FRISCO, Texas – This is it.
The last game of the rough and disappointing 2024 season for the Dallas Cowboys, noon Sunday at AT&T Stadium against the playoff-bound Washington Commanders.
Last game, but unfortunately nothing the Cowboys can do to prevent a third-place finish in the NFC East, already knowing Philadelphia will win the division title and Washington will finish in second place.
Last game potentially for 22 Dallas players in the final years of their contracts, and that includes Zack Martin and DeMarcus Lawrence, stellar players during their careers who are now on injured reserve, and starters such as Rico Dowdle and Brandin Cooks and Osa Odighizuwa and Eric Kendricks and Chauncey Golston and Jourdan Lewis.
Last game for the Cowboys to give now backup quarterback Trey Lance a chance to start for the first time since Week 2 of the 2022 season while he was in San Francisco.
Last game for Pro Bowl kick returner KaVontae Turpin to increase his NFL-leading kickoff return average of 33.6 yards by two yards to set an NFL single-season record that's stood since 1970.
Last game for Pro Bowl kicker Brandon Aubrey to kick one more field goal to reset his franchise mark of 36 field goals in a single season or make a third 60-yarder this season to set that NFL single-season record.
Last game for running back Rico Dowdle to add one more yard to his 1,007 rushing yards to put up the most single-season franchise rushing yards since Ezekiel Elliot gained 1,357 yards in 2019.
And who knows what is going to take place, but potentially last game for head coach Mike McCarthy and his entire coaching staff. They are all on the final year of their contracts with those contracts expiring nine days after the final game (Jan. 14).
McCarthy seems unfazed about the uncertain future. So say the coordinators, to a man believing this is life in the NFL, And they've all been through this unknown lurking overhead at some point in their careers. They know they all still have a job to do come Sunday. It's a 17-game season, no matter if you're 7-9 like the Cowboys or 9-7 with an outside chance at a playoff spot.
"I'm running through it. I think it's so important for me to be the same every day. I'm the leader. I take a lot of pride in that," McCarthy said. "I just want to win the game and hold everybody accountable to do the things we need to do to put ourselves in position."
As for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, he says the overriding intent on Sunday is, "We all want to win, and we want to have the last game of the year with a win. That's important."
Maybe special teams coach John Fassel is the poster child for this nomadic life these coaches lead. Remember, his late father Jim Fassel was a life-long football coach. John was born in 1974. Says he moved about a dozen times while his dad chased his coaching career that led him to become the New York Giants head coach from 1997-2003.
Why, he remembers sitting in the stands at Giants Stadium in 2003 and having to hear the fans start chanting, "Fassel must go! Fassel must go!"
"I'm sitting there, dang, 75,000 people mad at my dad. He's trying his ass off," John said. "Growing up a coach's son hardened me. It hardens you a little bit, I think in a good way. It doesn't make you resentful. It doesn't make you hate the game. It's pretty fickle. Sometimes it goes great and sometimes it doesn't."
And the hardest part of this coaching business is on the family, especially the kids having to move at times from pillar to post. This is the part most people overlook when calling for a coach or a coaching staff to be fired. Many of us have been through this with jobs we've had. We know.
Can tell you a personal one singed into my memory back on Dec. 8, 1991. Was working at the Dallas Times Herald, covering the Cowboys, when the phone call came into the press box the morning of the team's game at Texas Stadium against New Orleans. Our sports editor delivered us the news the company owning The Dallas Morning News was buying out our paper to close us down, to eliminate any competition, and we would be publishing our last edition for Monday morning.
Just like that. Out of the blue. No warning.
Members of our staff hung out in the Cowboys locker room after the game waiting for Jimmy Johnson to emerge from the coaches' quarters. The players were all gone by then. Jimmy was the last one to leave. Certainly, an uncomfortable situation for all of us, just wanting to say so-long. Jimmy knew what had gone down. What's he going to say, right? And taking the emotion out of the equation, Jimmy said, "Well, now you know how coaches feel," meaning when they suddenly get fired without warning. He was right. We did.
Remember later that evening after we somehow finished our final stories, indeed our last game, meeting the wife and our daughter in the press box lounge afterward, and our then 13-year-old was crying, thinking, Well, here we go, having to move again.
Sometimes we must remember this is more than just a game. Nothing fantasy about this stuff. It's real life.
Same for the players. Granted, they all are paid well to perform. But there is another part of life for them too. Just ask a guy like Brandin Cooks, one of those in the last year of his contract, one last game to play. This two-year stay with the Cowboys is his fifth team.
Or take 13-year veteran Brian Anger. This is his 13th season in the NFL. Fourth team.
Or linebacker Eric Kendricks, his 10th year in the NFL, and after eight years with the Vikings, he's now on his third team in three years.
Moving around is tough. Moving at times by yourself and leaving your family members in place for their own good likely tougher.
So we shall see what happens after this game against Washington, and at this point, win or lose, probably won't greatly factor into the decision owner Jones and COO son Stephen Jones must make in the coming weeks. As Jerry said during his Friday morning radio segment on flagship station 105.3 The Fan, when asked if the result of this last game will have any effect on his decision going forward: "But no, the hay is in the barn, really, as far as our staff is concerned and the qualities of each of the coaches."
Sometimes it's best to take the emotion out before making that final call to either stay the course or move on. Not easy. Lots of moving parts to consider, and No. 1 to me is who might be next if there indeed is a next. As that old saying goes, "A bird in hand is better than two in the bush."
And this one is not so cut and dried. Like, well, the Cowboys went 7-and-whatever in the end. Did not qualify for the playoffs. Did not advance to the NFC title game. Again. Now 29 seasons will have passed without a Super Bowl title for a franchise that had played in eight of those ultimate games from 1970 through 1995. And let's not forget also in back-to-back NFL title games in 1966-67 when the Super Bowl at that time played against that AFL champion wasn't all that.
There is not one team among the 14 heading into the playoffs that is without its starting quarterback. Quarterbacks matter, and Cowboys backup Cooper Rush already has played 52.3 percent of the offensive snaps this season after Dak Prescott went down in Game 8. Probably no playoff-bound team has had to make do during the season without eight players who had been to Pro Bowls at some point in their careers, and likely not with five of those finishing on IR. Not to mention having started seven different players at cornerback, and who knows, possibly an eighth this last game.
How about five different defensive ends starting, and a sixth (Sam Williams) expected to start this season going down for the count during training camp. Oh, and let's not forget DeMarvion Overshown, still the team's second leader in tackles, is on IR and will miss his fourth consecutive game on Sunday.
Even Jerry conceded, "The circumstances what we dealt with this year" will be taken into consideration.
He's right. That's been a lot, not to be overlooked.
All taking its toll.
And so, finally we are here. Game 17.
Maybe mercifully this indeed is the last game.
