There was plenty of anger and frustration around the Dallas Cowboys organization Sunday following a 48-32 home loss to the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card Round of the NFL Playoffs. Whether it was Jerry Jones going off on the performance and not committing to the future of his coaches or players, or fans yelling at each other in the stands when the game was all but over, it was an ugly sight in Dallas.
Cowboys fans are turning on each other now
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) January 15, 2024
But where does the blame go? The Cowboys are a proud franchise that feels that they should be in the Super Bowl every single year. Yet, they haven’t played or won a Super Bowl since the 1995-96 season. To give some perspective, Blockbuster was the closest thing to streaming, an actual cell phone was a new concept, and Dak Prescott was still wearing diapers.
There have been 20 teams who have been to the Super Bowl since the 1995-96 season, and Dallas is not one of them.
While every year Dallas fans claim that this is ‘their year’ for once, it actually sort of felt like it might be, or at least be a year where they make it to the NFC Championship Game to face off against San Francisco. Yet, here we are, with the Cowboys once again coming up way short of expectations. There is plenty of blame to go around, but who ultimately gets the most blame? It has to come down to one of three people: Dak Prescott, Mike McCarthy, or Jerry Jones.
Dak Prescott Threw Two Costly INT’s in the First Half
Dak Prescott is a good quarterback, but he isn’t dependable enough. Throughout his career, he has been an interception-prone quarterback who has kept offensive coordinators and coaches hesitant to really let him take over a game. Last year, he led the league in interceptions, and the concern was that if he didn’t get that fixed, 2023-24 would be his last season in Dallas.
For the most part, Prescott did improve. He had a 36/9 TD-to-INT ratio, which ranked in the top half of the league. It seemed like, finally, Prescott had a strong hold on the offense and was commanding things well.
But then Sunday happened.
Call it not rising up to the moment, or a terribly timed bad game, Prescott essentially handed the Packers 14 points with two first-half interceptions. The first was inside the 20-yard line, giving the Packers an extremely short field, and the second was a pick-six that went for a 64-yard touchdown.
Sometimes the interceptions come off of tipped balls, or bad routes. Both of these interceptions were clearly on Prescott. But are these really his fault? Well, yes they are, but should he really be the starting quarterback for the Cowboys? That is more debatable.
Mike McCarthy Has Failed to Elevate the Team Enough
Mike McCarthy is a proven coach. He is a Super Bowl Champion Coach. In fact, there are only seven current coaches who have won a Super Bowl as Head Coach. But just because he did it once, doesn’t mean he is automatically a great coach for today’s game.
McCarthy has had four entire seasons to build up this team. Aside from his first season, which is forgiven by most fans for inheriting a bad team/injury to Prescott in Week 5, McCarthy has led the Cowboys to three consecutive 12-5 regular seasons.
By all accounts, that is a successful coach, and in most spheres would be considered a lock at staying with a team. However, his playoff record is a different story. McCarthy is now 1-3 in Playoff Games with the Cowboys, with two of those losses coming as the odds-on-favorite to win.
On a team where the expectation is the Super Bowl, going 1-3 in the NFL Playoffs isn’t good enough. Going 12-5 three years in a row shows success, but it also shows that the team isn’t drastically improving. They are stagnant as a good team.
This is Jerry Jones’ Team
Jerry Jones purchased the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 and has three Super Bowl winning teams from 1992, 1993, and 1995. Jones has also been instrumental in bringing in the modern model of televising games and getting big markets recognized. He also was part of the Rams moving from St. Louis back to Los Angeles. In other words, Jerry Jones isn’t the kind of owner who purchases a team, sits back, and cashs in a paycheck while letting everyone else do the hard work.
Jerry Jones was not afraid to make bold statements from the get-go, letting go of fan-favorite coaches and personnel, and it worked. Despite Tom Landry having some bad seasons prior to Jones’ purchase of the team, fans loved him, but Jones didn’t care; he was in to win, and for the first decade, he did.
One has to wonder if Jones has lost some of that thunder. While he still talks a tough game, since starting with an overall 12-3 Playoff/Super Bowl record, since 1998, the team has gone an embarrassing 3-11 overall. Jones has gone through six coaches in that same time span with none of them able to take the Cowboys to a Super Bowl.
Yes, a general manager only has so much control over what happens once a coach is hired, but it is ultimately his job to hire the right coaches. It is also his job to draft the right players (along with the head coach). That simply hasn’t been done since the turn of the century.
Who is Ultimately to Blame For the Dallas Cowboys’ Woes?
There is a lot of blame to go around. Prescott had a tough game. McCarthy seems unable to coach the Cowboys to a win in the Playoffs, but ultimately, this is on Jerry Jones.
When you’ve got a sample size of 26 years since winning the last Super Bowl, and it’s a brand as big as the Cowboys, there is enough time to see that the issues lie somewhere at the top. Whether that means getting the wrong coaches, drafting the wrong players, or creating a culture that isn’t conducive to post-season success, something is wrong, and ultimately, the lion-share of the blame needs to be put on Jerry Jones’ shoulders.
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What do you think? Who do you think is to blame? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll respond back!
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