So many people are to blame for this mess.
The Cowboys were awful on Thursday night, and managed to make history in the worst possible way. By losing to the Buccaneers, Dallas became the second team since 1975 to lose to an 0-4 team at home. It’s what we’ve come to expect from the Cowboys’ exceptionalism over the last three decades — because exceptionally mediocre has become their brand.
It would be easier to swallow for fans if there was a singular nexus of blame, something you can easily point to and say, “This is why Dallas is losing.“ Unfortunately, there’s no one answer to what’s gone wrong, no silver bullet, nothing to focus on, correct, and get better. Sure, you can point to Jerry and Stephen Jones as being the problem — and make no mistake, they are problems, but there are so many issues. Dallas has shuffled coaches over the years, made splashy trades, invested huge money in their stars, and yet they’ll still lose to a winless football team with a backup QB under center making his first NFL start.
As mentioned, Jerry and Stephen Jones are huge problems. They’ve been problems for a long time. The platonic ideal of an interfering owner, Jerry has been convinced he’s the smartest man in the room for the better part of four decades. Jones boldly stated that his team was going to get better by subtraction when it came to trading away Micah Parsons — they haven’t. He was a driving force behind trading a first-round pick for DT Quinnen Williams, citing a need to shore up Dallas’ run defense. Williams has been objectively disappointing since his arrival, grading out as a mid-tier starter, not someone you trade the future for. This was a team that had three-straight 12 win seasons under Mike McCarthy, whom Jerry fired because he couldn’t get the Cowboys over the hump — giving the keys to Brian Schottenheimer, a mediocre coach in his own right. Stephen has always been there to cater to his father’s worst tendencies, typified by the trade for Joey Porter Jr. Make no mistake: He’s a phenomenal football player, but it’s the kind of shortsighted deal you make when you’re convinced the team is one player away, not for where Dallas is now.
Brian Schottenheimer is a problem. The Cowboys coach now has a 9-12-1 record, he’s dragged the team down since arriving and has tinkered in a way that has caused demonstrable damage to Dak Prescott’s game. Schottenheimer admitted that he was changing too much with respect to the QB position, which is a wild admission when you have a 10-year pro under center and you’re treating him like a third-year QB who need to be rebuilt. In addition, Schottenheimer didn’t really have answers as to why the clock management was so bad at the end of the Cowboys’ loss to the Ravens in Brazil. It’s become apparent that his hiring was a massive mistake, and that Dallas would be a better team right now if they kept Mike McCarthy, or the promoted Kellen Moore instead of losing him, or hell — if they even kept Jason Garrett at this rate.
It’s not entirely his fault, but Dak Prescott has become a problem too. The one thing that dooms NFL offenses isn’t necessarily bad QB play, but inconsistency. Unfortunately for Prescott, he’s become an incredibly inconsistent quarterback capable of phenomenal highs and also staggering lows. One game he’ll look like an All-Pro worthy of being named a Top 3 QB, then the next he’ll play like he did on Thursday night, struggling against a defense that ranked 21st in pass defense entering Week 5. Dak has become a fairweather QB. If CeeDee Lamb is getting open routinely, and the run game is clicking — then he’ll pick teams apart. Get hit with a little adversity and instead of solving the problem, Prescott will have a tendency to force the ball, try to will something to happen, and put himself in a hole as a result.
Not to be left out, the Dallas defense is also an issue. The belief was that hiring Christian Parker away from the Eagles would allow this team to emulate Philadelphia’s defensive success, but instead it’s been a mess. Despite having solid talent on that side of the ball, the defense is ranking near the league’s worst in every single statistical category. The Cowboys are 24th against the pass, 30th against the run, 28th in points allowed — and 30th in overall defense. When you have a porous defense it plays into the worst traits of this Dallas offense, putting the team in a hole and asking Dak to throw his way out of it — which is what leads to so many uneccesary turnovers.
Oh, and special teams allowed blocked field goals in back-to-back games, just for good measure.
The worst part about all this for Cowboys fans is that there’s no easy way out. There isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. It might take time to fix if this was simply a coaching problem, a QB problem, or defensive issues — but everything flows out of the Joneses at the top. Neither Jerry, nor Stephen are going away, and their unbelievable knack for making horrible decisions is indicative of most things when billionaires get involved. The Cowboys are a mess once more, mediocrity is their brand, and there’s no escape.