The Dallas Cowboys found a way to win a football game on Sunday, but the mood across Cowboys Nation remained surprisingly somber. Losing this matchup would have been absolutely devastating, for all intents and purposes ending their season. Falling four games behind the New York Giants in the loss column is a hole simply too deep to climb out of, especially with a brutal stretch of schedule coming soon. This made Sunday’s win super important, yet at the same time, it offers very little reassurance.
The Cowboys may have secured the victory, but once again, what they showed on the field revealed a team that continues to make life incredibly difficult for themselves, even when facing bad opponents. The game looked eerily similar to the prior week’s letdown against the Arizona Cardinals. In a game where it felt like the Cowboys were in complete control, they chose to play around rather than put their opponent away, eventually leading to another shocking moment where they suddenly found themselves trailing late in the fourth quarter.
The most troubling part of this situation is how familiar this has become. Over the last two weeks, the team has reproduced that exact gut-wrenching feeling that gave fans major anxiety during those consecutive nail-biting weeks against Baltimore and Houston earlier in the year.
It’s the same story. They begin slowly, eventually start to get their act together to build a lead, and then watch it gradually wither away. Fortunately, against the Texans earlier in the season, they were able to escape with a victory thanks to a game-winning drive on the back of a clutch fourth-down conversion. But down in Rio, they weren’t so lucky. Instead of punching the ball into the end zone with just a handful of seconds left on the clock, the offense sputtered and settled for a field goal, allowing the Ravens to make the game-winning play themselves.
The heartbreaking finish left fans playing the what-if game and asking why the Cowboys keep letting this happen. Fast forward a month later, and the exact same scenario is unfolding all over again, except this time it is happening against even worse teams.
The Arizona debacle last week was an absolute horror show. The Cardinals did not score a single point until late in the first half and were down by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter before things completely fell apart. The most infuriating part is that the offense had the opportunity to run out the clock if they could have secured one measly first down late in the game. They failed, the Cardinals mounted a comeback, and fans everywhere watched their team collapse.
On Sunday, it looked like it was happening again. It was painful to watch the offense struggle so mightily to score touchdowns against a poor Colts defense. Up until the final 70 seconds of the game, the offense had only found the end zone twice, and it required a clutch fourth-down grab by Jake Ferguson and a huge coverage breakdown for CeeDee Lamb’s big touchdown right at the end of the first half.
Strangely enough, clutch fourth-down execution from Ferguson and Lamb exploding for over 180 receiving yards were identical saving graces in each of their close victory against their AFC South opponents this year. Imagine if those two things didn’t happen? The Cowboys would be sitting at an abysmal 2-7 with a completely dead season, and the entire fanbase would be stressing over how the New York Jets are about to inherit a top-five draft pick courtesy of the front office.
All of this is to say that the Cowboys are an absolute mess right now. Are they still within striking distance of the NFC East crown? Sure, but we must remind ourselves that the schedule gets significantly tougher over the second half of the season, and this group has not beaten a single opponent with a winning record all year. In fact, they are 1-5 against teams with a record of 3-6 or better. That is a scary statistic.
Of the final eight opponents left on the schedule, five currently boast winning records. The month of December looks particularly ominous, featuring a four-game stretch against teams who all currently have a winning record. The storm is coming.
For a team that struggles to put away struggling teams, anticipating how they will hold up against stronger opponents is frightening. This team shows zero signs of turning the corner or correcting their chronic mental lapses. Instead, they prefer to lollygag and repeatedly engage in unnecessary wild finishes.
All of this seems avoidable. They have to be better than this, but sadly, they just refuse to play like it. Hang on to your drama subscription because it won’t be going away anytime soon.
