FRISCO, Texas – Sell off?
Give up?
Quit?
Seriously?
Those words should never, ever be in anyone's lexicon. Especially in that of an athlete's. Ever. And if they are, sure don't want them on my side. Maybe not even yours.
Get it. The Cowboys are 3-5. They have lost three consecutive games. Worst start since 2-6 in the 2020 COVID-infected season of Mike McCarthy's first year with the Cowboys, and equal to the 3-5 start to the 2018 season. Only worse start in recent history would be the 2-7 beginning to the 2015 season when the 1-0 Cowboys lost starting quarterback Tony Romo with a broken clavicle in a Week 2 win over Philadelphia. They then lost three straight with Brandon Weeden at quarterback, panicked to trade for and then start Matt Cassel in the next four games, all losses, thus the 2-7 start on the way to a 4-12 record. Also lost newly re-signed Dez Bryant for five games that year after he fractured his fifth metatarsal in the season opener.
Any of this sound familiar?
And here the 2024 Cowboys are, dealing with multiple injuries to Pro Bowl players and now the prospect of losing quarterback Dak Prescott for multiple weeks if not the season. They're facing an uphill battle starting with the 6-2 Philadelphia Eagles up next, Sunday, 3:25 p.m., national TV at AT&T Stadium. And I'm sure the way things have been going, there will be a whole bunch of Eagles fans with those Cowboys season ticket holders selling out, turning AT&T Stadium way too green.
To make matters even more difficult come Sunday, the Eagles come in riding a four-game winning streak, albeit at the expense of three teams with 2-7 records and now one at 4-6. Not exactly what the Cowboys have endured during this three-game losing streak, losing to teams with records of 7-1, 4-4 and 6-3.
OK, not good. Nor the optics of having problems stopping the run and now facing the NFL's second-leading rusher Saquon Barkley – already with 925 yards rushing, six rushing touchdowns, with four runs of at least 34 yards – and a team averaging 174 yards a game on the ground. The Eagles have at least rushed for 113 yards in every game this season, and more than 200 twice.
Making matters even more complicated when it comes to big plays, the Eagles have with Jalen Hurts at quarterback nine pass plays of at least 40 yards, although Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni points out they are being caution this week with Hurts' sore ankle, though by Friday taken off the injury report. Don't look now, but the Eagles come in with the NFL's sixth-ranked offense and third-ranked defense.
Hey there, Cooper Rush, now the Cowboys' starting quarterback with Trey Lance just one play away from playing his first snaps in two years, let's go. And even though knowing the Cowboys' recent offensive struggles, especially with protection, Rush saying, "We're just trying to beat Philly."
Tall task. But in the memorable words of Yogi Berra, "It ain't over until it's over." Right?
But darn it, that's what these guys have signed up for. You play 17 games. No matter how many wins or how many losses. You prepare. You play. By golly, you don't quit. You are getting paid, and believe me, no one wants to put bad tape out there, knowing at any moment free agency can be around the corner.
And that goes for the coaching staff, too, especially if on the final year of a contract, knowing just like the players, unemployment can be right around the corner.
"We still got to have that fighting mentality," says CeeDee Lamb.
Says McCarthy, "I think it's important to just to win the game," when asked about taking a look at Lance instead of Rush.
And why wouldn't they? Teams in the NFL have recovered from losing records. And don't be sitting there quoting me these statistics about what happens to a team losing five of the first eight games of a season. Analytic percentages don't factor in factors, like who you've played, who you have been playing without and how young and inexperienced the players are you've been playing with.
If there is any backbone, you don't quit.
Take last year for a couple of examples. Green Bay began the 2023 season with a 2-5 record. They were no more than 6-8 with three games to go. But they went on a three-game winning streak to finish the regular season 9-8, grabbed the final wild-card playoff berth and then whooped the Cowboys in the first round, 48-32. Or take the Rams, starting off 2-6, yet finishing 10-7 for a playoff berth and losing in the first round to Detroit, but just by one point.
Or like this year, Cincinnati starting the season 1-4, and came within a last second two-point conversion that failed against Baltimore Thursday night from now reaching 5-5, losing, 35-34.
Did any of those teams give up? Did they quit? Did they start selling off star players?
But here has been McCarthy having to answer questions about team "morale." About his locker room. As if the losing has taken such a toll these players are waving the white flag, when in reality they just haven't played well enough with as many as four starters with Pro Bowls in their career now having missed 20 games and three more would-be starters having missed 15 games.
Now Dak becomes an MIA, and who knows about Pro Bowl guard Zack Martin, having missed both practices this week with a shoulder injury, though this time not because of previous misses with veteran "rest." This seems real.
So how 'bout it, Mike? You still got this team's attention?
"The reality of what goes on inside the locker room, the coaching, the operation, it's really been very consistent," McCarthy says. "I think like anything, all of us, and it's really been like this my whole career, when things don't go the way you want them to go, you knuckle down and go a little harder. That's the only thing I've seen.
"I haven't seen anything change. You look at the practice tape, and I've always just used young guys, saying we got some young guys playing, they're growing. That's part of your practice climate established here. So I haven't seen any drop off, the weight room … this particular team clearly is a very consistent football team."
And when it comes to that "morale" question?
"Morale? We all want to win," he says. "It's frustrating and it's hard, and because you got to answer questions like this. That's part of our job, but I don't see really any drop off. Good to be home, need to win a home game, haven't won a home game this year."
As for a ray of sunshine with the dark clouds hovering overhead, appears Micah Parsons, after missing the past four games with a high ankle sprain, will return on Sunday. Has practiced this week on a limited basis, and in all likelihood, after not playing in a game for six weeks come Sunday, will play on a limited basis. Think pass rush.
And even Parsons was asked about Cowboys owner Jerry Jones not selling at the trade deadline, something Jerry never does. Never throwing in the towel. And you know, when Micah talks, people listen.
"Yeah, I talked to Jerry. He came down and he watched me work out last week, and he was just like, 'I've been here before. (Roger) Staubach called me, he was like, "We were 3-5 (one season), and we still made a run,'" Micah says, Staubach likely referring to the 1974 season when the Cowboys got off to a 1-4 start, yet finished 8-6, a victory over Washington short of a wild-card berth into the playoffs. "So that gives Jerry his old-school beliefs. And when your owner believes in it, and he truly believes these are the right guys, that gives confidence to the guys in the locker room. It should because your owner believes in you. Even though you haven't had the most success and things aren't going your way, he still believes that you could still do great things.
"And honestly you should. This is, what, we've been a winning team, a 12-5 team the last three years. Obviously, we've got more losses at this point than we ever had, but you know, the high hopes in the players are still here. We've just got to stop beating ourselves, and that's the penalties and things like that.
"So let's play ball."
Hut-hut.
Maybe McCarthy in the locker room before the game, needs to go full-blown John Belushi from Animal House, the memorable line he reminded his housemates when they were kicked out of school for bad grades and sat moping around, memorably shouting, "What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is. Was it over when the Germans (sic) bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no. It ain't over now 'cause when the goin' gets tough … the tough get goin'.
"Who's with me? Let's go! Come on!"
OK, a tad corny, but you get the point. There is no quit in football.
