What a Lousy Way to End a Season

Well, now that I've calmed down a bit from Sunday afternoon's collapse in Filthadelphia, I thought I would give my opinions on the game, the players and the leadership/coaching (or lack thereof). I'll probably break this up into two separate posts though discussing the game and the players in one and the coaching in the other.

At the beginning of the season, I (along with A LOT of others) really had high hopes and expectations for this team. They went 13-3 last year and lost a hard fought playoff game to the eventual Super Bowl Champs. The team was featured on Hard Knocks on HBO and after starting the season 3-0, I think just about everyone had the Cowboys penciled in as the NFC representative for the Super Bowl. But that's when things started to go down hill and they never really picked up from there. The culmination of the season was a drubbing at the hands of one of the more hated rivals. I really thought Dallas would play a typical NFC East game (hard hitting and not a ton of points scored) and would do just enough to get the win. But after getting their rear ends kicked, to the tune of 44-6, a lot of people (myself included) are wondering what will happen in the off season and if they can bounce back next season.

On Sunday though, the Cowboys came out emotionless and error-prone. The offense gave up 14 pts and 4 sacks while scoring only 6 pts. The defense gave up 137 yards rushing only managed 1 sack (from Bradie James) and allowed McNabb to end the game with a 116 QB rating. Oh, and Philadelphia outscored the Cowboys, 41-0, during the second and third quarters. Against the Eagles, Dallas also allowed two of the longest fumble returns in franchise history – 73 and 96 yards. And that came on the heels of last week's game where the Cowboys allowed the two longest runs – 77 and 82 yards – in Texas Stadium history during the game's final four minutes which were also the final four minutes in Texas Stadium, period. The overall play the final two games of this season left a lot to be desired, to say the least.

The team didn't look prepared to play at all. They looked like a team that expected Filthadephia's playoff hopes would be dashed, they in turn would have nothing to play for and Dallas would get an easy win. Then when they realized the game meant as much to the Eagles as it did to them, the Cowboys did their best turtle impersonation and crawled into their shell.

How did all this happen? How did such a promising season end in ruins? How did Dallas not even make the playoffs? Here is LB Bradie James’ take on this season: “There were a lot of personalities put on this team and we didn’t jell. We didn’t find a way to jell. This past game, you could see it. When you know you’ve got something on the line and you’re playing to go into the playoffs, you know what you have to do, and you go out there and stink it up like that? That just speaks for itself.” There are several players that need to be jettisoned but at the top of my list is Pac Man Jones. What has he offered up this year that makes him worth the gamble of having him on the roster? A few pass defenses (no more than just a few) is all I remember. Trailing 17-3 to the Eagles on Sunday, with no margin for error, Jones committed a stupid personal foul when he hit Reggie Brown out of bounds, moving the Eagles to the Dallas 14 which assisted the Eagles in getting a touchdown. Then, as if that personal foul wasn't bad enough, Jones fumbled the ensuing kickoff to set up David Akers' 50-yard field goal on the first half's final play. What a knucklehead.

It looks to me like the fans take this more seriously than the players. With as much talent as that team has to not even make the playoffs is shameful but I don't see that attitude from the players. I mean, hey, they lost but they still got paid their millions and millions of dollars. A producer on the sports talk station I listen to was on the Cowboys team plane and said the flight back to Dallas was pretty festive and described the scene as “like the last day of school”, with dominoes being played in the back and lots of laughing and carrying on; if you did not know who won the Cowboys-Eagles game, you just might assume it was the Cowboys from their conduct on the plane. I was sulking most of Sunday night and I had nothing to do with the game...I just watching. These guys played in it, actually were responsible for the inept play and humiliating defeat and yet they are carrying on like they don't have a care in the world. Nice...

The Cowboys have now lost nine consecutive season finales and their streak of 12 consecutive seasons without a playoff win is now the longest in franchise history. Clearly, there needs to be some serious changes but Jerry has already said the coaching staff is staying put (at least, he won't be removing them). This thing is in such a mess right now, I don't really know what the answer is to clean it up. The team doesn't have a 1st round pick in the '09 draft as that was given up to Detroit for Roy Williams (who only caught only 19 passes for 198 yards and a touchdown over 10 games). I know there is a silver lining...somewhere. I just need time to find it.