On Sunday, the Cowboys hosted the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Wild Card Round. This game went about as badly for Dallas as they could have imagined. The Packers were quickly off to a hot start scoring back to back touchdowns. At Halftime, it was 27-7 and while Dallas had hope, the hope quickly faded.
The Cowboys outscored and outplayed the Packers in the second half but it was a story of too little, too late for Dallas. The defense was caught off guard and just could not get a stop in the first half. Jordan Love and Aaron Jones were the key players that put an end to the Cowboys postseason.
Jerry Jones was disgusted by his team’s performance and at one point he turned the other way and refused to watch. The Cowboys had super bowl hopes but were upset in a huge way by a team that just barely made the Playoffs.
Jones’ Word to the Team
I asked #Cowboys CB Jourdan Lewis how owner Jerry Jones addressed players in final team meeting today:
“We got to win. This is the Dallas Cowboys, we had everything to win. We can’t let this feeling keep going on.”
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdESPN) January 15, 2024
The owner is obviously disappointed by the season end but many fans feel that he is to blame. He has had a great roster for most of the 2010’s and now 2020’s, yet the team cannot win the big games. He blames the players for their poor performance. While they are accountable for this loss, Jones is just as accountable.
Failure that Keeps Repeating for the Cowboys
The Cowboys have won 12 games in the past 3 seasons, yet only have one playoff win in all that time. It has become a theme at this point for fans to assume that Dallas is just a great regular season team and will lose when it matters.
It is hard not to agree with this point as the team has one of the best rosters but just can’t get it done. It is expected for Dallas to make a change at coach, whether that is hiring from within or making a splash of a hire with a coach who has a lot of history in these big moments.
Jones’ Contradictory Remarks
Jones expects to play the same with the same players every season and expects for a new outcome. If the team is going to make it back to the conference championship game at the least, they will have to make some big changes.
Now is the time for the Cowboys to make trades or free agent signings in order to better this roster and fix holes in the lineup. The biggest hole is on the offensive line, while this team was a top offensive threat, the run game was near nonexistent with Tony Pollard.
With a consistent run game, it will open up the pass game more. The line also could improve to protect the MVP candidate QB in Dak Prescott. He was under pressure nearly every pass play this season and many of those plays resulted in sacks. To answer Jones’ statement, Cowboys need to improve this roster that “had everything to win” in order to be successful in the postseason.