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The Morning After– Season Ends In Familiar Way
The 30 years of drought has amazingly not changed the way the Jones Boys deal with failures.
Bob Sturm
Jan 05, 2026
The National Football League’s product is incredible. I swear. I watched a few games on Saturday and another on Sunday night to verify it. It is the greatest league on earth, in my humble opinion. It offers drama that is unmatched that truly showcases the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in living color.
It is a league that offers parity and this structure allows bad organizations a chance to become good quite quickly. Of course, it also makes it difficult to remain a great team for long because salary caps, free agency, and even the player draft are built to keep everyone closer together.
And yet, the story locally continues in the same familiar way that defies the idea that “even a broken clock is right twice a day,” as the Cowboys once again have safely avoided another Super Bowl.
That is 30 years in a row now and honestly there seems to be no real hope in sight.
The Cowboys lost on Sunday at a lifeless MetLife Stadium to put the finishing touches on a lifeless 2025 season. The game itself was another difficult thing to witness as it appeared a complete exercise in pointlessness. The offense had no real purpose on the day, other than to reveal that they had a 21-year-old running back with great burst and ability in Jaydon Blue on the sideline all season long for mysterious reasons.
I guess he was being taught to be a professional, as if those responsible for this mess are really big into personal responsibility.
But, boy, the defense was out there frustrating anyone who tried to watch. How many brain-dead personal fouls did we get to see? How many ridiculous third-down efforts that allowed a rookie QB – Jaxson Dart – to have one of his best days of the year were seen? The Giants scored on seven of eight drives during the meat of the game and might have gone eight for eight if it were not for a fumble in field goal range near the end of the third quarter. Do you know how hard it is to give up points to the New York Giants on seven drives out of eight?
Disgustingly inept defense, yet again. And understand, the Cowboys were playing their best players on defense. This is what they got and this is who they are.
The season ended with a lackluster 7-9-1 record, but more importantly, it is just another chapter in a book that still appears to be headed nowhere. They are hopelessly stuck and seem incredibly determined to remain stuck because change would actually require change.
It is the 30th season in a row where they fell well short of their goal, if in fact their goal is still what they once claimed they were. We honestly don’t know that the people in charge are terribly upset today, because their actions speak louder than their words and their actions indicate that the entire football operation is not the focal point and main objective of their obsessions anymore. If it was, you would see wide-sweeping changes that suggest that nobody will rest until this operation is fully turned around. But, we never see that.
Instead, we see new reality shows and documentaries that confirm the lifestyles of the rich and famous who own the team and the cheerleaders who never lose a game.
That is where this team remains competitive. For those portions of this organization never are forced to prove their quality on a field of play. They just keep printing the money and hope nobody ever grows tired of the same basic storylines.
Our friend and reader Nick Tzourtzouklis reminds me (which I ponder often):
Every. Other. One.
But, as you know, in this space, this is often how the final story of the Cowboys season goes. It signals the start of another long off-season that is initially welcomed because it means we don’t have to watch this team play for quite a while. They aren’t very good and haven’t been very good in a long time. They need help in many places and it seems to start with someone having a better plan than the one that we very clearly knew would never work back in August when they tried to pull it off. The Jones Boys, the architects of this mess, never seem to realize how bad their plans are until everyone else does and it is too late.
Ah yes, the Jones Boys. Here we are again.
On January 28, 1996, they celebrated winning Super Bowl 30 in Tempe, Arizona, with their coach Barry Switzer. They had proven they did not need Jimmy Johnson to win that Super Bowl – although they definitely needed his roster – and congratulated themselves for doing it their way.
Jerry Jones was 53 years old that day. His eldest son, Stephen, was 31. This is a family business and someday, Stephen will take over when Jerry is no longer with us. But, of course, those are two young men with many years ahead of them at that time.
Well, today, Jerry is 83 years old and Stephen is now 61. Heck, everyone of us is 30 years older during this trip in the wilderness and that is why so many of you are starting to wonder when the right combination will be found. The belief has long ago expired and it has been replaced with infinite amounts of apathy and cynicism. I get blamed for continuing to write about this franchise as I am labeled “part of the problem” for giving the Cowboys brass our attention. Some are so frustrated that they now blame those of us who journal the chronicles of this journey because I guess they believe if we don’t talk about it, it won’t exist.
But, it does exist. The Cowboys played 17 games this year to prove it. Sellout crowds showed up to watch them again and to make the Cowboys the most profitable sports franchise on the planet. The television networks still made a point to fight over who gets the ratings that Cowboy games generate and they are still incredibly relevant for being so incredibly irrelevant in the title chase. But, we already know all of this from years and years of personal experience.
As you know, this is my personal quest now: to chronicle this franchise’s journey for as long as it takes and perhaps that will be the end of my watch when Father Time comes calling, but between now and then, I do not write about the hopeful destination. Instead, I write about their journey and the belief that some day they will get so sick and tired of being sick and tired that they will change their ways to fix this operation with every fiber of their being.
But, apparently, they are not ready to change who they are and how they function.
For instance, if you are familiar with the 30 years in the wilderness, we know that the latest name on everyone’s list of responsibility is Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus.
Now, let’s be honest, Matt Eberflus is not the solution around here and never was. He is in charge of the worst Cowboys defense we have ever seen and given how many bad defenses we have seen, that says quite a bit. Yesterday, they gave up 34 to a Giants team that averages 20.6 points per game against every other opponent and 35.5 ppg against Dallas in two meetings this year. They stink and they seemingly are still getting worse as that touchdown right before halftime confirmed. There is just nothing good at all about watching the Cowboys defense right now.
They gave up 511 points this year which is a new Cowboys record. They also gave up 30.1 points per game which is a new Cowboys record. They are awful.
But, here is the defense for Eberflus. The defense was awful in 2024 and he wasn’t here. The defense went from the third-worst Cowboys defense to the worst defense in 66 years, but his GM also let Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence go and have better years elsewhere. In fact, you let Eberflus spend the entire offseason under the premise of building the defense around Parsons only to pull out the rug after training camp ended. In fact, you were so unserious about competing hard in 2025, that you did not bring in Jadeveon Clowney until after Week 1, because we all know that signing veterans earlier than that comes with more cost. So, sign him on September 14 to save money and not save the season, which reminds us of the primary reason for the Parsons trade.
So, you have an awful defense in 2024, you spend your best pick and the lion’s share of your draft capital on a right guard for your offense and also trade a third-round pick to Pittsburgh to help your offense before offload a generational edge rusher to Green Bay and a cornerstone piece on the other edge to Seattle.
Are we really are all going to sit here with a straight face and blame the guy who hasn’t even been in Dallas 12 months?
I guess what I am saying is that the end of Matt Eberflus is required. Sure, let’s get rid of him and find someone else. But, the beginning of Matt Eberflus in January of 2025 is a reflection of what is broken with the Jones Boys and their way of doing business. They don’t have solutions so they set up sacrificial lambs for the 12-month cycle of silliness. They literally hire the guy in January of 2025 to blame the same guy in December of 2025. He is hired to be the solution, but in a year, they can actually twist it to where he is the problem. We better find a new solution!
If Eberflus is the true problem, then we could go on with clear minds and fire him this morning. Instead, they will drag this out like they did with the exits of Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy and Mike Zimmer and act like now they can begin to evaluate what has gone wrong “first thing in the morning”, he said.
What? You needed to wait until January 5 to begin your evaluations? Where have you been? We started talking about how doomed this defense appeared to be in September when Russell Wilson was cleaning their clock. Remember him?
It should take 5 minutes to decide that you are in need of a big change on defense. Maybe less. But, going from Mike Nolan to Dan Quinn to Mike Zimmer to Matt Eberflus to whoever is next is a sign that we are not really far enough up the chain of command to feel great about fixing the actual issue.
Heck, Jason Garrett to Mike McCarthy to Brian Schottenheimer won’t get us there, either. I think Schottenheimer is a decent football mind, but what is the point of hiring him if he is not able to then hire his own defensive coordinator?
In other words, this is how they do things and at the ages of 83 and 61, the Jones Boys do not seem to be close to changing their ways. Many teams will hire real general managers this month and some of them will begin to transform their futures. New Year’s resolutions are here to tell us that today is the first day of the rest of our lives. You begin your journey with your first step in a new direction.
Instead, we sit here again. The Cowboys franchise seems stuck in reverse. They have yet to emerge from the catastrophic playoff collapse of 24 months ago and have barely taken a single positive step since.
In the 24 months since the playoff home collapse to Green Bay in January of ‘24, they are 14-19-1 in 34 regular season games and have been outscored in those games by 158 points. They have not come close to making the playoffs again and have since changed defensive coordinators three times (we assume) and are only getting worse and worse. We also assume they cannot get worse than have been in 2025 where they finished at the bottom of the league in nearly every category.
In other words, nobody is upset the Cowboys season is over right now. In fact, many of you are relieved. At least you don’t have to watch them mess up another Sunday for a while. Everybody needs a little time away, but leave it to the Jones Boys to make some loyalists never want to return at all.
The offseason begins presently and we assume the same old men will be coming up with the same old poor solutions in the weeks to follow.
Meanwhile, we will all get another year older.
The 30 years of drought has amazingly not changed the way the Jones Boys deal with failures.
Bob Sturm
Jan 05, 2026
The National Football League’s product is incredible. I swear. I watched a few games on Saturday and another on Sunday night to verify it. It is the greatest league on earth, in my humble opinion. It offers drama that is unmatched that truly showcases the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat in living color.
It is a league that offers parity and this structure allows bad organizations a chance to become good quite quickly. Of course, it also makes it difficult to remain a great team for long because salary caps, free agency, and even the player draft are built to keep everyone closer together.
And yet, the story locally continues in the same familiar way that defies the idea that “even a broken clock is right twice a day,” as the Cowboys once again have safely avoided another Super Bowl.
That is 30 years in a row now and honestly there seems to be no real hope in sight.
The Cowboys lost on Sunday at a lifeless MetLife Stadium to put the finishing touches on a lifeless 2025 season. The game itself was another difficult thing to witness as it appeared a complete exercise in pointlessness. The offense had no real purpose on the day, other than to reveal that they had a 21-year-old running back with great burst and ability in Jaydon Blue on the sideline all season long for mysterious reasons.
I guess he was being taught to be a professional, as if those responsible for this mess are really big into personal responsibility.
But, boy, the defense was out there frustrating anyone who tried to watch. How many brain-dead personal fouls did we get to see? How many ridiculous third-down efforts that allowed a rookie QB – Jaxson Dart – to have one of his best days of the year were seen? The Giants scored on seven of eight drives during the meat of the game and might have gone eight for eight if it were not for a fumble in field goal range near the end of the third quarter. Do you know how hard it is to give up points to the New York Giants on seven drives out of eight?
Disgustingly inept defense, yet again. And understand, the Cowboys were playing their best players on defense. This is what they got and this is who they are.
The season ended with a lackluster 7-9-1 record, but more importantly, it is just another chapter in a book that still appears to be headed nowhere. They are hopelessly stuck and seem incredibly determined to remain stuck because change would actually require change.
It is the 30th season in a row where they fell well short of their goal, if in fact their goal is still what they once claimed they were. We honestly don’t know that the people in charge are terribly upset today, because their actions speak louder than their words and their actions indicate that the entire football operation is not the focal point and main objective of their obsessions anymore. If it was, you would see wide-sweeping changes that suggest that nobody will rest until this operation is fully turned around. But, we never see that.
Instead, we see new reality shows and documentaries that confirm the lifestyles of the rich and famous who own the team and the cheerleaders who never lose a game.
That is where this team remains competitive. For those portions of this organization never are forced to prove their quality on a field of play. They just keep printing the money and hope nobody ever grows tired of the same basic storylines.
Our friend and reader Nick Tzourtzouklis reminds me (which I ponder often):
Every other NFC team has been to the conference finals since 2010.
Every. Other. One.
But, as you know, in this space, this is often how the final story of the Cowboys season goes. It signals the start of another long off-season that is initially welcomed because it means we don’t have to watch this team play for quite a while. They aren’t very good and haven’t been very good in a long time. They need help in many places and it seems to start with someone having a better plan than the one that we very clearly knew would never work back in August when they tried to pull it off. The Jones Boys, the architects of this mess, never seem to realize how bad their plans are until everyone else does and it is too late.
Ah yes, the Jones Boys. Here we are again.
On January 28, 1996, they celebrated winning Super Bowl 30 in Tempe, Arizona, with their coach Barry Switzer. They had proven they did not need Jimmy Johnson to win that Super Bowl – although they definitely needed his roster – and congratulated themselves for doing it their way.
Jerry Jones was 53 years old that day. His eldest son, Stephen, was 31. This is a family business and someday, Stephen will take over when Jerry is no longer with us. But, of course, those are two young men with many years ahead of them at that time.
Well, today, Jerry is 83 years old and Stephen is now 61. Heck, everyone of us is 30 years older during this trip in the wilderness and that is why so many of you are starting to wonder when the right combination will be found. The belief has long ago expired and it has been replaced with infinite amounts of apathy and cynicism. I get blamed for continuing to write about this franchise as I am labeled “part of the problem” for giving the Cowboys brass our attention. Some are so frustrated that they now blame those of us who journal the chronicles of this journey because I guess they believe if we don’t talk about it, it won’t exist.
But, it does exist. The Cowboys played 17 games this year to prove it. Sellout crowds showed up to watch them again and to make the Cowboys the most profitable sports franchise on the planet. The television networks still made a point to fight over who gets the ratings that Cowboy games generate and they are still incredibly relevant for being so incredibly irrelevant in the title chase. But, we already know all of this from years and years of personal experience.
As you know, this is my personal quest now: to chronicle this franchise’s journey for as long as it takes and perhaps that will be the end of my watch when Father Time comes calling, but between now and then, I do not write about the hopeful destination. Instead, I write about their journey and the belief that some day they will get so sick and tired of being sick and tired that they will change their ways to fix this operation with every fiber of their being.
But, apparently, they are not ready to change who they are and how they function.
For instance, if you are familiar with the 30 years in the wilderness, we know that the latest name on everyone’s list of responsibility is Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus.
Now, let’s be honest, Matt Eberflus is not the solution around here and never was. He is in charge of the worst Cowboys defense we have ever seen and given how many bad defenses we have seen, that says quite a bit. Yesterday, they gave up 34 to a Giants team that averages 20.6 points per game against every other opponent and 35.5 ppg against Dallas in two meetings this year. They stink and they seemingly are still getting worse as that touchdown right before halftime confirmed. There is just nothing good at all about watching the Cowboys defense right now.
They gave up 511 points this year which is a new Cowboys record. They also gave up 30.1 points per game which is a new Cowboys record. They are awful.
But, here is the defense for Eberflus. The defense was awful in 2024 and he wasn’t here. The defense went from the third-worst Cowboys defense to the worst defense in 66 years, but his GM also let Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence go and have better years elsewhere. In fact, you let Eberflus spend the entire offseason under the premise of building the defense around Parsons only to pull out the rug after training camp ended. In fact, you were so unserious about competing hard in 2025, that you did not bring in Jadeveon Clowney until after Week 1, because we all know that signing veterans earlier than that comes with more cost. So, sign him on September 14 to save money and not save the season, which reminds us of the primary reason for the Parsons trade.
So, you have an awful defense in 2024, you spend your best pick and the lion’s share of your draft capital on a right guard for your offense and also trade a third-round pick to Pittsburgh to help your offense before offload a generational edge rusher to Green Bay and a cornerstone piece on the other edge to Seattle.
Are we really are all going to sit here with a straight face and blame the guy who hasn’t even been in Dallas 12 months?
I guess what I am saying is that the end of Matt Eberflus is required. Sure, let’s get rid of him and find someone else. But, the beginning of Matt Eberflus in January of 2025 is a reflection of what is broken with the Jones Boys and their way of doing business. They don’t have solutions so they set up sacrificial lambs for the 12-month cycle of silliness. They literally hire the guy in January of 2025 to blame the same guy in December of 2025. He is hired to be the solution, but in a year, they can actually twist it to where he is the problem. We better find a new solution!
If Eberflus is the true problem, then we could go on with clear minds and fire him this morning. Instead, they will drag this out like they did with the exits of Jason Garrett and Mike McCarthy and Mike Zimmer and act like now they can begin to evaluate what has gone wrong “first thing in the morning”, he said.
What? You needed to wait until January 5 to begin your evaluations? Where have you been? We started talking about how doomed this defense appeared to be in September when Russell Wilson was cleaning their clock. Remember him?
It should take 5 minutes to decide that you are in need of a big change on defense. Maybe less. But, going from Mike Nolan to Dan Quinn to Mike Zimmer to Matt Eberflus to whoever is next is a sign that we are not really far enough up the chain of command to feel great about fixing the actual issue.
Heck, Jason Garrett to Mike McCarthy to Brian Schottenheimer won’t get us there, either. I think Schottenheimer is a decent football mind, but what is the point of hiring him if he is not able to then hire his own defensive coordinator?
In other words, this is how they do things and at the ages of 83 and 61, the Jones Boys do not seem to be close to changing their ways. Many teams will hire real general managers this month and some of them will begin to transform their futures. New Year’s resolutions are here to tell us that today is the first day of the rest of our lives. You begin your journey with your first step in a new direction.
Instead, we sit here again. The Cowboys franchise seems stuck in reverse. They have yet to emerge from the catastrophic playoff collapse of 24 months ago and have barely taken a single positive step since.
In the 24 months since the playoff home collapse to Green Bay in January of ‘24, they are 14-19-1 in 34 regular season games and have been outscored in those games by 158 points. They have not come close to making the playoffs again and have since changed defensive coordinators three times (we assume) and are only getting worse and worse. We also assume they cannot get worse than have been in 2025 where they finished at the bottom of the league in nearly every category.
In other words, nobody is upset the Cowboys season is over right now. In fact, many of you are relieved. At least you don’t have to watch them mess up another Sunday for a while. Everybody needs a little time away, but leave it to the Jones Boys to make some loyalists never want to return at all.
The offseason begins presently and we assume the same old men will be coming up with the same old poor solutions in the weeks to follow.
Meanwhile, we will all get another year older.
