It's always a difficult task to beat a good opponent, or any team in the NFL for that matter. Fighting against yourself doesn't make it any easier.

With a 27-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, the Dallas Cowboys were all too often their own worst enemy. Untimely penalties, third and fourth down misses and miscommunication led to another disappointing defeat.

And to add insult to injury, quarterback Dak Prescott left the game in the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury. Before his departure, Prescott was having a relatively efficient afternoon, completing 75 percent of his passes for 133 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions, for a passer rating of 101.6. In his place, Cooper Rush finished the game with 115 yards on 18 of 24 passes and a touchdown for a score of 77.9.

In a worst-case scenario, CeeDee Lamb was temporarily sidelined with a right shoulder injury after Prescott's injury in the final quarter. Visibly in pain, he returned late in the game and finished with eight catches for 47 yards, including a two-point conversion after coming back in the final minutes. Tight end Jake Ferguson led the Cowboys with 71 receiving yards.

On the ground, Dallas showed some liveliness as Rico Dowdle ran 12 times for 75 yards and Prescott finally used some of his legs, totaling 30 yards on three runs. Overall, the team averaged an impressive 6.5 yards per carry.

However, the Cowboys had seven pre-snap penalties on offense, including two on fourth down, and converted just three of 13 third-down attempts and one of five fourth-down attempts. They finished the game with 378 total yards to the Falcons' 310 yards and narrowly won time of possession 30:40 to 29:20. Still, the mistakes proved costly.

Dallas' defense did a better job of stopping the opponent's rushing attack. Running back Bijan Robinson tallied 145 yards from scrimmage, including 86 yards with the ball, although Atlanta averaged just 3.3 yards per run overall.

However, Kirk Cousins ​​turned out to be the real problem. The quarterback began the day with 13 consecutive completions and completed 79.2 percent of his passes for the game for 222 yards and three touchdowns, a rating of 144.8.

For the first time this season, the Cowboys did not allow their opponent to score points on their first drive. Nice start.

Even better, Dallas came right back and put three points on the scoreboard on its first possession. On the first three plays of the series, Prescott connected with Ferguson for 27 yards, Dowdle for 12 and then back to Ferguson for another 15. The drive eventually ended at the Atlanta 16-yard line, but Brandon Aubrey, fresh off the bench Mandatory, was good on his 34-yard field goal attempt.

But before the quarter was over, the Cowboys would fall behind. The Falcons managed a seven-play, 78-yard possession that resulted in gains of 22, 16 and 18 yards. The score dropped when Cousins ​​threw a pass to Drake London on the left side of the end zone and the wideout made a diving attempt to give Atlanta a 10-3 lead.

The next 15 minutes started promisingly when defensive end Carl Lawson came in from the right side for a strip sack on Cousins ​​in the second. The bouncing ball was tackled by safety Donovan Wilson, and the Cowboys now had possession of the ball.

Unfortunately, they couldn't use the gift. Head coach Mike McCarthy went for fourth-and-1 at the Falcons' 44-yard line, but Lamb's attempted end-around was blocked for a 3-yard loss.

That led to an easy result for Atlanta. The Falcons tried it themselves on fourth-and-3 at the Dallas 36-yard line, but there was confusion in the Dallas secondary that resulted in Darnell Mooney breaking wide down the right sideline, a simple pitch-and- Catch for the Falcons walk-in touchdown.

And then the Cowboys responded with one of the craziest touchdowns you've ever seen. Thanks to three 15-yard runs – one each from Lamb, Prescott and Dowdle – Dallas found itself on second-and-goal at the Falcons' 3-yard line. At that moment, Prescott fought back, evaded the defenders around him and threw a pass to Dowdle in the end zone. The running back then jumped, bobbled the catch, hit the ball up once on the way down, and finally caught the prize while lying on his back, resulting in an unlikely result. That reduced the deficit to just four points at halftime, 14-10.

Dallas opened the second half with a false start penalty that soon led to the special forces punt. But punter Bryan Anger opted for the fake instead and attempted a pass to gunner CJ Goodwin, but the ball fell incomplete.

That gave the Falcons possession at the Cowboys' 38-yard line and five plays later they were over the goal line. The first four of those plays were Robinson runs totaling 27 yards, but the last was an 11-yard pass from Cousin to wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud for the touchdown.

Penalties continued to plague the Cowboys. First there was another false start penalty, and then as the offense lined up for a fourth-and-1 at Atlanta's 49-yard line, Dallas was warned for too many men on the field. With that came the punt unit.

Eventually the Cowboys were able to increase their score. They took over at their own 39-yard line and managed to get to the Falcons' 39-yard line before stalling. But Aubrey was there to kick another field goal on the final snap of the third quarter, this one from 57 yards, to keep Dallas within striking distance, 21-13.

As the Cowboys' defense began to weaken, Atlanta's offense put a lot of strain on their ground game. The Falcons opened the final quarter with a seven-play, 66-yard drive that saw two Cousins ​​passes for 40 yards, followed by five straight rushes for the final 26 yards. The last was a 6-yard bull rush up the middle by Tyler Allgeier for the touchdown. A bad snap caused Atlanta to miss the extra point.

However, on the previous drive, Prescott injured his hamstring and was ruled out for the remainder of the game. That left Rush with quarterback duties in his first meaningful snaps of the 2024 season.

The two teams exchanged punts, but when returner KaVontae Turpin deflected Atlanta's punt at its own 28-yard line, he turned the right corner and had an open field in front of him. But he was unable to control his momentum, and despite desperately trying to stay in the field, he entered the white line, negating a potential touchdown.

The Cowboys still threatened and reached the Falcons' 31-yard line, but when Lamb couldn't make a diving catch in the end zone on third down and Turpin couldn't complete a fourth-down pass, Dallas turned the ball over on downs. Lamb, already in pain from a right shoulder injury, would be forced to leave the game for one series.

With just over five minutes left, Dallas was now down by two touchdowns, but Rush got the Cowboys back into the end zone with a 14-play, 86-yard drive that included a 22-yard completion to Turpin on fourth-and-5 Place belonged, as well as a third-and-1 run by Rush for 7 yards. He then found Jalen Tolbert in the back of the end zone for the score. Lamb, coming back late in the drive, was open for the two-pointer, Dallas now trailed just 27-21 with 1:32 on the clock.

But Aubrey's on-side kick would be recovered by the Falcons as the Cowboys' hopes of a comeback failed.