Category: Cowboys (Page 2 of 48)
We knew it was going to happen today or next week. But this was truly spectacular. Stunning. Dallas was down 48-16 at one point. The 48 points they surrendered are the most ever scored against the Cowboys in any playoff game ever. It was the worst playoff loss in Cowboys history and the first time in NFL history a #2 seed lost to a #7 seed. This was undoubtedly the most embarrassing playoff loss ever for the Cowboys.
Jerry Wayne says he is floored. He claims that today’s loss is incomprehensible. Really? Costly penalties. Dak’s interceptions. Poor tackling. Getting outcoached. Being a high seed and choking at home. That IS the Cowboys. Twenty-eight years and counting.
Will McCarthy be fired before I can finish this post? Will they finally let Dak go before he becomes only the third quarterback in NFL history to start for ten years for the same team and never win a divisional playoff game (Tony Romo and Archie Manning)? Does Dan Quinn take a job as a DB coach with an AFC West team out of desperation? Will Charlotte and Steven petition to have Jerry committed? Does Will McClay change his mind and take that gig with the Saints? Is Jerry on the phone right now with Bill Belichick? Pete Carroll? Nick Saban? Barry Switzer?
Delicious.
Peace,
Allan
At GCR this Sunday we’re starting a sermon series about moving into God’s new everything. It’s intended to work well with this being January and the beginning of a new year and all that implies. But we don’t want to just move into new diets and exercise routines, new reading plans and bedtimes, new spending habits and screen-time management. We want to move into the Lord’s new everything!
Things may not be great for you right now. Or for your family. Or your workplace. Or a relationship. Or the country in which you live. Things might be bad. Are you leaning into your trust of the Lord or are you utilizing your own wisdom and moving away from him? God is at work right now to move you into a place of his blessing. But are you moveable?
We’re going to use a prayer to center us as a congregation during these five weeks. We’re planning to pray this prayer together every Sunday as part of submitting to our God and to his plans for us. I invite you to make this prayer your own as we transition into 2024.
Lord, please make me moveable.
Move me to the place where I am able to receive your blessings.
Draw me closer to you; push me closer to your people.
Bring me to your Word; bring me to your worship.
I want to be with you in the place where you are.
Father, give me the strength and the resolve to move to you and to the place of your blessings.
In Christ.
Amen.
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After Michigan’s runaway win in last night’s college football championship game, the results are final in our annual GCR staff bowl challenge. First place receives a free meal, a free dessert, and gets to pick the restaurant at our monthly staff lunch next week. Second place and last place get a free meal, too.
Tim Neale finished in first place, Kim O’Connor jumped over seven of us last night to finish in second, and Ryan Rampton finished dead last. I am vowing today to never again pick Texas to win anything important, unless it’s a volleyball match. Jadyn is today explaining to J.E. how football playoffs work. Jim is cursing SMU because those 40 points would have kept him in second place. Brenda is thankful that she can now devote her full attention to Red Raiders basketball. And Ryan is trying to claim he finished in last place on purpose.
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I know the Cowboys have gone 12-5 three years in a row. This is being celebrated as some kind of all-time franchise mark and the reason for Cowboys fans to be really excited about Mike McCarthy and this team. Okay. Fine. Whatever.
Let me back us out to 30,000 feet and remind you of the big picture and how far the Cowboys have fallen as a franchise and how low the bar is now for its fans.
McCarthy’s twelve wins are because of the expanded schedule. Jimmy Johnson’s last three teams went 11-5, 13-3, and 12-4. That 1991 team finished the regular season on a five game winning streak; give them one more game and they probably hit 12-5. Most importantly, they won two Super Bowls in that run.
As for Tom Landry’s teams, we need to remember that he coached more than half his 29-years with just a 14-game schedule. If you judge his record by winning percentage, the Cowboys were better than 12-5 in six straight seasons from 1968-73 when they went 12-2, 11-2-1, 11-3, and 10-4 three times. They managed another seven year stretch from 1975-81 in which their worst season was 10-4 in 1975 and their second worst mark was 11-5 in 1979. The other five seasons were 11-3 and 12-4 four times.
Most importantly, the Cowboys won a Super Bowl during each of those runs and played in five of them. They went to nine NFC Championship games in those 13 years.
Those are the things Cowboys fans used to celebrate.
This Sunday, when Dallas hosts the Packers in a first-round playoff contest, it’ll be the 28th anniversary of the Cowboys’ most recent NFC title game. I guess if you’re still a Cowboys fan, 12-5 three years in a row is a pretty big deal.
Peace,
Allan
It took a Netflix documentary deal and a two-hour meeting organized and mediated by Troy Aikman, but Jerry Wayne is finally putting Jimmy Johnson into the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor. Where he belongs. Where he has belonged since the day Jerry ran him off less than a month after winning back to back Super Bowls in March of 1994. Jerry introduced Jimmy as the Cowboys coach when he bought the team in February 1989, telling us that Johnson as coach would be worth more than five number-one draft picks. He was right. Following that second consecutive Super Bowl championship, Jerry told reporters that any of 500 coaches could win a Super Bowl with his team. He was wrong. So, so, so very wrong.
It’s hard to explain this to anybody younger than 40, but in 1989 the Cowboys had suffered three straight losing seasons and Cowboys fans were losing their minds. It had been six years since Dallas had played in an NFC Championship game. Unheard of. This wasn’t going to cut it. Something drastic had to happen. The Dallas Morning News conducted a readers poll asking if Tom Landry, the architect of five Super Bowl teams, the legend who engineered 20 consecutive winning seasons, should be fired. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, the Cowboys had never gone more than two seasons without playing in the conference championship game. Yes, it was time. Nobody thought otherwise.
We hated the way Jerry did it, but we all knew Landry needed to be let go. So he was. And Jones brought in the anti-Landry to replace him.
Jimmy made his mark on the Cowboys. He took Dallas from 3-13 and 1-15 to championship dynasty in five years. He gave us the asthma field, personally ignited the Cowboys-Eagles rivalry, and engineered the Herschel Walker trade. He was self-deprecating about his helmet hair and cherub cheeks and he brashly told Galloway to “put it in three-inch headlines!”
Jimmy didn’t invent “How ’bout them Cowboys!” He just took what he heard Cowboys fans saying all over Dallas, what we and our parents and uncles and grandads had said for decades, and repeated it in front of the national media after beating the 49ers in that first title game. That’s what made it so great, that’s what endeared us to Jimmy, that he picked up on a Dallas thing and adopted it himself.
Jimmy Johnson gave the Cowboys their swagger back. He put them back at the top of the NFL and kept them in front of the national attention. By winning. By setting incredibly high standards. By refusing to accept anything less than everything.
It’s a blasted shame that it all ended when it did and the way it did. The worst part is how Jerry has kept Jimmy out of the Ring of Honor all these years. I hate that it took a Netflix deal to make this happen. I hate that Jerry is going to use tonight’s halftime ceremony as the ending to his ludicrous self-serving film. When Jerry and Jimmy announced before the Carolina game that the date had been set for Johnson’s induction, it felt like watching a hostage negotiation video. They each heaped praise on the other and swore they never disagreed about anything–and the Netflix cameras rolled. It’s poetic, I guess. For the man who cares much more about the production and the entertainment and the sponsorship dollars than he does winning championships, how else could this have happened?
I’m anxious for it to just happen. Let’s just get this over with and make it official, finally. Knowing what we know about Jerry, I wouldn’t be shocked if they pull back the curtain on Jimmy’s name tonight and it’s in a 9-point font. Or if Jerry surprises everyone by unveiling Barry Switzer’s name right next to Jimmy’s. Jerry will find some way to royally mess this up tonight.
But once Jimmy’s name is up there where it belongs with Landry and Staubach and Lilly, with Aikman and Irvin and Emmitt, I’ll have some closure. We can all finally close the book on the Dallas Cowboys as we knew them, a public trust in which we could be proud, a football franchise that put winning first and represented all of Texas, something big and great that brought us together, something excellent we could brag about. Jimmy understood that and wouldn’t settle for anything less.
Congratulations to Jimmy Johnson on a long overdue honor. He has always belonged in the Cowboys Ring of Honor.
Peace,
Allan
The Cowboys woke up yesterday morning in first place in the NFC East and in the driver’s seat with the #2 seed and at least one home playoff game. Then they had to play a football game against the Bills in Orchard Park. After being demolished 31-10 in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicates, Dallas finds itself looking up at the Eagles in the division and holding the #5 seed. That means they’re the road team in the playoffs. And that is not good for the Cowboys.
Dallas is a completely different team on the road. The Cowboys are 3-4 on the road this season, average 18 points per game lower on the road than they do at home, and still haven’t beaten a team with a winning record away from AT&T Stadium. Two of the three teams they’ve beaten on the road have fired their coaches. The Cowboys have the number one offense in the NFL, blowing out scoreboard lights and racking up huge numbers against the league’s worst teams in Arlington. But they can’t compete when they’re playing a good team on the road.
Buffalo hasn’t looked this good all year. From the opening snap, they smashmouthed the Cowboys up and down the field. They ran for 266 rushing yards, mostly up the middle, mostly through gigantic holes and weak arm tackles. Fifty rushes for over five yards per carry. James Cook? Unstoppable.
By the way, the next time any team wins the coin toss before a game with the Cowboys and decides to give Dallas the ball, that team should be banned from the league for egregious stupidity. Philly tried that against Dallas last week and paid dearly. Buffalo won the toss yesterday, took the ball, scored on their first drive, and ran the ball down the Cowboys’ throats the rest of the game.
This Cowboys team is built to score first and then defend against the pass while the opponent plays catchup. Their strength is their pass rush, but it’s rendered useless if the other team’s not passing. Those quick DBs can cover receivers, but they’re no good tackling a 260 pound running back on a power sweep. If the opponent scores first, the Cowboys are lost.
Ten times this year a Cowboys opponent has run the ball fewer than 28 times and lost. Four times the Cowboys opponent has run the ball more than 28 times and won. The Cowboys record is 10-4. Yes, you can run the ball right at these guys. And you can bet the Dolphins will this coming Sunday.
All that is reason for concern for Cowboys fans who have been saying, “No, this really is the year!” for the 28th straight season now. But this home/road thing is also a major problem. It’s hard to keep calling yourself America’s Team when you can’t play outside your own state.
Peace,
Allan
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