Patriots defense gets banged up with a list of significant injuries against Cowboys

As if the Patriots needed any more bad news to cap off their horrific outing against the Cowboys on Sunday, injuries began to pile up in the second half of the game just to make the entire day even worse.

The first of the bad news came with Christian Gonzalez suffering a shoulder injury early in the day, with the team downgrading him to out not long after. It was a massive blow to the secondary that was already dealing with the absences of Jack, Jonathan, and Marcus Jones, relying on the rookie to keep top receivers in check for the fourth straight week.

Later in the fourth quarter, Matthew Judon went down in pain with what the Patriots reported to be an elbow injury. After remaining down on the field for a bit, he was able to jog to the sideline into the medical tent. But he was immediately downgraded to doubtful to return.

One of the more under-reported injuries appears to be to Jabrill Peppers, who was noticeably in pain when the camera panned to the Patriots' sideline. There hasn't been any clarification about what injury he may be dealing with, but as the third big injury of the day, it is all still unfortunate.

Hopefully, the injuries to all three of the star defensive players will not be serious, especially since the defense has been the far better side of the team.

The next two games on the schedule are very winnable, vs. the Saints and at the Raiders, and this team will need every integral piece of the defense to give them the absolute best chance to walk out the victors in both.

The offense is in complete shambles, with Mac Jones being benched in the third quarter for Bailey Zappe, and multiple mistakes made by New England forced them to play from behind once again. This puts a lot of pressure on the defense to over-deliver, and they won't be able to do that without Gonzalez, Judon, and Peppers.