Brett's Cowboys Corner

Hey who can be mad at 3-3? Well this time it feels very different…After three 12 win seasons, how did we fall to this point? Maybe all of our problems just caught up to us.

How can you feel any optimism?

People debate whether there is such existence of a good or bad loss, I think there are good losses, and if you look at the three losses of the Cowboys. It is clear there is such a thing as a bad loss. Games against the Saints, Ravens, and Lions were ugly, where you had a clear weakness and it was attacked the entire day. There was nothing that looked positive from any of those games that you could take away. Even with the 4th quarter attempted comeback against Baltimore.

Those three losses also all came at home. If you pull the Green Bay playoff loss, that’s four ugly losses at home where honestly there was minimal hope of winning before halftime. I am not sure if we will pick up a home win until maybe Thanksgiving.

The problems with the Cowboys are rooted within the organization. We will start with the easy punching bag and the easy scapegoat to fire and say everything will be different. Eventually as we work are way up the ladder of blame, we will arrive at one constant variable that hasn’t changed within 28 years.

What is Wrong with the Cowboys?

Well let’s see how far we can take this. Starting with the past six weeks, there has been problems with tackling and defending the run game. Offensively there has been problems with your offensive line holding up and overall no creativity when it comes to play calling.

Coaching

How do we get to this point? Well you can be critical of coaching, this team does not look prepared on Sundays, and this is very evident when they come out of the tunnel start a game or from halftime, and we are punting or letting up a TD drive. This team is not physical, they don’t play strong. The defensive line gets pushed around and Linebackers can’t get escape blocks.

We know McCarthy gives a lot of veterans day’s off and has been criticized for having more light practices. That can contribute to not being ready to play on Sunday. Also, not working on play design in practice. Which in all fairness, I do not know if they do or do not work on play design in practice. Though what I do know, is come game time, running curl routes and hitches aren’t any more complex than a middle school offense.

Also, as a head coach or as a defensive coordinator, is there a challenge of getting your players to listen to you or buy into your schemes when nobody knows if you are going to be employed here in December? I mean would you listen to your boss tell you how to do your job when you believe he’s getting fired soon anyway? The Cowboys decided McCarthy was going to be on the last year of his contract and has to prove his worth. Which is weird optics, you should just extend him…because here’s an NFL secret, coaches aren’t apart of the salary cap, and you don’t have to be tied to them. You can give them a three extension and still fire them, without costing you any extra money.

Front Office / Personnel

Do you have the right guys for the job? The running back room is a perfect example, McCarthy always talks about how establishing a running game is important. But you don’t have the running backs that are good enough, and refuse to add help. Even by looking at guys who are already here, *ahem* Dalvin Cook.

The Cowboys refused to be participants during free agency and have came out and said they won’t participate at the trade deadline in the upcoming weeks, again this is a 3-3 team, if you are “ALL-IN” you need to make a move.

This trend can be studied over the course of multiple years, the Dallas Cowboys always refuse to make moves. As we watch Dan Quinn have success in Washington, we chased him out of Dallas for not being prepared in the playoffs, but maybe the problem was that Coach Quinn had to play safeties at linebacker because we didn’t have any linebackers that could play because the team ignored the position even with injuries. Exactly how now with a bunch of injuries the team refuses to address any of it with talent acquisition now and it costs them games.

The GM

The final piece of the puzzle, the buck stops here. Every decision that is made with the Dallas Cowboys from football to non-football goes through the GM and Owner Jerry Jones. That is not me saying that either, those are exact words that come from Jerry. With that being said, all of the disasters of the Cowboys season, are his responsibility right?

I fear that the football isn’t always the focus of the GM, because unlike any other professional sports organization, the GM has to always make these huge sponsorship and marketing deals, like the upcoming Formula One race happening in Arlington around AT&T Stadium.

Which is an awesome thing, and all of the business deals that Jerry makes are incredible and has helped him become a billionaire and make the Dallas Cowboys the most valued sports franchise in the entire world, and the team can play and practice in two separate billion dollar facilities.

But there is so much work being done, that it can take focus away from operating a football team. There is a reason why huge companies have multiple executives working on different branches, because it is too big for one guy to handle. Same goes for professional sports teams, their owners are not their general manager.

But if this is how you choose to run your team, than so be it. The team will play on Sundays and the fans will react, and then the media will talk about it and they may have positive things to say and they may have negative things to say. You can’t get mad at them. Referring the Jerry Jones being in the news for going off on a radio host for asking him questions that are critical of his football team. Sure we will praise you Jerry when you do the right thing, but what is right? You haven’t really been a factor in the post season in 28 years or do you want us to throw a parade in Dallas for three consecutive 12 win season? It is tough being in a position where you are constantly scrutinized, but I don’t feel any sympathy because Jerry does it to himself. As the only owner and GM in pro sports that has setup weekly interviews on the radio and makes himself available for post game press conferences.

Predictions

As I look forward, I struggle to find six more wins for a winning record. Sorry Cowboys but the years of feasting on a weak division and coasting into the post season might be over.

I think the team will finish 3rd in the division and will be lucky to have 8 wins.

There could be changes in scheme and your injured players could come back better than ever. But I think the problems of the Cowboys are rooted way deeper than the 2024 season. The ugliness of that truth is going to be very evident this offseason.

As Micah Parsons will likely begin his hold out for a new deal, will you pay another player 35 million dollars a year? The Cowboys have some salary cap issues coming up, the only way out is blowing it all up for a rebuild. I don’t think your Owner wants to ever commit to that…