These Dallas Cowboys cannot contend for anything–again
By Ben Davila
Whether it’s yet another slow start or questionable crunch time play calling, the Dallas Cowboys prove themselves to be nothing more than paper tigers.
Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. The Dallas Cowboys take the field in a given game and come out spectacularly lifeless and flat. In doing so, they find themselves in an early hole and are forced to mount a rally that ultimately comes up infuriatingly short. Then, everyone’s social media feeds explode with the standard and justifiable outrage.
The problem is, these tendencies are too prevalent to be one-off flukes. To the dismay of absolutely everyone that cares about this team, this is their identity. The Cowboys only seem content when they’ve spotted another team a double-digit lead. Only then do they spring to life and remember that the game started a couple quarters ago.
So if this is their modus operandi, then how do they go about correcting their course? Well, the short answer is a change at head coach. I’ve long been a defender of Jason Garrett in this space, but the time has come to make a change. There’s too much riding on this season, and it’s time to put a shock to the system. The status quo isn’t working, and it’s costing this organization big time.
To wit, this team has absolutely one win outside of their divisional foes, and that was against the moribund Miami Dolphins. Worse yet, the Cowboys have dropped critical conference games to the Saints, Packers, and Vikings. They’re virtually out of tiebreakers, so this means that the only bauble they have left to play for to make them eligible for the postseason is to win their own division.
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Now, in the NFC East, this may not be an impossible proposition. Their only true rival this year is the Eagles. Both teams share identical 5-4 records, but Dallas holds their lone tiebreaker by virtue of the beating they put on Philadelphia back on October 20th. But before we go and crown the Cowboys as the fastest snail in a division of cruddy mollusks, keep their remaining schedules in mind. Specifically, take a look at the Eagles’ final five games: Dolphins, Giants, Redskins, Cowboys, Giants. You’d have to assume that they’ll go 4-1 down the stretch, bare minimum. This will force the Cowboys to keep pace–and probably win a game or two they weren’t supposed to win–just to clinch the NFC East and get to the the playoffs.
And even if all this happens, who feels confident that the Cowboys could make a racket once the postseason rolls around? After Sunday night, it’s hard to imagine that even the most ardent Cowboys’ defender would be capable of painting a rosy picture. This team has taken on the worst of identities: underachievers. In a season with so many expectations, this is about the most damning diagnosis that anyone could expect.
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It shouldn’t be like this. This team has let winnable games slip through their fingers on a frighteningly regular basis. They’ve lost their four games by an average margin of 4.5 points per. Losers point to stats like this as a selling point for future success. Yet here we are. No one in the organization will disrupt the norm and make any meaningful changes, and the fan base will continue to suffer for it.
- Published on 11/12/2019 at 12:00 PM
- Last updated at 11/12/2019 at 07:52 AM