People tend to react in similar ways at seasons like this. “Murphy’s Law is personified by the Dallas Cowboys.” “The Cowboys will find a way to make it worse, so don’t worry.” “I trust the Cowboys to do one thing, and that is to disappoint me.”
I am referring to comments that you are familiar with. It’s likely that at some point this year, someone you know or interact with—possibly even you—has offered these to someone. We haven’t felt genuinely positive about this squad in a very long time, but their victories over division opponents and even one at home on Thanksgiving over the past two weeks did provide a small respite from the melancholy.
After a long and incredible weekend, Monday night felt like the 6 a.m. alarm for the first day. When the clock struck midnight, it brought us back to the present like Cinderella. Now we have only our thoughts as a group and a pumpkin. This weekly conversation is a forum for such ideas—three of them, specifically. Greetings and welcome to our Day After Thoughts after Monday night’s defeat by Cincinnati.
I’ll ask it again: Since the Dallas Cowboys’ January playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers, what has been your favourite Dallas Cowboys fan moment?
It’s a very challenging question to answer. Potential options include the game-winning kick by Jalen Tolbert in Pittsburgh, the punt return by KaVontae Turpin against Cleveland, or his kick return against Washington. That’s all. This squad has been extremely frustrated at every major time in the NFL calendar, which their two-game winning streak helped conceal but which the defeat exposed and brought to light again. They are now in the worst possible position for a whole month of action—meaningless football—because the loss also essentially ruined their playoff prospects, no matter how slim they were.
Given that they lost due to Amani Oruwariye’s error, it appears like Murphy’s Law has applied to this team. Over the sluggish course of an entire offseason, this club has discovered fresh and creative ways to twist the dagger of grief that they made sure to bury. What more could possibly go wrong?
Rico Dowdle should have been used this way starting Week 1
In his last three Dallas Cowboys games, Rico Dowdle has racked up 329 rushing yards. It makes a lot of sense considering that he has had at least 18 carries in each of the previous three games—no player for the Cowboys has had such a run since Ezekiel Elliott in 2020. You wonder, why is that? The point is not that Dowdle is a game-changing rushing back that the Cowboys have been stifling for more than half of the season, but it is clear that he is the team’s best option and always was. By definition, any carry in any other way were inefficient.
By not committing to this path many, many months ago, the Cowboys, at best, completely misjudged the talent on their own roster. Whether you believe that the Cowboys wanted to make Zeke a thing again out of some sort of loyalty to a favourite player of theirs (this would never happen, no way they would let a player un-retire from a completely different profession like, I don’t know, broadcasting, only to return and command a lion’s share of snaps at their position). A significant portion of the operation has to be examined and corrected.
The Micah Parsons extension talk is just around the corner from all of this
Right now, we might be a month away from the Dallas Cowboys hiring a new coach. After the regular season is complete, things can move quickly. Naturally, there is still a “if” attached to that proposal because we are unsure if the team will ultimately choose to keep Mike McCarthy. They are talking well of him right now, but with a month left, as mentioned, what else can they say?
There is no doubt that Micah Parsons’ hourglass will turn upside down as negotiations for a contract extension begin as soon as this disastrous season comes to an end. By not finishing it last offseason and by waiting until the last minute to take care of CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott, the Cowboys already wasted some time in that hourglass. They also brought a great deal of national attention to themselves—which may not have existed at the same level as it does now—for their tactics of delaying these big deals.
We can lower expectations for the head coaching search (assuming there is one) if the Cowboys move quickly to complete an extension with Parsons, which seems inevitable and an objective they would want to accomplish. On the other hand, if they delay and stall yet again, we can lower expectations for the head coaching search because nobody will be able to save the franchise from itself.