The Cowboys are watching their season slip away from them.
It would be unfair to assume that we have all been in the position that I am about to describe.
My freshman year of college I took physics for the first time (it was difficult and I had to re-take it, a point you are about to learn) and I vividly remember how demoralizing the final exam was for my internal confidence.
The subject matter was insanely difficult as was, but I can now be honest and note that I did not apply myself enough or do enough studying and prep ahead of time. This left me in a bad spot and I stared at the final exam knowing that I had no idea what to do, how to start and ultimately had to accept that I would soon enough be back taking the class.
But the exam still had to be taken and I wasn’t going to just turn it in blank. I can’t exactly recall what I filled out for each question as far as equations and all of that jazz are concerned, but I knew as I walked down the classroom to turn it in that it was a failing grade. It felt like everyone knew. I made the bed and had to lie in it.
I thought a lot about that physics exam on Sunday afternoon.
The Dallas Cowboys were me. The 2024 season is the exam. The Ravens were my walk down to turn it in.
Any and every fear we had about this team as we lamented over the offseason about their inactivity is coming to life in the most monstrous way possible.
Here are my Day After Thoughts following Sunday’s latest disaster.
This was never preventable, but it did not have to be this way
There has been a lot of conversation about Derrick Henry. To be clear, almost no one believes the Cowboys win this game against Baltimore if he had been on the opposite sideline. But this is about a point larger than Henry (although not much is).
Foregoing free agency, scoffing at the idea that it could be used to help the team, drafting completely for need, ignoring addressing the running back position in a serious way, delaying superstar and market-setting extensions until the last possible minute – it is not hyperbolic to say that everything we have seen from this team since the playoff loss has been done in about the most toxic way possible.
Name the thing they did that efficiently improved their overall operation. Seriously. we’ll take any answer.
This was all assembled in such chaotic fashion that seeing it wobble and wiggle before the first month of the season is not surprising in the least bit. Our fears that the run game would not be enough, that there were no viable pass-catching threats outside of CeeDee Lamb, that defensively this team did not have enough beef to stop the run and that relying on rookies in critical spots could prove costly are all manifesting themselves.
It did not have to be this way.
Jalen Tolbert and Hunter Luepke were lost in the chaos
On a positive note, the Cowboys did mount what some people are calling a “comeback”. A big reason for this was the emergence of Jalen Tolbert, Hunter Luepke and KaVontae Turpin. We have long believed in these players as ones who could make a difference if given the proper opportunity. The unfortunate reality right now is that the opportunities that they are being given are too intense due to an absence of other options.
Still it was impressive to see Tolbert and Luepke find their respective footing in the offense. If this team is going to survive this season then this is going to need to happen on a much more regular basis.
Thursday night feels like a must win in the worst way
Obviously every game is a must win in a literal sense, but doesn’t it feel like Thursday night carries just a little bit of drama?
When you play on Thursday night you have to wait a long time until you are seen from again. Dallas visits the Pittsburgh Steelers next week on Sunday Night Football so an enormous amount of time will go on between Thursday night and then for people to praise or ridicule them even more. Should the Cowboys lose it would be three losses in a row, the first one to the Giants in some time and Dallas would have to sit on it for double-digit days.
Would the Cowboys be so bold as to make a legitimate change in that lull? That feels doubtful. But the heat is on and everything feels like it is coming to a head.
A win on Thursday night would hardly calm everything down. But a loss… well. Yikes.
