Reeling Cowboys are frauds. Blame the offense.

After a fast start to the season, the Dallas Cowboys have revealed themselves as frauds. It's not hard to figure out why. Once Dallas' competition got tougher, its offense disappeared. A similar performance Sunday at home against the Philadelphia Eagles will be cause for panic.

Let's review how the Cowboys, who have lost three straight, got here: 

Coming off a Week 3 dissection of the woeful Dolphins, the Cowboys (3-3) were riding high heading into a prime-time showdown against the Saints, who were missing Drew Brees. A win, which would cement their status as NFC favorite, seemed like a foregone conclusion.

But the Saints followed a familiar blueprint in a 12-10 win: Stuff Ezekiel Elliott and make Dak Prescott win the game himself. Prescott failed, of course, cementing opinions of those who think he shouldn't be given a contract extension.

A quick glance at the Week 5 box score suggests Dallas rebounded well in a 34-24 loss to Green Bay. The numbers lie. The Cowboys fell behind 31-3, largely because Prescott threw two interceptions to short-circuit promising drives. Dallas didn’t score a touchdown until two minutes were left in the third quarter. Nearly 300 of its yards came when the game was functionally over. 

Things got worse against the Jets in Week 6. Dallas was held without a touchdown for nearly 54 minutes. Although the Cowboys rallied to within a two-point conversion of tying the score, their performance was massively disappointing against an average defense missing C.J. Mosley, the Jets' most important defender.

If you’re feeling charitable, you could chalk up that underwhelming effort to the absence of  injured offensive tackles Tyron Smith and La’el Collins and wideout Amari Cooper’s mid-game injury. A less generous response would be to point to all of the other teams who have suffered significant injuries this season — the Saints and Panthers, to name two -- who look poised to finish ahead of Dallas in the standings.

Former NFL scout Matt Williamson, who writes for Yardbarker, is a fan of first-year Cowboys coordinator Kellen Moore, but he noted Dallas' offense “isn’t taking anyone by surprise anymore.” 

“It is amazing how drastically different their offense is with and without Cooper or Elliott, or the underrated one, [Tyron] Smith,” he told me. “They really don’t do a great job adjusting when one key piece is missing.”

Dallas' numbers look gaudy — the Cowboys rank in the top-10 in most points scored and least allowed — but they were built on a soft early schedule. Dallas' wins came against opponents with a combined 3-14 record; Washington and Miami are 1-10 combined, and the Redskins’ only win was over the Dolphins.

Starting with Philadelphia, the combined record of their next seven opponents is 24-14-1. Only one of them, the Giants, is currently below .500. How will the offense turn it around when four of those next seven teams boast defenses that rank in the league’s top-six?  As expected, the Cowboys' fast start generated headlines and set the hype machine into overdrive.  

To save their season, Dallas needs Elliott to be great. His six-year, $90 million contract extension suggests the Cowboys think he’s the best running back in the league. He’s not. Elliott doesn’t look like the same player who led the league in yards rushing per game his first three seasons. Pro Football Focus’ elusiveness rating, which measures a running back’s success independent of his blocking, has Elliott at 27.3 for the year, 74^th in the league. Among backs with at least 100 carries, only New England's Sony Michel is worse.

Prescott, PFF's fifth-ranked quarterback, also must raise his game. Three of his past four games, however, have seen him grade in the mid-60s, numbers that would put him closer to the bottom third of the league. The best quarterbacks play well against the best competition. Prescott hasn’t.

Former Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells once famously said, “You are what your record says you are.” Dallas is a .500 team. The Cowboys have beaten bad teams, lost to good ones, and their schedule only gets tougher. Unless Dallas' offense quickly solves its issues, a highly unlikely proposition, the Cowboys can forget the playoffs.