FRISCO, Texas – Strange six games as the Cowboys limp into this bye week at 3-3.
Win three on the road. Lose three at home.
Win one, then lose two. Win two, then lose another at home.
Thus 3-3, one game out of first place in the NFC East behind Washington and a half game out of second place behind Philadelphia. So, third place. But after losing to the Lions 47-9, feels worse than really looks.
Be mindful Washington (4-2) only has to play 1-5 Carolina this Sunday. Philadelphia goes to 2-4 Giants. Both are favored to win, the Eagles though by just three points. Odds are the idle Cowboys will lose a half-game to each by time they return on Monday, the opening day for Early Voting if you have a mind to do so. But hey, who knows, it's the NFL.
Nobody is happy about any of this. Not you, not the players, not the coaching staff and darn sure not the owner, not necessarily at his players or coaching staff but provoked on his own Tuesday morning weekly flagship radio station segment and not backing off during an in-person interview after the NFL meetings in Atlanta later that day.
No one here at The Star is trying to make excuses, even though knowing two of the three losses were administered by teams with a combined 8-3 record (Baltimore and Detroit), but knowing the Cowboys were down nine starters in the Lions' 47-9 clobbering Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
Let's count the MIAs: Sam Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence and Marshawn Kneeland, all three defensive ends on IR. Then Micah Parsons, meaning the Top 4 defensive ends out. Then veteran middle linebacker Eric Kendricks, the glue to this defense. Then Pro Bowl cornerback DaRon Bland, plus Caelen Carson, who had started in place of Bland to start the season before he suffered a should injury. Then veteran wide receiver Brandon Cooks, placed on IR last week. Also rookie starting left tackle Tyler Guyton, out. That doesn't even account for his presumed veteran backup tackle Chuma Edoga and veteran backup defensive tackle Jordan Phillips on IR.
No excuses. Just the facts. That's a lot.
Heck, if not for a valiant, double-fisted fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Steelers on the road, 20-17, this record very well could have been 2-4. There would have been some serious howling at Thursday's Super Moon.
And while the coaching staff can put in extra work this no-game week, thanks to the CBA teams aren't allowed to schedule practices the rest of the bye week. Not until Monday if they choose. So not like there is going to be any head-knocking practices trying to improve.
Just rest and a chance over these two weeks before resuming against the 49ers the night of Oct. 28 in Santa Clara, Calif., of some healing taking place.
Mind and body.
- The Wrath: While Jerry Jones' wrath landed on three radio hosts during his Tuesday morning segment on flagship station 105.3 The Fan and spread like wildfire across the internet thanks to social media, most of us covering the team for the past 35 seasons have felt that wrath at some point. Me included, back on Oct. 14, 1989, two days after the Cowboys traded Herschel Walker to the Minnesota Vikings for what appeared to be a bag of beans: Four players the Vikings didn't want in the first place, before eventually finding out those players were tied to an enormous number of draft choices if the Cowboys didn't retain their rights, which they never intended to do so, thus making the trade, well, make sense. But who knew, and the next day on Friday night when taping a roundtable TV show segment, we all panned the trade. Like what in the world are these news guys doing? Well, a bad rumor started spreading that Cowboys backup quarterback Steve Walsh was tied to the trade, that after the season he was going to the Vikings, too. While covering the team for the Dallas Times Herald found out there was no validity to the rumor. But the editors wanted Jerry to comment on my story. So had to give him a call to verify, and Jerry had watched the TV show the night before. Well, he unloaded on me. I mean unloaded. Told me in no uncertain terms to "write what you want." Hey, I was wrong after the facts came out. He was right. Guess life went on, and here we are.
- Injuries Matter: Again, no excuses, but let's take Zack Martin for example. The future Pro Football Hall of Fame guard missed practice last week with a back issue, really only taking part in the walk-through practice on Friday. Injuries matter, so let's not start with that's the worst game Martin has played. Please. Probably lucky he managed to play through the back problems to even play.
- Twilight Zone: That is what the Cowboys Red Zone production has turned into after six games this season. They have scored touchdowns on just six of 16 possessions inside the 20, and points with the addition of four field goals 10 times. Scoring at just 62.5 percent of opportunities ranks dead last in the NFL, only the Eagles at 66.7 percent the only other team less than 70 percent. And their touchdown percentage of 37.5 percent ranks 30th. This must improve. Would help if their running game improves in close quarters. Plus, got to quit turning the ball over inside the 20. Of the Cowboys 11 turnovers, six have occurred in the Red Zone, and they also had a missed/blocked field goal with the ball being snapped at the 20. A team struggling to score points, now averaging just 21 points a game, can't afford to be forfeiting possessions that close to scoring.
- Who Matters: Former Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett would often say it doesn't matter where you play, "At home, on the road, in the parking lot or on the moon." Well, what matters is who you play. So, the Cowboys have won three games on the road this year, but have beaten the 1-5 Browns, 2-4 Giants and 4-2 Steelers. At home they've lost to the 2-4 Saints, division-leading 4-2 Ravens and the second place 4-1 Lions. Take last year when all five losses occurred on the road, and four of them to playoff teams: Philadelphia, San Francisco, Buffalo and Miami.
- Idle Shorts: A Cowboys teams that has excelled in the turnover differential category over the past three years, has badly plummeted so far this season. Check this out, the Cowboys finished tied for first in 2021 at plus-14, second in 2022 at plus-10 and tied for third last season at plus-11. After six games in 2024 the Cowboys rank T-28 at minus-6. Only two teams have a worse turnover differential . . . Also, the team that led the NFL last season averaging 29.9 points a game currently ranks 19th at 21 a game, and scoring no more than 20 points in four of six games . . . Good that Brandon Aubrey once again is the NFL's points co-leader among kickers, converting 17 of 19 field goals and all nine extra points, for a 60-point total . . . But good and bad that his leads the NFL with 17 made field goals (good), but bad that he also leads with 19 attempts, meaning not scoring enough touchdowns (11), and one of those was KaVontae Turpin's punt return. That ranks the Cowboys 22nd in touchdowns scored.
And let's go to Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer for this week's last word, talking after the Detroit loss about his up and down defense, one of those Jekyll and Hyde deals. Even within the opening win over Cleveland, giving up just three points in the first half and 14 in the second. Then not so good performances in the two-game losing streak, giving up 44 and 28 to the Saints and Ravens, and then improvement in the following two-game winning streak, just 15 and 17 to the Giants and Steelers.
And then this: 47 to Detroit.
"When we've been bad, it seems like it all steamrolls," Zimm begins, "it goes bad, bad, bad. Guys sometimes, guys they try to make a play – 'I'm going to do this, going to do that' – and then it gets out of whack. For the most part we're playing blocks, but we're not getting off the blocks fast enough and not converting on the play-action pass tuff fast enough. So, these are all the thing we're going to be working on harder and harder."
The veteran NFL coach knows the key to playing defense is consistency, not only from game to game but from play to play, and the Cowboys certainly with a banged-up group haven't come close to doing so.
"I thought we were making progress, and then took about eight steps back the other day," Zimmer says. "Just got to keep grinding. But I'll give them this, these guys are working hard, busting their rear ends."
Now they just need to start on a consistent basis kicking opponent rear ends.
