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For the Dallas Cowboys, it’s always a day late and a dollar short

By Ben Davila

ARLINGTON, TX - OCTOBER 14: Head coach Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys stands on the sidelines in the first quarter of a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at AT&T Stadium on October 14, 2018 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TX - OCTOBER 14: Head coach Jason Garrett of the Dallas Cowboys stands on the sidelines in the first quarter of a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at AT&T Stadium on October 14, 2018 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /
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After Sunday’s crash-and-burn act, the Dallas Cowboys outdid themselves by mortgaging their future for an underachieving receiver–again.

There the Dallas Cowboys were, having no business hanging around in a game in which so much went wrong. Yet through that train wreck, they somehow managed to get the ball back with their full allotment of timeouts and a chance to win the game outright. The stage was set for a heroic, snatching-victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat climax.

Of course, we got peak Jason Garrett. Yes, the Jason Garrett that plays for ties on the road. We got the Cowboys that are so risk-averse, so annoyingly conservative when the situation calls for the exact opposite, that the 20-17 loss came as no surprise whatsoever. In fact, you could kind of see it coming a mile away. Brett Maher’s clang off the upright as time expired was just the team rubbing our noses in it.

Even before Maher’s miss, Dallas still had :12 to go in regulation and a timeout in their back pocket. A team going for the win would’ve taken a shot downfield. Who knows? They might’ve of scored! There might’ve been a penalty to get them closer! Anything to try and steal a game where you had no business winning. But no. They hand off to Ezekiel Elliott to get them in the middle of the field. But as if on cue, they commit a snap infraction on the ensuing down, further dooming their prospects.

In the end, the keystone cops act was so quintessentially “Cowboys” that I couldn’t even be mad. I don’t know why I put myself through the weekly ritual at this point. Watch Cowboys underachieve on the road, lose, repeat. It’s not particularly engaging football, either. If it were two teams I didn’t care about, I would’ve changed the channel or fired up the PlayStation. But since it’s the Cowboys, I feel this decades-long obligation to watch each week play out. And lately, aside from 2014 or 2016, it’s been a exercise in self abuse.

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Not be outdone–and as if to say “hold my beer”–news came down during the afternoon on Monday that the team traded a first round pick for Raiders’ enigma Amari Cooper. This is the same Amari Cooper that, according to Pro Football Focus, possesses the fourth highest drop rate in the NFL between 2015-2017. That’s reassuring. Sure, trade for a guy who drops the ball a lot. It’s bound to work! It’s like the Cowboys are openly insulting the intelligence of their fans at this point. So long as Jerry Jones sees his team at the top of that stupid Forbes list ever year, he’s got no incentive to change. Nothing changes until he dies or that stadium is half full on Sundays.

But I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. This is the franchise that gave us “hits” such as Joey Galloway and Roy Williams. The truth of the matter is, this move has Jerry Jones’s Johnny Walker Blue-stinking breath written all over it. The move to bring Cooper in presupposes that the problem lies with the receiving corps. While that might be part of the case, it overlooks the simple matter that the quarterback might be playing a crucial role in the offense’s ineptitude this season as well. I’m not saying Dak Prescott was the problem on Sunday. He was actually pretty good, save for the turnovers. It’s just that they paid way too much to get a guy who might only improve the team incrementally.

Next. Dallas Cowboys: This is who we must blame. dark

That’s the Cowboys in the here and now, though, folks. The bang-to-hype ratio with this franchise is way, way off kilter. It has been for a long time. Sure, they might catch lightning in a bottle like in 2014 or 2016, but they’re going to waste some fantastic careers in the process. The plan will never sync up to the reality. They built up a (now faltering) line for Tony Romo years too late. Now, the defense can keep them in games, but the offense can’t put up more than seventeen points on the road in a game that, for all their faults and general screw ups, was eminently winnable. Far too often, it’s a day late and dollar short. Get used to it.

  • Published on 10/23/2018 at 17:01 PM
  • Last updated at 10/23/2018 at 12:13 PM
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