Cowboys show true colors in yet another playoff flameout

It really is quite amazing at this point. As sure as death and taxes, you can rely upon the Dallas Cowboys to embarrass themselves on a national stage and prove to everyone that they’re merely pretenders to the NFL throne. Sure, the cast of characters changes every few years, but the result is the same, and that was on pure display yesterday at AT&T Stadium.

The harbingers of doom arrived early, too. San Francisco received the opening kickoff and veritably marched down the field to take an early 7-0 lead. From there it was largely academic. Yeah, the Cowboys made a late push, but by the time they got their mess together, it was far too little, too late for anything to be truly done.

The Dallas Cowboys remind us that only they can fail this spectacularly.

From the jump, it was clear that the Cowboys showed up ill-prepared and not ready to go. That in itself is maddening. How you can come out so flat in an NFL playoff game is beyond me, yet here we are. I took an early mental note as I was watching everything unfold: outplayed, out-coached, outclassed.

Think about that for a minute. How often do we have to put up with this, and will anyone’s head roll because of it? I mean, we’ve all heard the reports regarding offensive coordinator Kellen Moore and defensive coordinator Dan Quinn interviewing for various coaching vacancies. But after yesterday’s debacle, whose fan base feels good about either of those two helming their squads?

And those penalties! Fourteen of them, to be exact. The lack of discipline simply reeks of a team that does not understand the gravity of a particular situation, and that falls at the feet of the head coach. Again, I can’t fathom how the Cowboys could have come out so woefully underprepared, but Mike McCarthy has to foot the blame for all of this.

Of course, this doesn’t even begin to address the inner workings of the team itself. The offensive line is in shambles, and you can’t build it all back through the draft in one offseason. The “lead” running back in egregiously overpaid, and the “franchise” quarterback appears to be set on that same trajectory. But as sure as Super-Bowl-or-bust, you can guarantee that we’re going to be sold a bill of goods again come July.

Further, the tradition of the Cowboys showing their rear ends at some point is beyond irksome now. I still don’t pay much attention to the haters, gleeful though they may be. I’m used to them being way more obsessed about the Cowboys than they are with their own teams. But it would be nice to see the home team arrive to the stadium ready to show their haters where to stuff their opinions. That hasn’t been seen around these parts in decades.

Speaking of, there’s just no purpose to this bunch, and it’s been this way for 27 years now. I was barely into my twenties the last time they won a championship, and they haven’t even sniffed a conference title game since then. Worse yet, there’s no end in sight. We’ll get all the hype surrounding this circus, but as long as the stadium’s full every Sunday, there won’t be any steak for the sizzle. Same old Cowboys indeed.