.Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones says he’s seen worse. His Cowboys, led by head coach Mike McCarthy, are 3-7 in 2024, and they’ve lost five in a row. They’ve been injury stricken — having lost quarterback Dak Prescott and now safety Markquese Bell to season-ending surgeries while also dealing with injuries to star pass rusher Micah Parsons — and frankly, they’ve just been playing downright bad football.
Still, Jones insists he’s seen worse times in Dallas.
“We won one game my first year. One. And so, have we had rough seasons? Yes. Yeah, I’ve been around. Certainly we have,” Jones said after the Cowboys’ latest loss, a 34-10 loss to the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football, per ESPN. “And we’ve had other tough years. And this one, we didn’t anticipate the record… the way we’re playing right now, we wouldn’t have anticipated that. But, not, this isn’t — y’all have heard me tell these old stories until you’re sick — but not, you stay in this league long enough, you’ll have times like this.”
The Cowboys have seen the NFL mountaintop — with wins in Super Bowls VI, XII, XXVII, XXVIII, and XXX — but to Jones’ point, they’ve also seen some bad times. Their last Super Bowl win was in 1995, nearly 30 years ago. They haven’t been to the NFC Championship game since that season, and they’ve been knocked out of the Wild Card round in two of the last three seasons despite having arguably one of the most talented rosters in the NFL.
And that’s been the problem as of late for the Cowboys. They’ve been consistently underperforming when it matters most, but even when there’s nothing on the line anymore, they’ve been coming up more than a few dollars short. The Cowboys lost in Week 10 to the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-6. In Week 11 against the Houston Texans, they lost 34-10.
Do that mental math real quick, and you’d realize that the Cowboys have been outscored 68-6 in their past two games, and both of those games were in front of the home fans at AT&T Stadium. That would lead an even halfway awake observer of the Cowboys to assume that they’ve quit trying on this season, as the plug was unofficially pulled when Prescott went down for the season, and Cooper Rush threw for just 45 total yards in his first start after that injury.
Pay even more attention to the trends around Dallas for the past few seasons, and it would seem like McCarthy has completely lost the thread, though. He was always somewhat of a questionable hire after he completely lost Aaron Rodgers and the locker room in Green Bay before being fired in Week 13 of the 2018 season. The doubts were calmed a bit by three straight seasons of 12-5 records, but again, the Cowboys have flamed out in the postseason in each of their last three trips.
Now? They can’t even seem bothered to play competitive football anymore, and McCarthy is in the final year of his contract —meaning he’s essentially a lame duck. Again, it doesn’t take a sports psychologist to see that the Cowboys have completely checked out on the ‘ole ball coach from Pittsburgh, but Jones is insisting that any allegation of the sort is false.
Jerry Jones says Mike McCarthy hasn’t lost the Cowboys
“That losing the team stuff, that’s so overblown,” Jones said. “These guys are so, first of all, they’re natural competitors. Secondly, they’re so proud of the fact that they are professional and disappointed in maybe the way they executed the play, but that’s not anything that’s brother or first cousin to give up. … Everybody’s certainly disappointed, but that’s a big difference in not knowing that you got to put the foot in front of the other to go.”
Sure, Jones is right that the players on his roster are professionals, and as such, there is a level of professional pride that won’t ever leave an NFL sideline. Still, and even despite injuries, this is a talented roster that Jones has put together. Rush was 4-1 as a starter in 2022, but now he looks like he’s forgotten how to play quarterback. Parsons has been hurt, but he came back and got two sacks against the Eagles. He was non-existent against the Texans, though. CeeDee Lamb, when healthy, is one of the top receivers in the league. He hasn’t caught a touchdown or gone for over 100 yards receiving in three games. He’s notched 100-plus receiving yards just once this season.
McCarthy has lost the locker room. Credit to him because he’s still talking as if he hasn’t.
“I believe in this locker room. Our leadership, most of it, has been injured. There is good coming out of this. McCarthy said. “You don’t see it because we’re not winning games, but there are young men that are getting an opportunity to do more. And I do believe that will pay forward. It needs to hurry the hell up because we need it in six days. But this is just the reality of what we’re going through. I do believe because not only what they do for the organization but the energy and the effort they give me. I have every reason to believe that we can play better.”
He says that this adversity will pay off for the Cowboys in the long term. It’s a shame, though, because he won’t be around to see it as head coach.
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