As a life long Dallas Cowboys Fan who grew up watching a Jimmy Johnson coached Cowboys team, I witnessed my team win three Superbowls. Unfortunately, I have not had a whole lot to cheer about over the last 27 years. For that reason, I cannot really call the Cowboys loss to the 49ers a disappointing outcome. In fact, I expected it.
The Dallas Cowboys were the number one offense in the NFL statistically, but football team stats can be misleading. Depending on which ones you are looking at, it may be difficult to get a good gauge on how your team stacks up against the rest of the league. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that the NFC East (often referred to as the NFC Least) is the weakest division in the NFL, so the Cowboys winning the division title is nothing to boast about. The Cowboys ended the season with a 12-5 record and at first glance that is a pretty decent record going into the post season; however, half of those victories came from division games in the “NFC Least” and none of those games were even close. The other six victories were against the Chargers, Panthers, Patriots, Vikings, Falcons, and Saints. The only team on that list that made the playoffs was the New England Patriots post Tom Brady. Looking at the 5 teams that beat the Cowboys this season, 4 of those 5 are playoff caliber teams and in those games the Cowboys offense struggled to do anything outside of their week 1 matchup in Tampa Bay.
The overrated offense lacked consistency and struggled down the stretch against those aforementioned playoff caliber teams. In those games, the Cowboys running game too often resembled beating one’s head against a wall repeatedly and expecting a different result. Dak Prescott struggled to pass the ball and most drives went nowhere fast. Now, considering that the Cowboys are the most penalized team in the league, combined with an offense that consistently struggles to move the ball down field against well coached teams, the Cowboys losing to the 49ers at home in the wildcard round was a foregone conclusion.
The undisciplined play is a direct reflection on the coaching staff’s failure. The offensive plays being designed all season may have worked against the bottom of the barrel teams in the league but against the top tier teams they have been proven ineffective. This is yet another failure on the part of the Cowboys coaching staff. However, the most concerning flaw with this Cowboys team is the lack of accountability at the player leadership level. True leaders do not deflect or look for scapegoats. When they make mistakes or have a bad game, for whatever reason, they own it. Not only do they own it, but they figure out how to fix it, and do their best not to repeat those mistakes again. Several times this year, Prescott has been called out by media for his struggles in post game interviews and he has not once owned up to it. Considering Dak Prescott’s role and how he is considered the unquestioned leader of this Dallas Cowboys team, it makes me question the locker room leadership on the whole. The most glaring red flag is the head coach Mike McCarthy refusing to acknowledge Prescott’s struggles against top tier defenses. When everyone sees there is a problem on the field but the head coach does not acknowledge it, it becomes pretty clear that the head coach is part of if not THE problem. We are now 2 years into the Mike McCarthy era in Dallas and there doesn’t appear to be any noticeable improvement from the Jason Garrett Era. With poorly designed plays, poor clock and game management, and a severe lack of discipline, the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the head coach.
Under Jason Garrett’s leadership, the Dallas Cowboys failed to make the playoffs in back to back years or build on any success from previous seasons. I do not have any faith that Mike McCarthy is going to have any more success than his predecessor. I predict that the Dallas Cowboys will finish sub .500 next season. They will not have the benefit of an easy schedule after winning the division this year and the lack of accountability, discipline, and the tendency to complain about the officials will not lead to improvement.
*Photo by Joe Glorioso; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
