layoff with a disappointing showing against the Tennessee Titans Cheap Christian Kirk Jersey , losing 28-14. The Cowboys now sit at 3-5 and are two games behind the Washington Redskins. The Cowboys will go from one prime-time affair to another as they will be under the lights again next Sunday night when they travel to Philadelphia in what will be a big NFC East divisional battle. While it’s going to be an excruciating week until Sunday gets here, this one’s going to sting a bit. Here are my 10 thoughts on their game against the Titans.1. Honoring a Legend15 seasons, 1,152 catches, and 12,448 yards - Jason Witten was a special player for the Cowboys organization. And on Monday night, the front office paid a little tribute to the legendary tight end.2. Welcome to Dallas, AmariThe Cowboys new offensive weapon didn’t waste any time making a splash. On the team’s second possession, he caught a four-yard pass for the Cowboys first score of the game.Cooper finished with five catches for only 58 yards and looked like a good piece to this offense. Jason Witten would emphasize how well he breaks out of his route to create separation and it gave Prescott an open target. It’s a shame the Cowboys couldn’t utilize him more.3. Wasted opportunitiesThe Cowboys looked like they were going to roll the Titans after a first quarter that saw the Dallas defense recover two fumbles and set the offense up with three-straight red zone scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, Brett Maher missed a very make-able field goal and Dak Prescott threw into double coverage in the end zone causing the offense to come up empty on two of those possessions.In a game where the fans were feeling good early, that goodness went away as the Titans eventually tied it up and Dallas never had the lead again.4. Stop making terrible challenges!I don’t know who upstairs is responsible for signalling down to Jason Garrett to challenge the play, but they are not doing a good job. The Cowboys have had three-straight failed challenge attempts, and to be honest - they aren’t even that close.As Jason Witten mentioned in the broadcast, someone upstairs is going to get a talking to about this as those mistakes can come back to bite you.5. Couldn’t stop the Titans playmakersMarcus Mariota has been struggling all year, but wouldn’t you know it - he showed up against the Cowboys. Mariota was 21 for 29 for just 240 yards but was very efficient, averaging 8.3 yards per attempt. He stood in the pocket and delivered nice throws into tight windows. It was a good performance by the Titans young quarterback.Not only did Mariota played well, but the Cowboys couldn’t stop Dion Lewis either as he went toe-to-toe with Cowboys star running back Ezekiel Elliott. Both players had 50+ yards rushing and receiving and both players had a 37-yard reception. Lewis would out-scrimmaged Elliott 122 to 112.6. Offensive line struggles continueAmari Cooper wasn’t the only big change in Big D during the bye week. After offensive line coach Paul Alexander was fired www.dallascowboysteamonline.com , assistant coach Marc Colombo was promoted and former OL coach Hudson Houck was brought over to help.It started out looking good. In the first half, the group didn’t give up a sack and didn’t have any penalties. But in the second half, the wheels completely came off. Prescott was sacked five times, the penalties started, and the offense couldn’t sustain any drives. They couldn’t even protect Cole Beasley when they gave him a shot to throw the ball.First half:But then...7. Saved by the whistle?When Prescott had the ball stripped from him as he was trying to get away, the whistle blew in what appeared to be a blessing for the Cowboys. The whistle blowing has always meant the play was now dead, however somehow the officials decided to allow the play to continue.When it’s all said and done, the right call was made as it looked like a premature whistle in the first place, but I have never seen them let the play continue.8. Third-down dominanceThe Cowboys offense had all kinds of trouble moving the ball. They were absolutely terrible on third down, only converting on 3 of 11 tries. It wasn’t enough that they weren’t converting, but sometimes it looked like they just gave up. I’m not sure why they love throwing a screen pass on third and long so much. I mean, at least try to make a play beyond the sticks.And as bad as the Cowboys offense was on third down, the Titans went the other direction as they were unstoppable. Tennessee finished 11-14 on the night. The Cowboys defense just couldn’t get off the field.9. Same old, same oldLast time we left this team, we watched an offense that couldn’t do anything. With some changes during the bye week, we came into this game with hope. To make matters worse, the Cowboys defense struggled to get off the field. It was as if we were watching a 3-5 football team.10. Respect the Star!On Sunday Dallas Cowboys T-Shirt , Michael Thomas paid homage to a cell phone touchdown celebration from Joe Horn back in 2003. Kevin Byard channeled his inner Terrell Owens and decided to go stand on the star at midfield following his interception in the end zone. Maybe he forgot how that worked for TO because Byron Jones made sure to stop by and remind him that’s not cool.I love Byron Jones.Dak Prescott saved his most-aggressive performance for Detroit, his toughest secondary matchup yet Being the Cowboys quarterback means dealing with high expectations and relentless criticism when you don’t get the job done. Troy Aikman has admitted avoiding public places like the grocery store following poor performances. Tony Romo spent years being called ‘overrated’ by his critics while the undrafted-turned-Pro-Bowler just may be the most under-appreciated quarterback in NFL history. Nobody is spared from the wrath and the same is the case for Dak Prescott who started his Cowboys career going 18-6 in his first 24 games. Up until this past week’s win over the Lions, Prescott was 5-6 in his last 11 games. He also failed to reach 200 passing yards in nine of those games with an 8-11 touchdown-to-interceptions ratio. That’s why the importance of his performance against the Lions cannot be overstated though it’s been slightly overshadowed by arguably the best player on that field. Ezekiel Elliott’s 240 total yard performance was easily the best outing of his 29-game career. His 152 rushing yards was his third-best on 25 carries, which was only his eighth-most in three seasons. Elliott was outstanding and he showed exactly why he was drafted fourth overall. Still, in context, Ezekiel Elliott did what he was supposed to do against the NFL’s worst rushing defense... he dominated them. Even though Elliott saw eight or more in the box 32% of the time (fifth-most in Week 4), he gashed the Lions all day long for over six yards per carry. It’s certainly impressive but that’s what you expect from the league’s leading rusher by nearly 90 yards. What Dak Prescott did though was not only fantastic but also one of the most unlikeliest of feats.A few weeks ago, I mentioned that a good day for total offense is 300+ yards, and a great day is anything over 400. Passing for 200+ yards is an expectation for NFL quarterbacks. On the surface, 255 passing yards for Dak ranks 18th for the week, five quarterbacks had 400+ passing yards and eight others went over 300. It wasn’t the amount of passing yards that we should be impressed with, it was the way he got there and everything in between.Dak’s composure, the poise that we’ve all been waiting to see, returned in terms of his confidence and he looked like that 18-6 Dak Prescott again. Here’s the NextGen breakdown of Dak Prescott over these four weeks:Dak's 2018TTAgg. %Comp %Exp. Comp %Comp. +/-Pass. RateAYTSDak is clawing his way out of the slump he was in.Three weeks in, Prescott’s expected completion percentage was 53.5% but he exceeded that by 9.5% which was only usurped this week by Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford. His time to throw shows that he was attempting to not hold the ball as much. Prescott was throwing well-short of the sticks, as high as four-yards short against the Seahawks, but against the Lions he was throwing it almost three yards past the marker... best of the week. Here’s where we get to the best part Dallas Cowboys Hats , the “aggression percentage” which determines how many passing attempts are made in tight windows with a defender one-yard or less away from the target.Often times those with a high aggression percentages can also correlate with quarterbacks that turn the ball over a lot such as Eli Manning or Jameis Winston; however, great quarterbacks are often mixed in that list as well. You have to be aggressive, take shots, and make tight-window throws to be among the best in the NFL. Through his first three years, Prescott ranked middle of the pack in aggression percentage. As a rookie, Dak attempted three passes of 20+ yards on average per game. That number dropped to 2.8 last season and as low as 0.75 per game this season. To see that 48% of Dak’s attempts were also of the “big boy” variety was a pleasant surprise. Considering he accomplished this versus the previously top-rated Lions’ pass defense was shocking. Dak Prescott was ‘pea-cocking’ at it’s finest.Darius Slay, Quandre Diggs, and Glover Quin are all among the top defensive backs in the league. This Lions’ unit held Tom Brady to 133 yards, Jimmy Garoppolo to 198, and Sam Darnold to 206. All three of those quarterbacks would likely finish ahead of Prescott in most passing categories yet Dak outperformed all of them against this Lions defense that averaged only 152 passing yards surrendered per game. By the way, Prescott did this at the same time that Matthew Stafford carved up his defense for over 300 yards with only six incompletions.Dak’s day against the Lions showed his willingness to fight through the adversity of the last few weeks and not go into a shell against a great secondary. Dak gets criticized for not taking chances or for bad ball placement but some of these throws were outstanding. In fact, Next Gen has a stat called “improbable completions” where it considers everything from receiver separation to air yards and gives the probability of the pass being completed. Prescott only has four of the top improbable completions on the season, three of which came in this game:Tightest ThrowsImprob. Comp. %Weekly RankDak Prescott’s 255 yards isn’t going to convince critics to back off, he’ll need to prove that he can be consistent after his recent slump. As the old cliche goes, the devil is in the details. The details of Dak’s performance showed that he does have quality quarterbacking in him and hopefully it’s a sign of things to come. Without question Dak Prescott was beyond bold to save his most aggressive performance for his toughest matchup and it couldn’t have come at a better time.