HOUSTON -- Somehow the Dallas Cowboys have to figure out how to get their offense on the team plane for their final five road games this season.
Sunday's 19-16 overtime loss at the Houston Texans looked a lot like losses at the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks.
Dak Prescott was intercepted twice. He barely threw for 200 yards (just 208). He was sacked twice. Ezekiel Elliott, coming off back-to-back 100-yard games, was held to 54 yards on 20 carries.
The receivers were of little help to the quarterback. Prescott's first interception went off Tavon Austin's hands. His second went off the hands of Deonte Thompson, who also had a big third-down drop in the fourth quarter. Rookie Michael Gallup was not able to come down with difficult, yet makeable, catches. Top receiver, Cole Beasley, did not have a catch until overtime.
The third-down offense was abysmal again. The Cowboys converted 4 of 14 chances. In the season-opening loss at Carolina, they converted 2 of 11 chances. They were 3-of-13 in Week 3 at Seattle.
"Obviously not efficient enough in the passing game tonight," coach Jason Garrett said. "A lot of different parts to that. They did a good job rushing the quarterback. There were guys around Dak a lot in this ballgame. I thought at times (the Cowboys' offense) made a number of really good plays in the game to keep drives alive or big plays to give us scoring opportunities but again we're striving for more consistency, more efficiency and more explosiveness in our passing game."
In overtime, Elliott was stopped on third-and-1, setting up the Texans' game-winning drive. Perhaps that was fitting.
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett did not think about gambling on fourth down, and the defense finally relented in overtime.
The first half was ugly for the defense in allowing 251 yards, but it gave up just two field goals in the second half. The Texans converted a touchdown on one of six red zone chances. Jeff Heath had two stops at the goal line, including one in the second half. Jaylon Smith sacked Deshaun Watson on fourth-and-goal from the 1 at the end of the second quarter.
In overtime, the Cowboys finally gave in when DeAndre Hopkins came up with a 49-yard catch-and-run on second-and-9 after Anthony Brown missed an undercut attempt. Hopkins turned up field, made a spin move on Xavier Woods and broke one more tackle.
It was Hopkins' ninth catch of the night, and he tallied 151 receiving yards. He was about the only aspect of the Texans' game that the Cowboys' defense did not have an answer for all night.
Hopkins showed the value of a No. 1 receiver with his performance. The Cowboys have opted to go with a committee approach at receiver; so far, the results have not been favorable.
"I would love to have a No. 1 receiver," owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. "You have to get those when the opportunities are there. Hopkins is tremendous. He made the plays out there that made a lot of difference and I think we all got a good look at what Hopkins can do."
The Cowboys will live with their defense giving up only one touchdown and four field goals.
They'll die if the offense can't get out of its own way on the road.
"I don't know if there's one thing we can pinpoint and say this is the reason we're not having success on the road and we're having that success at home," Prescott said. "That's what we got to figure out. We're five games in the season, we got a lot of ball left and lucky enough that we got a lot of time to do that. But it's got to happen fast; it's got to happen soon for us to figure it out and get better."