The home field advantage has been lost.
Defensive tenacity has faded.
Offensive power has been absent.
And when Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones turned 82 on Sunday, his birthday became another milestone marking 27 consecutive seasons of scrambled and burned football schedules. Both in the short term (an embarrassing 47-9 home loss to the Detroit Lions) and in the long term, via a reminder that Jones’ Cowboys haven’t won anything of significance in the Super Bowl since he was He was in his early 50s and was the only one The sanitary pads Dak Prescott wore were diapers.
Let that be your frame of reference as these Cowboys head into their bye week. Plagued by injuries in defense, lacking identity in attack. Led by a head coach who is on the clock, stuck at 3-3 and staring at the distant taillights of the NFC’s most competent teams.
The NFC East? The Washington Commanders (4-2) look better.
The entire NFC North, from start to finish, is probably better.
The Atlanta Falcons of the NFC South (4-2)? Probably better. Even the San Francisco 49ers, who are also 3-3 like the Cowboys and have their own problems, are miles ahead.
As of Sunday, the Cowboys have lost four straight at AT&T Stadium, including blowout losses to the Lions, the New Orleans Saints in Week 2 and the Green Bay Packers in last season’s playoff debacle. The offensive line is a disaster. The offensive scheme is unbalanced and defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer seems lost trying to fill the shoes of his predecessor, Dan Quinn. Even AT&T Stadium’s social media department is having some truly embarrassing moments, at one point posting a photo of the home crowd at X along with a Sunday attendance figure, but deleting the game result because it was so out of control. That, of course, caught the attention of the Lions’ social media account, who then criticized him.
In the midst of all this, Jones is not only getting older, but also apparent out of touch, with a curiously undefined plan of action that seems chained to the belief that it will simply get better as time progresses. It could…enough to get Dallas into the postseason and make coach Mike McCarthy’s expiring contract the only thing anyone is really talking about down the stretch.
After Sunday’s loss, Jones told reporters he didn’t have many answers, other than the hope that the bye week offered a chance for change.
“This was very worrying and very humbling… We have a lot of work to do. I’m glad we have this bye week here,” Jones said. “It’ll give everyone a chance to go out and practice which leads to more success in a game like this.
“This was a surprise. I thought we would do a lot of things better in that football game and I think we can do it. We just didn’t do them today. I don’t have many answers to “what are you going to do about it?”: let’s get to work. We’re going to use the young guys we have out there, the reps they’re getting, the experience they’re getting, we’re going to try to use that to help put us in position to win some games.”
This is the thing about that week off: the calendar is a buzzing sound that comes from it.
So far, the Cowboys’ three wins have come at the expense of a spiraling 1-5 Cleveland Browns franchise, the 2-4 New York Giants and a 4-2 Pittsburgh Steelers team that he’s still learning how to score with Justin Fields. at the quarterback. Leaving goodbye? In Weeks 8-12, they get a 49ers team that’s getting healthier, a Falcons team that’s finally settling into the offense with Kirk Cousins, an Eagles team that’s getting healthier, a Houston team Texans that is one of the best in the world. NFL (and could have Nico Collins back) and a Commanders franchise that is feisty and gaining more confidence every week.
Conversely, there’s no telling when the Cowboys will have attackmen Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence back in that stretch, or what cornerback DaRon Bland will look like returning from a stress fracture in his foot. There’s also no promise on the horizon that receivers will suddenly become anything more than CeeDee Lamb and a rotating cast of extras. The back field? Dallas needs to learn how to set up leads to function with a running game, and they certainly haven’t found a way to do that.
There is a real possibility that Dallas will be fighting for its season at the end of November. And all of that will be in the spotlight from one week to the next, with the big question of whether or not Jerry will change his coaching staff by firing McCarthy. That’s precisely what anyone could have predicted back in July, when McCarthy entered the final year of his contract. Even then, this track seemed inevitable regardless of the record. If the Cowboys were firing on all cylinders, the question would be what McCarthy needed to do to get a contract extension after the season. If the Cowboys were faltering, the question would be whether McCarthy would be fired in a last-ditch effort to save the season.
This is what Jerry Jones created for himself. So he shouldn’t have been surprised when, after his worst home loss in his 34 years as owner, he was asked if he was considering a coaching change.
“I’m not considering that,” Jones told reporters, angered by the suggestion. “Just to be clear, I’m not considering that.”
Well, he better get used to answering that question, because this is the team he built, led by the players he extended and the head coach he didn’t. Married, they’re a mediocre mess, heading into a week-long break that could be the last break to mend some of the cracks.
Happy 82nd, Jerry. This is the gift you gave yourself.