ARLINGTON — In the early ‘50s, shortly before the Sooners embarked on an epic 47-game winning streak that remains the longest in NCAA history, George Cross made an impassioned budget request for his university that went over with Oklahoma’s state legislature like he’d filibustered the phone book.
“Yes, that’s all well and good,” a state senator said, “but what kind of football team are we going to have this year?”
The exasperated president’s smart-aleck reply made national headlines, not to mention history books.
“We want to build a university,” Cross said, “our football team can be proud of.”
Believe it or not, this is the stuff your intrepid reporter thought about Sunday at JerryWorld while watching the Saints humiliate the Cowboys, 44-19. Most embarrassing loss since, well, the last time the home team played here. Got a little monotonous Sunday. My mind wandered like Alvin Kamara through Mike Zimmer’s defense.
Which is how I ended up with this take on the Cowboys after a couple of wildly-divergent results this season that defy comparison:
They’re trying to build a team that could make their kicker proud.
God bless Brandon Aubrey, as reliable as rain at the Nelson.
Everyone else is on a week-to-week basis.
Only a week ago, after an opener in Cleveland that surprised SportsDay’s panel of experts, Zimmer was the toast of the town as well as the rest of the league. Former NFL players raved on TV about the superiority of his scheme over Dan Quinn’s. Drew Brees, the patron Saint, told Jon Gruden that he’d expended “more mental energy” over the years preparing Zimmer’s defenses than anyone else’s.
Micah Parsons assured us then it was only the beginning.
“The sky,” he said, “is the limit.”
His still likes the scheme, if you were wondering.
“We just got outplayed,” he said.
Of course, it wasn’t all on the defense. Besides Aubrey, who went 4-for-4 with hits of 52, 38, 48 and 40 yards, the Cowboys’ only other score came when CeeDee Lamb ducked under a couple of defensive backs who overran the play and went 65 yards as a result. That sentence pretty much covered the Cowboys’ highlights.
Otherwise, they were 0-for-3 in the red zone and allowed the Saints to score on each of their first six possessions. Kamara tied a record for Cowboys opponents with four touchdowns — three rushing, one receiving — while piling up 115 yards on 20 carries.
Derek Carr, whom the Saints claimed from the bargain bin at T.J. Maxx for $37.5 million a year, posted a perfect passer rating of 158.3 in the first half, when New Orleans built an insurmountable 35-16 lead.
Meanwhile, Dak Prescott looked a lot like he did the last time he played here, before Jerry Jones dropped a bank on him this month.
Dak might have been the only person in the building who didn’t see the similarities between last year’s exit and the home opener.
“I wouldn’t waste my time if I was y’all trying to compare those two,” Dak advised.
Fat chance, pal.
Frankly, what else was anyone supposed to think after the most embarrassing exit in Cowboys’ playoff history, followed by an offseason in which the club didn’t do much of significance, and a home opener in which they picked up on the theme?
No sooner did fans get their hopes up after the win over the Browns than the Cowboys pulled the rug out from under them Sunday.
In what’s become a recurring theme, Dak blamed the media, in part, for making too much of a Cowboys win the week before, thus setting them up for failed expectations. Point taken, I guess. But it wasn’t a good look when he added that his only real regret in the game was an interception by Tyrann Mathieu, even though it would have been picked by another Saints DB if the Honey Badger hadn’t gotten to it first.
In fairness, I give Dak credit for cleaning up his mess by tackling Paulson Adebo after another interception.
Might have been the hardest hit by a Cowboy all day.
The message in the Cowboys’ locker room afterward apparently was that they weren’t going to go undefeated, anyway. Put that on a billboard. Jerry didn’t deny he was “concerned” but told us not to worry. It’s early, he said. Said it four times, in fact.
Funny, but no one said it was early after the win over the Browns. They were only too happy to let us think this team had put the past year behind it. Then they rubbed fans’ faces in it Sunday.
If the droves heading to the exits early in the fourth quarter like it was a fire drill didn’t send a message, the Cowboys should have received it when a couple waved their arms on the Godzillatron, begging for noise. All it raised was a buzz that didn’t mitigate the “Who dat?” drumbeat.
They got themselves in this mess, fans seemed to be saying.
They can get themselves out.
Don’t count on Brandon Aubrey to keep bailing out this team, either. Sooner or later, he’s going to need a little help.
Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN
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