Watching the Cowboys play football only makes me feel sorry for Ezekial Elliott and Dak Prescott. Their salaries can justify a lack of sympathy for either. But watching two of the most talented players at their positions waste away on this Jason Garrett-led Cowboys team is just pathetic.
Thursday night’s loss to the Chicago Bears was a metaphor for the last decade of Cowboys football. This team is a muscle car without wheels. It’s Ben Affleck without Matt Damon. It’s hopeless.
Dallas is 0-6 against teams with a .500 record or better. They’ve lost three straight.
“We won’t be going anywhere until we win a football game,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said to a media scrum following Dallas’ 31-24 loss.
Jones, who was reportedly tear-eyed a week ago after his team’s Thanksgiving loss to the Buffalo Bills, was all-business after last night’s loss. Chicago deserved to win that game, a fact he admitted off the bat.
“We did all the things that you can do that cause you to lose football games …” he said.
Jones made it clear: he doesn’t care about the divisional race, a race the Cowboys are winning, by the way. The NFC East is especially poor this year with everyone inadvertently doing their best not to finish the season in the lead.
Jones just wants to win a football game.
“I’m not trying to be funny here,” he said. “We’ve got to win a football game. I don’t care what the standings are. I don’t care what the numbers are.”
The Cowboys thought they could come to Chicago and win against a Bears team have already done what Dallas can only dream of doing at this point — right the ship.
Chicago was 3-5 by the start of November and went 3-1 in the four games leading up to last night’s win.
Dallas took an early 7-0 lead but it took 17 plays to get there. Yes, 17 plays. The Cowboys punted the next two drives before missing a 42-yard field goal.
Down 10-7, Dallas failed to convert on third-and-four because Prescott threw to an incomplete pass to Jamize Olawale, who was completely unaware the throw was coming his way.
Then the defense jumped offsides on the Bears third-and-two to keep a Chicago drive alive that would eventually end with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Mitchell Trubisky.
Trubisky — a middle of the pack quarterback at-best — played as if he was a first-round draft pick. He was 21-31 for 244 yards and a pair of touchdowns and racked up 63 rushing yards, helping his team to a 24-7 lead.
What’s baffling about the Cowboys is they have all the pieces to be successful and yet they still fail. It’s been the story for the last decade under head coach Jason Garrett, who, for some reason, still has a job and the loyalty of Jones. He’s had both for 10 years and the Cowboys have nothing to show for it.
Garrett’s head coaching record with Dallas — his only NFL head coaching job — is 83-66. According to USA Today’s Jori Epstein, only five other coaches have longer tenures. All have a Super Bowl ring.
The Cowboys are in a particular condundrum I’ve never seen before. They need to fire their head coach while they’re in first-place in their division and in the heat of a playoff race.
It’s mind-boggling. It’s absurd. It’s Dallas Cowboys football.