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Morning After Wk 10 -'24 is Cowboys Worst
Those of us who had major concerns about the path of this season had no idea how bad it could get by early November. Now we know.
Bob Sturm
Nov 11, 2024
For years, a large part of this fanbase has struggled with perspective when it comes to being bad. Take, for example, the stretch from 2011-2013, when the Cowboys finished 8-8 three years in a row, and, incredibly, played the final game of each season with a chance to make the playoffs—only to lose each time. To make it even more entertaining, as if scripted, they rotated rivals to take turns. In 2011, it was the Giants; in 2012, Washington; and in 2013, the Eagles.
Win just one of those three games, and they would have made the playoffs as a 9-7 team—good enough for playoff football, but certainly not a contender for a major prize.
Each year, they lost that game and finished 8-8. The result: a 24-24 record that made everyone feel like the Cowboys were embarrassing and humiliating the region. People wanted the coach, quarterback, owner, and famous players to be sent far, far away.
I remember thinking, most of these people don’t really know what bad football actually is. Cowboys fans have a warped perspective induced by historical dominance. Bad football? To them, it just means missing the playoffs.
But there are actually depths of bad football that many franchises know all too well—depths far below mediocrity.
Bad football is so bad that an 8-8 season feels like a good year. You would dream of 8-8 because your team barely manages 5-11—and not just for one isolated year, but for entire decades. For those who don’t truly understand bad and incompetent football, there are places where a 6-10 decade is the norm (my childhood can verify).
But what we’re looking at now—the 2024 Dallas Cowboys—feels ominous in so many awful ways that it’s hard to capture it accurately. Worse still, we wonder how long this journey might take to return to a familiar place of playoff contention.
Yesterday, astonishingly in front of another full stadium, they sank even further. They allowed their biggest rival to spend the weekend in town, pound the home team into utter submission, never break a sweat or look the least bit challenged, play the JV team late in the game, and fly away laughing.
The Philadelphia Eagles must have felt more strain during a Wednesday practice. Sure, there was a pass rush to handle, but the two teams couldn’t be further apart in terms of quality and depth across the field. The Eagles aren’t perfect, but they are far superior to the Cowboys right now. And in beating Dallas 34-6, they helped the Cowboys find what appears to be both a new low and perhaps a new normal.
This season is truly lost. The body language was telling in September, even more so in October, and now in early November, it’s deafening. There is no road back for this group of Dallas Cowboys. They are dreadful. But more importantly, they know they are dreadful and play like they just want it all to end—both the game and the season. If this were a video game, someone would pull the plug to concede a quick, painless end. But that’s not allowed here. You have to play all 17 games in an NFL season, and you could argue they barely made it to the bye week with any belief intact.
So, what happens next?
The best metaphor for what happens next was seen late in the first half of this debacle, with Dallas trailing, 7-3. It was right out of the 2-minute warning and due to a series of odd events, Dallas remained in a position to end the 1st half with the lead with a touchdown.
They were 2nd and goal from the 3-yard line and Dallas had a play-call that was perfect. The Eagles were challenging Cooper Rush to beat them and run-blitzing all afternoon. This red zone concept was play-action on a wide play to the left but then roll-out back to the right with CeeDee Lamb running against the grain to open space. Because the Eagles were determined to play the run, Lamb was against a safety and had leverage so all he had to do was run to open space where Rush could loft an easy pass for the go-ahead touchdown.
What happened next explains the Cowboys universe:
Lamb was open and the throw was fine. Lamb catches that in his sleep. But, the sun was in his eyes. You paid a WR at the very top of the industry to win plays like this and he had his job won. But, alas, here we are with the stubbornness of Cowboys football.
What do I mean? You know exactly where I am going this morning. They play in a stadium that has windows that in this portion of the year allow the sun to shine directly through them and into the players faces. Sometimes it is a player going into the sun - a QB trying to see his receivers downfield – and sometimes it is a player looking back at his QB to catch it. But invariably, in this frustrating chapter of Cowboys despair, there is a design flaw in a stadium that has an easy solution. But, rather than take the easy solution and accept the minimal blame that would accompany it, the Cowboys leader decides to do what he always does – get more stubborn.
Here is a passage from the great Jori Epstein who was there when Jerry was discussing this and assuring us that it clearly is not his fault:
That sounds like he is blaming the coach for having his team go in that direction. The coach, of course, is trying to take the ball and therefore defer on picking direction of play, but if we may circle back to the premise, I think there is something pretty silly there, too.
Either you are playing East or West at this stadium. East means your WR looks into the sun and West means your QB looks into the sun – like Jalen Hurts was on this sack:
So, sure, I guess your coach could have not played in that direction, but then maybe your QB is the one who can’t see downfield and gets sacked. Both teams are dealing with it, right?
The answer is obvious, of course. The curtains exist in the storage closet from various fights and concerts he has had in his palace. But, it won’t be used for Cowboys games and it frankly is no longer about this. It is about digging in and being stubborn. That has served Jerry Jones well enough times for him to have decided that giving in is worse than changing your ways and trying a new route.
But, maybe if it ever cost his team at a key point of a playoff game it would change, right, Bob?
Well, no. This did happen at a key spot in the 2021 NFC Playoff game against the 49ers. And nothing changed.
In fact, we have been doing this for years and years around here. My first tweet on that matter was 2011:
In 2017, he was doing his silly radio show (with the same guys he tried to fire a few weeks ago) and the topic was brought up again.
But, what we are actually discussing for this exercise is that whether it was Dak Prescott’s contract, sun through the stadium, Jason Garrett’s fate, or yes, whether he should have fired Mike McCarthy, it is a bit like dealing with your dad. The more you repeatedly ask him for permission, the worse he is going to react and probably start to respond just so you know who is in charge.
For instance, the first time it seemed McCarthy may need to go was last January when they played so poorly against Green Bay in the playoffs. We said at the time that nobody would have blamed Jones if he decides the coach is worth changing out.
Then, it happened again against Baltimore in September. Then Detroit in October. Each time, I feel like we all were waiting for the coaching change to occur. But, each time, Jerry decided that this is the path to remain on because he didn’t want the coach to escape. After Week 6, it sure looked like a firing into the bye week was worthy:
Well, the major mistakes aren’t on the coach. But we know how this business works, and we also know the coach will be fine. There are times when firing a coach sparks a team revival, but the injury to the QB has revealed some pretty steep hills to climb in that direction. A quick evaluation of Cooper Rush’s performance shows he’s simply not capable of lifting this mess. When he has won games, the team only needed him to avoid mistakes. This team needs someone to do much more than that, and bless him, but he’s not that guy.
As for firing the coach and bringing in the next guy, maybe we’ve asked Dad one too many times, and now he’s getting angry. I believe Jones has dug in once again—lest he admit how badly he botched the entire 2024 offseason. We spent July wondering if any NFL team ever had a lame-duck head coach and a lame-duck franchise QB entering a season, and we couldn’t find one—especially not one that responded with a successful year. This sport depends so much on culture and unity that when things are unstable, everything can roll into a ditch quickly, and when it does, it becomes “every man for himself” fast. That’s why it’s wise to have a firm foundation that won’t crumble in the first high wind. Dallas chose otherwise again.
The facts are ugly, and the chaos is high. Somehow, eight more games remain in these eight weeks. We have plenty of time to look ahead to 2025, and that’s my goal almost immediately. The playoffs will go on without Dallas this year, and changes are coming. Just not for eight more weeks, it seems.
Periodically, some of my old stories get sent to me by readers who are searching through the archives. This one is from Christmas Day of 2017 and even though it is not Christmas around here yet, it does seem to resonate a bit. That day, they lost a gutting home game to end another gutting season. I ended the Morning After with this:
They are existing right now as if they want to drive their biggest loyalists to go do something else with their weekends and time. And that is particularly tough thing to say when we are only in Week 10.
Those of us who had major concerns about the path of this season had no idea how bad it could get by early November. Now we know.
Bob Sturm
Nov 11, 2024
For years, a large part of this fanbase has struggled with perspective when it comes to being bad. Take, for example, the stretch from 2011-2013, when the Cowboys finished 8-8 three years in a row, and, incredibly, played the final game of each season with a chance to make the playoffs—only to lose each time. To make it even more entertaining, as if scripted, they rotated rivals to take turns. In 2011, it was the Giants; in 2012, Washington; and in 2013, the Eagles.
Win just one of those three games, and they would have made the playoffs as a 9-7 team—good enough for playoff football, but certainly not a contender for a major prize.
Each year, they lost that game and finished 8-8. The result: a 24-24 record that made everyone feel like the Cowboys were embarrassing and humiliating the region. People wanted the coach, quarterback, owner, and famous players to be sent far, far away.
I remember thinking, most of these people don’t really know what bad football actually is. Cowboys fans have a warped perspective induced by historical dominance. Bad football? To them, it just means missing the playoffs.
But there are actually depths of bad football that many franchises know all too well—depths far below mediocrity.
Bad football is so bad that an 8-8 season feels like a good year. You would dream of 8-8 because your team barely manages 5-11—and not just for one isolated year, but for entire decades. For those who don’t truly understand bad and incompetent football, there are places where a 6-10 decade is the norm (my childhood can verify).
But what we’re looking at now—the 2024 Dallas Cowboys—feels ominous in so many awful ways that it’s hard to capture it accurately. Worse still, we wonder how long this journey might take to return to a familiar place of playoff contention.
Yesterday, astonishingly in front of another full stadium, they sank even further. They allowed their biggest rival to spend the weekend in town, pound the home team into utter submission, never break a sweat or look the least bit challenged, play the JV team late in the game, and fly away laughing.
The Philadelphia Eagles must have felt more strain during a Wednesday practice. Sure, there was a pass rush to handle, but the two teams couldn’t be further apart in terms of quality and depth across the field. The Eagles aren’t perfect, but they are far superior to the Cowboys right now. And in beating Dallas 34-6, they helped the Cowboys find what appears to be both a new low and perhaps a new normal.
This season is truly lost. The body language was telling in September, even more so in October, and now in early November, it’s deafening. There is no road back for this group of Dallas Cowboys. They are dreadful. But more importantly, they know they are dreadful and play like they just want it all to end—both the game and the season. If this were a video game, someone would pull the plug to concede a quick, painless end. But that’s not allowed here. You have to play all 17 games in an NFL season, and you could argue they barely made it to the bye week with any belief intact.
So, what happens next?
The best metaphor for what happens next was seen late in the first half of this debacle, with Dallas trailing, 7-3. It was right out of the 2-minute warning and due to a series of odd events, Dallas remained in a position to end the 1st half with the lead with a touchdown.
They were 2nd and goal from the 3-yard line and Dallas had a play-call that was perfect. The Eagles were challenging Cooper Rush to beat them and run-blitzing all afternoon. This red zone concept was play-action on a wide play to the left but then roll-out back to the right with CeeDee Lamb running against the grain to open space. Because the Eagles were determined to play the run, Lamb was against a safety and had leverage so all he had to do was run to open space where Rush could loft an easy pass for the go-ahead touchdown.
What happened next explains the Cowboys universe:
Lamb was open and the throw was fine. Lamb catches that in his sleep. But, the sun was in his eyes. You paid a WR at the very top of the industry to win plays like this and he had his job won. But, alas, here we are with the stubbornness of Cowboys football.
What do I mean? You know exactly where I am going this morning. They play in a stadium that has windows that in this portion of the year allow the sun to shine directly through them and into the players faces. Sometimes it is a player going into the sun - a QB trying to see his receivers downfield – and sometimes it is a player looking back at his QB to catch it. But invariably, in this frustrating chapter of Cowboys despair, there is a design flaw in a stadium that has an easy solution. But, rather than take the easy solution and accept the minimal blame that would accompany it, the Cowboys leader decides to do what he always does – get more stubborn.
Here is a passage from the great Jori Epstein who was there when Jerry was discussing this and assuring us that it clearly is not his fault:
So, in his mind, if I could try to see what he is saying here, is that, “We know where the sun's going to be when we decide to flip the coin or not.”
That sounds like he is blaming the coach for having his team go in that direction. The coach, of course, is trying to take the ball and therefore defer on picking direction of play, but if we may circle back to the premise, I think there is something pretty silly there, too.
Either you are playing East or West at this stadium. East means your WR looks into the sun and West means your QB looks into the sun – like Jalen Hurts was on this sack:
So, sure, I guess your coach could have not played in that direction, but then maybe your QB is the one who can’t see downfield and gets sacked. Both teams are dealing with it, right?
The answer is obvious, of course. The curtains exist in the storage closet from various fights and concerts he has had in his palace. But, it won’t be used for Cowboys games and it frankly is no longer about this. It is about digging in and being stubborn. That has served Jerry Jones well enough times for him to have decided that giving in is worse than changing your ways and trying a new route.
But, maybe if it ever cost his team at a key point of a playoff game it would change, right, Bob?
Well, no. This did happen at a key spot in the 2021 NFC Playoff game against the 49ers. And nothing changed.
In fact, we have been doing this for years and years around here. My first tweet on that matter was 2011:
In 2017, he was doing his silly radio show (with the same guys he tried to fire a few weeks ago) and the topic was brought up again.
So, no, this will not change anything. When he gets questioned, he digs in. He doesn’t want anyone thinking he has ever compromised. That is what we are continuing to deal with here. We covered this extensively a few weeks ago, of course.
But, what we are actually discussing for this exercise is that whether it was Dak Prescott’s contract, sun through the stadium, Jason Garrett’s fate, or yes, whether he should have fired Mike McCarthy, it is a bit like dealing with your dad. The more you repeatedly ask him for permission, the worse he is going to react and probably start to respond just so you know who is in charge.
For instance, the first time it seemed McCarthy may need to go was last January when they played so poorly against Green Bay in the playoffs. We said at the time that nobody would have blamed Jones if he decides the coach is worth changing out.
Then, it happened again against Baltimore in September. Then Detroit in October. Each time, I feel like we all were waiting for the coaching change to occur. But, each time, Jerry decided that this is the path to remain on because he didn’t want the coach to escape. After Week 6, it sure looked like a firing into the bye week was worthy:
So, yesterday, after Dallas suffered yet another humiliating and lifeless performance, I was asked if this should lead to McCarthy’s firing.
Well, the major mistakes aren’t on the coach. But we know how this business works, and we also know the coach will be fine. There are times when firing a coach sparks a team revival, but the injury to the QB has revealed some pretty steep hills to climb in that direction. A quick evaluation of Cooper Rush’s performance shows he’s simply not capable of lifting this mess. When he has won games, the team only needed him to avoid mistakes. This team needs someone to do much more than that, and bless him, but he’s not that guy.
As for firing the coach and bringing in the next guy, maybe we’ve asked Dad one too many times, and now he’s getting angry. I believe Jones has dug in once again—lest he admit how badly he botched the entire 2024 offseason. We spent July wondering if any NFL team ever had a lame-duck head coach and a lame-duck franchise QB entering a season, and we couldn’t find one—especially not one that responded with a successful year. This sport depends so much on culture and unity that when things are unstable, everything can roll into a ditch quickly, and when it does, it becomes “every man for himself” fast. That’s why it’s wise to have a firm foundation that won’t crumble in the first high wind. Dallas chose otherwise again.
The facts are ugly, and the chaos is high. Somehow, eight more games remain in these eight weeks. We have plenty of time to look ahead to 2025, and that’s my goal almost immediately. The playoffs will go on without Dallas this year, and changes are coming. Just not for eight more weeks, it seems.
Periodically, some of my old stories get sent to me by readers who are searching through the archives. This one is from Christmas Day of 2017 and even though it is not Christmas around here yet, it does seem to resonate a bit. That day, they lost a gutting home game to end another gutting season. I ended the Morning After with this:
In a nutshell, I think that summarizes Eagles 34, Cowboys 6 as well as anything. This organization is a mess and although I am tasked to offer a daily diary of its actions, I will tell you that this next eight weeks is going to require some real creativity to make sure that it remains digestible and somewhat enjoyable for all. I will do my best.
They are existing right now as if they want to drive their biggest loyalists to go do something else with their weekends and time. And that is particularly tough thing to say when we are only in Week 10.
