The result was the same for the third week in a row, but the tone was noticeably different. Cowboys fans have gotten used to the bewildering losses; there have been seven of them in the past ten games. But in the wake of the team’s latest collapse, a 31-24 road loss to the Bears, the players, coaches, and ownership of this outfit are suddenly unrecognizable.
Gone is the optimism. Gone is the quiet confidence. Those qualities that have defined this organization all year long have now been replaced by something else. Something harder. Something with an edge. Despite their losing record, the Cowboys still sit atop their division. They still have the inside track to the fourth seed in the NFC playoffs. They still have their sights set on hosting a home game on Wild Card Weekend. But what they don’t have is answers to what has happened over the course of this disastrous season.
“Can’t put a finger on it,” said quarterback Dak Prescott in his postgame address. “I wish I could right now. If I could, obviously we wouldn’t be in this situation; we’d be getting over this and out of this slump. That’s the most frustrating part. We have the skill level, we have the players, we have the chemistry at times. But we’re not playing together as a team complementary enough when we need to, and we’ve got to figure out what it is.”
“It’s just frustrating,” running back Ezekiel Elliott echoed to reporters after the loss. “It’s not clicking. We’re not playing well. And you can’t really put your finger on it. That’s the tough part.”
NFL Network analyst and ex-Cowboy Michael Irvin took issue with that assessment.
“No, you can’t put a finger on it,” Irvin said on the air, “because it requires both hands. That’s how many issues they have had. It’s not a one-finger thing.”
Ultimately, Irvin is correct: it’s not just one thing. Baffling playcalling in key situations, a terrible kicking game, slow starts, atrocious tackling, lack of takeaways, bad special teams, poor clock management, injuries, stupid penalties, and a stubborn insistence on sticking with underachieving players have all contributed to 2019’s overall disappointment. That’s ten.
But to include within that tally the most glaring failure of a team that would seem- on paper- to be far better than their record indicates, Cowboys fans need exactly one finger more. And most of them are aiming it squarely in the direction of coach Jason Garrett.
Some expected owner Jerry Jones to fire Garrett on the spot Thursday night, maybe even leaving him behind in Chicago after the embarrassing defeat. And it’s grown from just a contingent of angry fans; scores of broadcasters- including some within the Cowboys family who have known Garrett for decades- are all but openly giving Jones their blessing to let the axe fall.
“I absolutely think the world of Coach Garrett personally,” Irvin said of his former teammate, “but I don’t know how you continue down this road with what you’ve seen on this field the last two weeks.”
If Jones has lost Michael Irvin as the Cowboys’ head cheerleader, things are catastrophically bad.
Jones has been vocal, too, albeit with what some have perceived as mixed messages. His offseason refusal to extend Garrett’s contract very plainly set the bar for the season at a place Garrett has never taken the team during his tenure. Recent quotes have made it crystal-clear that Jones expects a Super Bowl.
Dallas hasn’t been just losing games. They’ve been taken behind the woodshed and humiliated, even if the final scores never look that bad. Worse than just coming up short, the Cowboys have looked unprepared. Uninterested, even. Many during the Thursday night telecast and postgame interviews were using the word “quit” to describe what they saw most prevalently from the current Dallas roster.
Even through this brutally bad stretch of games, though, Jones has continued to stand by his embattled coach and his roster of underperforming players. Jones has preached unwavering belief and tough love every time he’s been at a microphone throughout this 2019 campaign that once held so much promise.
But like everyone else affiliated with the Dallas Cowboys these days, the man at the very top had a very different tone when he spoke after Thursday’s sobering loss.
“So much for words,” Jones said afterward. “Seriously. So much for words.”
Maybe it’s only the fact that the aforementioned goal of a championship ring is still mathematically possible that’s preventing Jones from using his one finger to show Garrett the door.
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