The home advantage has been lost.
The defensive tenacity is gone.
The attacking ability was lacking.
And when Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones turned 82 on Sunday, his birthday became just another milestone, marking 27 straight seasons of football calendars turned and burned. 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 Super Bowl consequence since he was in his early 50s and the only sanitary pads that Dak Prescott was wearing diapers.
Let that be your frame of reference as these Cowboys enter their bye week. He is struggling with injuries in defense, but his identity is lacking in attack. Led by a head coach who is on the clock, stuck at 3-3 and looking 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 first to last, is probably better.
The Atlanta Falcons of the NFC South (4-2)? Probably better. Even the San Francisco 49ers – who are also at 3-3, like the Cowboys and with their own problems – are miles ahead.
As of Sunday, the Cowboys have lost four straight at AT&T Stadium, including big losses to the Lions, New Orleans Saints in Week 2 and the Green Bay Packers in last season’s playoffs. The offensive line is a mess. The offensive scheme is unbalanced and the defensive coordinator, Mike Zimmer, appears lost as he tries to fill the shoes of his predecessor, Dan Quinn. Even AT&T Stadium’s social media department is having some very cringe-worthy moments, at one point posting a photo of the home crowd on X along with Sunday’s attendance figures, but causing the game’s score to fade because it got so out of hand. That, of course, caught the attention of the Lions’ social media account, who then took notice.
In the midst of all this, Jones is not only getting older, but also apparently out of touch, with a strangely undefined plan of action that seems chained to the belief that things will only get better the longer it goes on. It could be… just enough to point Dallas toward the postseason and make head coach Mike McCarthy’s expiring contract the only thing anyone really talks about afterward.
After the loss Sunday, Jones told reporters he didn’t have many answers, other than hope that the bye week offers an opportunity for change.
“This was very concerning and humbling… We have a lot of work to do. I’m glad we’re going to have a bye week,” Jones said. “It’ll give everyone a chance to get out there and actually practice what you need to do to be more successful in a game like this. This was a shock. I thought we could do a lot of things better in that football game and I think we can. We just didn’t do them there 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 that we have, the reps that they’re getting, the experience that they’re getting, we’re going to try to use that to put us in a position to win some ball games.
Here’s the thing about that bye week: the schedule is a buzzsaw coming out.
So far, the Cowboys’ three wins have come at the expense of a Cleveland Browns franchise that is 1-5 and on the rise, the 2-4 New York Giants and a 4-2 Pittsburgh Steelers team still learning to score with Justin Fields. at quarterback. Are you coming out of the bye? In weeks 8 through 12, they get a 49ers team getting healthier, a Falcons team finally settling on the offense with Kirk Cousins, an Eagles team getting healthier, a Houston Texans team getting one of the is the best in the world. NFL (and could have Nico Collins back) and a Commanders franchise that is feisty and gaining more confidence by the week.
Conversely, there’s no telling when the Cowboys will have edge rushers Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence back during that stretch, or what cornerback DaRon Bland will look like when he returns from a stress fracture in his foot. There’s also no promise on the horizon that the wideouts will suddenly become more than CeeDee Lamb and a rotating cast of extras. The backfield? Dallas needs to learn how to establish leads to function with a running game, and the company certainly hasn’t found a way to do that yet.
There is a real possibility that Dallas could fight for its season in late November. And that will be in the spotlight from one week to the next, with the big question being whether or not Jerry will shake up his coaching staff by firing McCarthy. That’s exactly what anyone could have predicted in July, when McCarthy entered the season in the final year of his contract. Even then, this song seemed inevitable regardless of the record. If the Cowboys were firing on all cylinders, the question would be what McCarthy had to do to get a contract extension after the season. If the Cowboys faltered, 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 of ownership, he was asked if he was considering a coaching change.
“I’m not considering that,” Jones told reporters, speaking out about the suggestion. “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 added and the head coach he doesn’t have. Married together, they are a mediocre mess and are heading into a weeklong hiatus that might be the last break to patch up some cracks.
Happy 82nd, Jerry. This is the gift you have given yourself.
