Turpin later fumbled the ball, giving the Cowboys as many as five turnovers on the day to zero by the Lions.

Nothing went right for the Cowboys in this game, as they had yet to win a game at their home stadium in the calendar year after previously going undefeated here. However, the problems go deeper than just a lack of home field advantage, as the Lions completely outclassed this team in every single facet of the game. This would have been unthinkable three years ago, but now the Cowboys have to deal with their standing in the NFC.

And if that wasn't bad enough, now they're heading into their bye week with all this negative energy before heading west to face the 49ers. Oh yeah, it could be a really long October in Dallas.