Let’s step away from that game in San Francisco that looked, to Cowboys fans, a bit too much like every other game with San Francisco in recent years, and see the bigger picture. Dallas was 12-5 each of the last three seasons. And all this squad has to do to extend that streak is go (checks notes) 9-1 in their next 10 games.
Maybe the big picture wasn’t such a great approach.
The weekly injury report details the reasons the Cowboys defense is one of the league’s worst. Fortunately for all of us, Micah Parsons is delivering a Pro Bowl podcast season, so not all is lost over there. It’s the offense that is the reason the Cowboys find themselves closer to the Giants in the NFC East than the Eagles or Commanders.
Having Brandin Cooks on IR is no reason for a unit to collapse. And what kind of thin ice are you treading when Rico Dowdle calling in sick is cause for despair?
How did we get here? For me, it all goes back to the Trey Lance trade, a move that made no sense at the time it happened in 2023 and will ultimately net the Cowboys nothing but the loss of a fourth-round pick. That is, unless you’re so dissatisfied with Dak’s play that you’re ready to leapfrog Cooper Rush on the depth chart and take a gamble on Lance. When we last saw him, Lance was throwing five interceptions in the preseason finale against the Los Angeles Chargers.
In all likelihood, Lance won’t play a meaningful set of downs for the Cowboys before becoming a free agent after the season.
The Lance trade cost Dallas a running back this season. Maybe it cost the Cowboys a running game, period. The fourth round is when they all started going off the board last spring — Bucky Irving to Tampa Bay, Ray Davis to Buffalo and, yes, Isaac Guerendo, the 49ers’ third-stringer who cruised through the Dallas defense for 85 yards — and the Cowboys could only sit and watch. Yes, there were other opportunities later in the draft. Giants fifth-rounder Tyrone Tracy ran for 145 yards against Pittsburgh on Monday night.
Maybe the Cowboys could have used a Guerendo or a Tracy?
But Jerry Jones could only talk of his excitement at Zeke’s return before and after the draft. It’s sad enough that Elliott’s 11-yard run Sunday night was such cause for excitement. Who knew he could still do even that?
The Cowboys offense still has Dak and CeeDee and its tight end collection, and the starting offensive line Sunday night was the starting offensive line at the season’s outset. This is a team that ranked first, fourth and first in scoring the last three seasons. Now, the Cowboys are 22nd.
It’s a team that ranked ninth, ninth and 14th in rushing yards the last three years. Now, the Cowboys are 32nd. You cannot tank the running game unless you have such a dynamic passing attack that 300 yards is a given each and every Sunday. The Cowboys do not have that.
So it starts with Jones and his failure to read the tea leaves, which has happened more and more in recent years. He paid Zeke a fortune (in running back’s terms) in 2019 when everyone else was stepping away from paying backs. Now, he’s confused not paying backs with not needing running backs. Dowdle leads the team and ranks 39th in rushing. Prescott is outside the top 35 among quarterbacks running the football, so there’s no extra help coming there.
It’s hard to look at Mike McCarthy’s season and a half of play-calling and say that he has been an upgrade over Kellen Moore in any sense. Moore’s last two offenses ranked first and 11th in total yards. McCarthy’s unit ranked fifth last year and is 15th now. It’s not like particular calls (other than first-and-10 runs) stand out as overly detrimental, but this is hardly an offense with great imagination. Only Lamb’s talent allows this team to rise up from the very bottom of stoppable offenses.
As for Dak, the 3-4 record is on him the way any quarterback is held responsible (good or bad) for the bottom line. He’s 23rd in QBR and 24th in passer rating. It hardly needs to be said that’s not what the Cowboys are paying him to provide. His 63.7% completion efficiency is his lowest since 2017. And the only quarterbacks with more interceptions (Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield, Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Green Bay’s Jordan Love) are making enough plays in other ways to give their teams winning records.
Should the Cowboys try to add a running back before next Tuesday’s deadline? Would it really make a difference at this point? The club could be sitting on a 3-5 record with virtually no hope of a postseason invitation. Why squander another pick when you’ve already done that to get a quarterback who, in all likelihood, may never play a meaningful down for your franchise.
It all comes back to Trey Lance. And, as always, that means the steps of this downfall can be traced back to Jerry.
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