There were plenty of opportunities for the offense to match serve despite an abysmal showing by the defensive unit, but miscues and untimely penalties took points off of the board and forced a flurry of field goals in response to what devolved into six touchdowns allowed on the first six drives by the Saints.

There wasn’t much of anything working for the Cowboys, save for the continued excellence and lethality of Brandon Aubrey.

“We need to be better in this week’s preparation,” said head coach Mike McCarthy. “We weren’t quick to the first punch. … And I thought that they finished better than we did. So those are two of the biggest constants throughout the evaluation process today with the players.

“We need to learn from it.”

It was eerily reminiscent of the previous loss at AT&T Stadium, when the Green Bay Packers had their way with the Cowboys on Super Wild Card Weekend, dismissing them from the playoffs in the process. It’s a long season and plenty of games remaining to repair what was put on film against the Saints, yes, but it’s also true that, two weeks in, the Cowboys have now swung wildly between two opposite polarities.

For his part, McCarthy says the truth about where they are heading into Week 3 lies somewhere in the middle.

“It’s never as good as you think it is, and it’s never as bad as you think it’s now,” McCarthy said of his evaluation after the first two weeks of the 2024 season. “It was not good [vs. Saints], I’m not saying that [it was], but I stood here seven days ago, on a Monday, and said we got a lot of work to do — having won by three scores [in Cleveland] — and that wasn’t lip service.

“We have a lot of work to do. We looked like a young, inexperienced football team at times, and that was my first impression when I finished watching all three phases last night. So then after going through all the eval with everybody, we need to be better.”

It’s true that the Cowboys are fielding one of the youngest teams in the entire NFL, but they also have plenty of high-caliber veterans in the locker room and on the field as well who, to McCarthy’s own admission, helping to coach the young players up in real time.

It’s something that’s been happening throughout training camp and in Week 1 as well, but it appears McCarthy is expecting (read: demanding) more of it going forward, and particularly when things aren’t going as planned over the course of a contest.

“Our young guys, they made some mistakes,” he said. “Unfortunately, at times, they were costly, but that’s part of playing young players — this many young players, really. I’m calling on the veterans to help pull us through those moments.”

An equally daunting test is en route to AT&T Stadium by way of Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the Baltimore Ravens, desperate to avoid an 0-3 hole to start the season, and with a very capable defense (to say the very least) in tow.

Needing to reset to regain their Week 1 mojo without forgetting the lessons of Week 2, the Cowboys are now 1-1 and trying to avoid a two-game losing streak at home — something that has been unheard of recently in Dallas.

“I’m disappointed like everybody else,” said McCarthy. “It was our first home game and we had some momentum coming out on Week 1. You always want to improve. At the end of the day, the result is it’s the ride, it’s the competition, and that’s what counts. It’s the process.

“We did not improve from Week 1 to Week 2, and that’s the biggest disappointment. The results speak for themselves.”

McCarthy and his coaching staff are back to work and trying to force the results to say something different next Sunday.