Category: Cowboys (Page 13 of 54)

Every Cowboys fan will tell you this is the year. This is the year Dallas wins a divisional playoff game for the first time in more than a quarter century and wins the Super Bowl. This is the year. It’s just as silly as a Browns fan or a Washington fan saying Cleveland or the Commanders are going to win the Super Bowl. It’s just as unlikely.

The window on the Dak Prescott – Ezekiel Elliott – CeeDee Lamb Cowboys era closed last year. If Dallas was ever going to win a divisional playoff game for the first time since 1995, last season was their chance. They swept the pitiful NFC East and finished 12-5. But, if you’ll remember, they committed an NFL record 14-penalties against the 49ers in the Wild Card playoff game and inexplicably imploded in the last 30-seconds. Since that time, Dak has had another surgery, suffered an additional shoulder strain, and today is complaining about a sore ankle. Zeke is one year older and slower. Amari Cooper and Cedric Wilson are  gone, Michael Gallup and James Washington are hurt, CeeDee is going to be triple-teamed on every play, and Dalton Schultz will be the team’s leading receiver. Randy Gregory is gone. And the offensive line is counting on Tyler Smith, Tyler Biadasz, Connor McGovern, and Terrence Steele. Tyron Smith is out for the year and Tyler Smith was the most penalized player in college football last season.

Expectations are high for the Cowboys heading into this 2022 campaign and it makes no sense. Remember, there are only five teams in the NFL that have not won a divisional playoff game in 26-years, and the Cowboys are one of them. The expectations in Dallas should be similar to what they are in Miami or Detroit. But every Cowboys fan will tell you this is the year.

The Cowboys play, statistically, the easiest schedule in the NFL this year – their opponents combined winning percentage is .462. And the NFC East is still the worst division in football. But the prediction here is that Dallas goes 8-9 and misses the playoffs. Mike McCarthy will be responsible for two of those losses with his poor clock management and/or coaching decisions. Something you’ve never seen before will factor heavily in another of the losses. And Jerry Wayne will do something nobody thought he would ever actually do.

Here it is, week-by-week. No gambling, please. Unless you can find a Cowboys fan to take the over on ten wins.

9-11 v. Tampa Bay – Bucs 17, Dallas 13
Take the under on this one. Tom Brady is missing almost as many starters on offense from last year as the Cowboys are. Both offensive lines are questionable at best. Both teams are missing  big-play receivers. Neither team can run the ball. Both defenses are the strengths of their teams. But he’s still Tom Brady.

9-18 v. Cincinnati – Bengals 30, Dallas 24
The Bengals run the old fumblerooskie and former Cowboy La’el Collins scores the game winning touchdown, running over Leighton Vander Esch, and ending his career. Tony Pollard scored two of the Cowboys touchdowns on long runs while Elliot finished with 19 yards on 14 carries. Cameras catch Jerry  in his suite with his finger in Steven’s  face.

9-26 @ Giants – Dallas 24, New York 12
A battle of two winless teams for Monday Night Football. Jerry told 105-FM The Fan that he had a conversation with Sean Payton on Tuesday, “just talking football with an old friend.” On Wednesday, Mike McCarthy told The Ticket he’s not concerned about his job security, he’s focused only on beating the Giants. In New York, Saquon Barkley is back for the G-Men. But so is Daniel Jones. New York has the only offense in the NFC East worse than the Cowboys. Dalton Schultz catches 12 passes for two scores and Micah Parsons forces two fumbles as the Cowboys notch their first victory of the season.

10-2 v. Washington – Dallas 30, Commanders 10
Carson Wentz has issues. As a team, Washington has the NFL’s worst quarterback rating over the past four years with ten different starting quarterbacks. And Wentz continues the trend. Mike McCarthy raises eyebrows when he calls for a punt on third down late in the first quarter. But this is a cakewalk – Tony Pollard racks up 188 yards of total offense – and the Cowboys even up their record at 2-2.

10-9 @ L.A. Rams – L.A. 31, Dallas 14
The Cowboys come crashing back to earth and reality as the Rams dominate this game from the opening kick to the final gun. The Cowboys depleted offensive line make the Rams tackles and ends look like the old Fearsome Foursome. Aaron Donaldson eats Tyler Smith for lunch and then spits him out. Smith suffers six holding penalties while the Rams sack Prescott five times.  The running game is non-existent. No catches for CeeDee Lamb. Mike McCarthy says he’s seeing good things out of his punter. Jerry commented after the game that the new SoFi Stadium is nice, but you can’t see the sun. And where’s the art?

10-16 @ Philadelphia – Philly 17, Dallas 16
The Cowboys lose the division lead on a Sunday night in the City of Brotherly Shove as the Eagles assert their dominance in the trenches. Games are won and lost at the line of scrimmage and the Cowboys can’t match up. Jason Peters injures himself while running onto the field during player introductions, forcing punter Bryan Anger into the lineup at left tackle. Jalen Hurts ran for both Eagles touchdowns as Dallas falls to 2-4. One catch for Lamb for six yards. Mike McCarthy says he’s seeing good things out of his special teams. And it’s still  early. Nobody’s panicking.

10-23 v. Detroit – Dallas 38, Lions 26
CeeDee Lamb has his first multiple catch game of the year as the Cowboys beat the winless Lions. Michael Gallup makes his first start of the year, which takes a little pressure off Lamb. After the game, Detroit coach Dan Campbell begs Jerry to find him a spot on the Cowboys staff. Jerry considers making Campbell his starting left tackle.

10-30 v. Chicago – Cowboys 28, Bears 27
This one  is  closer than it should have been. McCarthy’s decision to use all his video challenges on holding calls almost cost the team at the end. But Trevon Diggs, who gives up 261 yards receiving, intercepts Justin Fields in the end zone to close it out. The Cowboys head to the bye week at 4-4. McCarthy says the Cowboys are through the toughest part of their schedule and they feel really good about getting Michael Gallup and James Washington back after the bye.

Bye Week
The running back situation dominates the headlines during the off week. Ezekiel Elliott is the second highest paid running back in the league, but he’s only averaging 2.1 yards per carry. The passing game isn’t working because there’s no running game to set it up. Tony Pollard seems to have the step and the spark Zeke has lost. But Jerry needs Elliott  on the field for obvious reasons: He drafted him, he signed him to that ridiculous contract, and they’re working on a Pizza Hut commercial together. All the talk centers around ways to get both players on the field at the same time. Pollard practices at slot receiver, tight end, and fullback. Dak asks  Elliott to work on his blocking. Jerry Wayne is completing his mental list of fired or retired NFL coaches: Urban Meyer, Mike Zimmer, Matt Nagy, Jon Gruden, Joe Judge. He’s got all their phone numbers except for Zimmer. Zimmer’s been blocking Jerry’s calls since 1994.

11-13 @ Packers – Green Bay 34 , Dallas 10
Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy gets emotional in his first return to Lambeau Field since being fired by the Packers four seasons ago. He weeps openly during pre-game introductions and then attempts an ill-conceived Lambeau Leap at the end of the national anthem. Zack Martin and Dante Folwer help carry McCarthy off the field. Aaron Rodgers misses the game, out sick with COVID-19, measles, whooping cough, polio, and shingles; he hasn’t had any kind of preventative vaccination. Ever. But Green Bay wins the time of possession 49-minutes to 11 and gets the victory in a laugher.

11-20 @ Minnesota – Vikings 44, Dallas 41
The Cowboys lose in a wild shootout to the surprise team of the NFC. Kirk Cousins and the Vikings run and pass all over the Cowboys defense, but this loss is on McCarthy. Down 44-38 with 14-seconds to play at the Minnesota 14-yard line, McCarthy calls for a field goal to make it a three-point game. This way, he reasons, Dallas needs only to recover an onside kick, complete one long sideline pass, and kick another field goal to force overtime. The kick is good. The onside attempt is not. Kellen Moore refuses to talk to reporters after the game. Jerry Wayne uses a fake name to try to get Mike Zimmer’s phone number. The Cowboys fall to 4-6. But McCarthy likes what he sees with the optimism and good cheer in the locker room. They’ve got the Giants up next.

11-24 v. New York Giants – Dallas 24, Giants 13
Dallas gets behind early on a strange play which leads to an unsettling sideline confrontation between McCarthy and Kellen Moore. It seems McCarthy overruled Moore by calling for a double-reverse flea-flicker pass on the first snap of the game. Dak Prescott gets absolutely murdered on the play and the fumble is returned 23-yards for a Giants touchdown, the only New York touchdown of the day. Ezekiel Elliott runs for only 33-yards. Backup quarterback Cooper Rush completes 42 passes for 130 yards, no completion longer than three yards. It’s ugly. Really ugly. But the Cowboys have the easiest part of their schedule coming up and they’re only two games behind the Eagles in the NFC East. McCarthy says he really thinks they’re close to putting together a complete team effort.

12-4 v. Colts – Indianapolis 32, Dallas 28
The Cowboys lose in prime time on Sunday night football to the surprising Colts. Quarterback Matt Ryan is putting up MVP numbers in Indy while Jonathan Taylor leads the NFL in rushing. The Colts run game forces the Cowboys to play straight up man-to-man in the secondary and it is not pretty. Dak is back, but he’s playing from behind all night. He racks up big numbers – he completes more passes than all  the team’s rushing attempts combined – but the Cowboys lose and  fall to 5-7. Jerry Wayne works a deal with WWE to host a blockbuster Wrestlemania event at AT&T Stadium in January in exchange for John Cena and the Undertaker playing on the left side of the Cowboys offensive line the remainder of the season.

12-11 v. Houston – Cowboys 23, Texans 20
Micah Parsons plays his best game of the year as the Cowboys defense continues to be the strongest part of the team. Defensive Coordinator Dan Quinn keeps getting mentioned for the two head coaching vacancies in the NFL. Kellen Moore’s stock is falling as the Cowboys offense is ranked in the bottom third of the league. The Cowboys commit 15 penalties and are the most penalized team in the NFL for the second straight year. Dallas is 6-7, still two games back of Philly.

12-18 @ Jacksonville – Cowboys 27, Jaguars 4
Jacksonville is the worst team in the NFL. Their only points come on two safeties against Prescott. After the game, Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence enters the transfer portal back to Clemson. Coupled with an Eagles loss, the Cowboys are now just one game back in the division. They play the Eagles next. At home. For the division lead. In December.

12-24 v. Philadelphia – Eagles 28, Cowboys 9
The Eagles complete a sweep of the Cowboys  to go up two games in the NFC East with two to play. And it finally happens. Jerry Wayne rides the elevator down to the field, fires McCarthy on the sidelines at the two-minute warning, and names himself as the Cowboys interim head coach. Yes. Jerry finally does the only thing he hasn’t done yet in imitating his idol Al Davis: he becomes the coach. Officially. After the game, Jerry explains that he couldn’t elevate one of his coordinators to the head coaching spot because they are such great coordinators. And because he’s the one who signed their contracts. And because they just filmed all those J.C. Penny commercials. McCarthy tells reporters he thought the Cowboys were really beginning to pull together as a team. The Cowboys are 7-8 and can still nab a wild card spot if they sweep their last two games.

12-29 @ Tennessee – Titans 44, Dallas 10
Derrick Henry runs over and through the exhausted Dallas defense for 174-yards rushing and three touchdowns as the Titans end the Cowboys playoff chances on a Thursday night in Nashville. It was a short week. The Cowboys defense is averaging 61-snaps per game and it’s just too much. Jerry Wayne makes his coaching debut and insists on joining the team captains on the field for the coin toss. He installs a wishbone offense with Tony Pollard at wingback and Dalton Schultz at fullback. It leads to six turnovers, a ruptured spleen for Dak Prescott, and a blowout loss.

TBD @ Washington – Dallas 12, Commanders 10
Daniel Snyder and Jerry Wayne trade offensive lines during the week leading up to the season finale. In a rare show of restraint, Jerry refuses to give up Cooper Rush for Carson Wentz.  Bryan Anger, who replaced  three Cowboys kickers during the season, kicks four field goals in the Cowboys win. Dallas finishes 8-9, the 27th straight year the Cowboys will not win a divisional playoff game.

Black Monday arrives and Steven and Jerry Jr. are tasked by Charlotte and Gene with the difficult job of firing Jerry as coach. Sean Payton is in town filming a Pizza Hut commercial.

Peace,

Allan

The first preseason game is for determining if your draft picks, free agent rookies, and second-year pros have what it takes to make your team and contribute to the organization. You don’t expect perfection; these are not seasoned veterans. But is there potential for them to fit into our schemes, to adequately fill the gap when a starter goes down, to provide depth and security in important ways?

The Dallas Cowboys’ rookies and second-year pros who played in Saturday night’s preseason opener in Denver looked like the starters in mid-season form, racking up 17 penalties for 129 yards in a sloppy 17-7 loss to the Broncos. Coach Mike McCarthy has repeatedly promised that penalties would be a “point of emphasis” after Dallas led the NFL in yellow flags a season ago and committed a record 14 infractions in their playoff loss to the 49ers. Whatever he’s doing, though, isn’t working. Clearly.

Seventeen flags Saturday night. Ten offensive penalties, five on defense, and two on special teams. First-round pick Tyler Smith had two holding penalties, one of them wiping out an eleven yard gain. Second-round pick Sam Williams cost the Cowboys 15 yards on a roughing the passer call. Dante Fowler was flagged for unnecessary roughness. Josh Bell committed two holding penalties on the same drive. Kelvin Joseph jumped offside on a missed 57 yard field goal attempt by the Broncos, resulting in a five yard penalty, resulting in a made 52 yarder.

Sloppy. Undisciplined. Typical.

But it’s only the first preseason game, you say. These weren’t the starters, these are the rookies and subs, you say. You can’t make any judgments based on the first preseason game, you say. Everybody has a lot of penalties in the opening week of the preseason, you say.

The Cowboys had 17. The NFL average last week during everybody’s first preseason games was 6.6 penalties per team. The Cowboys had 17.

Peace,

Allan

It’s been a typical couple of weeks for the Dallas Cowboys – it would take more than two sex scandals and the release of three starters to seem out of the ordinary for this club. Let’s put aside Rich Dalrymple’s cell phone video and Jerry Wayne’s new daughter and look just at the on-field product.

The window has closed.

Starting receiver Amari Cooper was traded to the Browns for a fifth round pick. The Cowboys say they let Cooper go to save $16-million against the salary cap. The Browns have already restructured Cooper’s contract to save $15-million. CeeDee Lamb is the most explosive of the Dallas receivers, but Cooper was the most reliable. The Cowboys have given Cooper’s money now to Michael Gallup, who will miss a third of this next season with his knee injury. As a  group, the Cowboys receivers are not nearly as good as they were last year.

Starting offensive tackle La’el Collins has left Dallas via free agency for Cincinnati where he will anchor a rebuilt front five to better protect Super Bowl quarterback Joe Burrow. Throughout his seven year career, Collins has been consistently ranked among the best offensive linemen in the NFL. Like he did with Cooper, Jerry released Collins to save $10-million against the cap. As a group, the Cowboys offensive line is less than it was last year.

The Cowboys have also lost explosive linebacker Randy Gregory to the Broncos. He signed the exact same contract in Denver that Jerry had offered him to stay in Dallas. It’s not clear, really, how the Cowboys messed this up. But Gregory claims Jerry and Stephen acted in bad faith during their negotiations. The Cowboys linebackers are not as strong as they were last year.

Ezekiel Elliott is another year older and another step slower – maybe Jerry could get a fourth or fifth round pick from the Jets for him. Dak is seven years into his career now. Who’s playing tight end this next season?

The Cowboys’ best shot at doing anything was last year! Their best chance at ending the 25-year drought without a divisional playoff win was last season. Arguably the best receiving corps in the league. The Defensive Rookie of the Year in Micah Parsons. Trevon Diggs at corner. Both Gregory and Lawrence on the front seven. La’el Collins protecting Dak’s blindside. A $40-million a year quarterback. They went 12-5, won the division, and lost a weird Wild Card game to the 49ers.

This is the season to go all in. Do whatever it takes to keep your current roster intact, add a few players through free agency and the draft to fill some immediate needs, and go for it. Instead, the Cowboys are “restructuring” their salary cap. Get this from Stephen Jones last week: “We could obviously do some things that would allow us to keep most of our guys if we wanted to push it all out, but then we’d have a much bigger problem next year and the year after that.”

Thank you. That’s what happens when the GM and assistant GM know they can never be fired. No urgency. No mandate to compete for a championship. Keep the salaries manageable and the gift shop stocked. That’s the Cowboys.

They won’t be 12-5 next year. And they won’t win a divisional playoff game. That window is closed.

Peace,

Allan

After Cincinnati’s thrilling win over the Titans, there are now five teams in the NFL that have not won a divisional playoff game in at least 26 years. Five teams middling in mediocrity. Five teams that don’t know what they’re doing. Five teams that for more than a quarter century have been irrelevant patsies on those rare occasions they do qualify for the playoffs. Five teams consistently at the bottom of the mix.

Browns. Dolphins. Lions. Deadskins. Cowboys.

That’s some mighty fine company there.

Peace,

Allan

Scattershooting while basking in the glow of one of the more delicious Cowboys playoff losses in quite some time.

Back on September 9, I wrote in this space: After the Cowboys last loss of the year, “Jerry Jones will say this is the most disappointed he’s ever been in his professional life.”

On October 20, I wrote in this space: “The powers that be are right now devising the most excruciating, gut-punch way for the Cowboys to get humiliated in January. Again.”

On December 12, I wrote in this space: “The Cowboys have won the NFC East and will host a Wild Card playoff game. But it doesn’t matter. Dallas is not even in the same universe as the other playoff teams.”

When it happens every year for a quarter century, this stuff just writes itself.

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The Cowboys are sloppy. This team was the most penalized outfit in the NFL this season. No team has ever committed more penalties in a playoff game than the Cowboys committed yesterday: 14 penalties total, half of them of the pre-snap variety. No discipline. No focus. The penalties nullified big plays by the Cowboys and kept drives alive for the 49ers. This is not a new problem for Dallas. It’s been an issue all year and going back for several years. In my view, it’s a reflection of ownership and coaching. Since Jerry fired Jimmy and brought in Barry, there’s been an “anything goes” culture in the locker room, on the practice field, and during games. Players are not accountable to their coaches, they are accountable only to Jerry. They know it and the coaches know it. And it manifests in a lack of preparation and concentration on Sunday afternoons.

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The Cowboys have a loser mentality. They blame the refs for all their losses. They’ve been doing it all year. They did it again last night. The coaches and players do not take responsibility for their own mistakes, blaming outside forces for their errors in judgment and focus. That umpire who bumped into Dak after the final play? He was doing his best to HELP Prescott and the Cowboys! If Dak had spiked the ball before the umpire spotted it, it wouldn’t have counted. It would have been an offensive penalty and the game would have ended. The umpire was attempting to help cover Dak’s mental lapse in a critical moment. He ran through Dak and the offensive line because it  was the quickest way to do it. He was trying to save it for Dak, trying to get Dak the last play he wanted. Blaming the umpire in that situation, which is what both McCarthy and Dak did after the game, is a loser response.

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The delicious thing is that Dallas always loses in a way you never expect. It’s always something crazy and controversial, something you’ve never seen before, something that will be shown a million times and dissected and analyzed for months. When Dak took off on that quarterback sneak with 14-seconds left and no timeouts, you thought it was insane. I know you did. Every football fan in every living room and bar in America knew it was the wrong call, everybody knew it wasn’t going to work. Watching Dak run up the middle of the field while watching the clock run out was a truly surreal thing. Add the umpire bumping Dak while trying to officially spot the ball for the next play that wasn’t coming – I’ve never seen anything like it. And you haven’t either. Cowboys fans today are blaming the umpire and claiming that had Dak been given the opportunity to “clock it,” he would have thrown a 25-yard touchdown pass and Dallas would have won. Really? Yes, I know. And Dez caught it, too. Running the ball up the middle in that situation is an indefensible and absurd call.

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Mike McCarthy is not a good coach. His clock management and other in-game decisions are seemingly always a factor with this guy. Another glaring example yesterday was his decision to kick a field goal with twelve minutes left, changing it from a two score game to a two score game. The Cowboys went from needing two touchdowns to, after the field goal, still needing two touchdowns. Brilliant! Only the Cowboys can pull off a successful fake punt and get called for delay of game on the next play. Only the Cowboys would call a quarterback sneak with fourteen seconds left and no timeouts. If Dan Quinn and Kellen Moore both leave the Cowboys to take head coaching jobs elsewhere in the league, Dallas will be stuck with just McCarthy. My bet is that Jerry Wayne will keep Moore in Dallas by inking him to a contract that pays him more than McCarthy. Then, halfway through next season, Jerry will fire McCarthy and make Kellen the head coach and just Jason Garrett the Cowboys and their fans to death for the next decade.

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AT&T Stadium is the only football stadium in the history of football – junior high, high school, college, pro, the vibrating electric field you played with as a kid on the dining room table – that is situated east-west instead of north-south. It’s the only football stadium – ever! – that purposefully puts the late afternoon sun directly in the line of vision of the football players on the field. The west end zone is made entirely of  glass and Jerry Wayne refuses to admit his gargantuan error and cover it with large curtains or something that would fix the problem. Every year there are three or four games in which that ridiculous stadium configuration is a factor. Yesterday it was a wide open Cedric Wilson on third down, actually ducking his head when a perfectly thrown Prescott pass came his way because he couldn’t see anything. Jerry’s personal obstinance in this matter is one more example of why things aren’t going to change.

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Nothing’s going to change. The Cowboys went 6-0 against the NFC East, the worst division in football. They went 6-6 against the rest of the league. They lost a playoff game to a wild card team that did not win its own division. At home! They have the second highest paid quarterback in the NFL, the third highest paid running back, and the fourth highest paid receiver. They had the NFL’s top scoring offense and number one offense in yards. They’ve got the NFL defensive rookie of the year in Trevon Diggs and an MVP candidate in Micah Parsons. All that, and they’re not even close. The Cowboys were 13-3 in 2016 and lost the Wild Card game. They were 12-4 in 2014 and lost the Wild Card game. This is pretty much the story of the Cowboys for the past 26 years. What do you see that’s going to change the narrative?

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Jerry’s actual quote from the tunnel after yesterday’s loss: “I am extraordinarily disappointed. Very disappointed. I can’t remember being more disappointed by a loss.”

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There are six teams in the NFL that have not a won a divisional playoff game in 26 years. They are the Browns, Bengals, Deadskins, Dolphins, Lions, and Cowboys. Dallas is not just one player or one coach or one lucky break away from the Super Bowl. They are the Lions and Browns.

Peace,

Allan