It’s not pleasant to be pessimistic about your favorite team. Here, we all have our shared opinion about the Dallas Cowboys, but the cornerstone of everything is a common denominator. We want the Dallas Cowboys to succeed and win.
Criticism of the team or noting their shortcomings in certain areas does not mean that they are untrue to any one person or fan. Great personalities, coaches and players adorn this team’s franchise history and have created expectations for the annual group that we all want to see fulfilled.
That didn’t happen in any way on Sunday, but as we wrote in our postgame recap, that didn’t happen this past offseason either. Dallas was no match for the Baltimore Ravens, not because of what happened specifically on Sunday, but because of what happened in March and April. Studying ten minutes before the test begins is a bad habit.
You may be proud of the Cowboys’ “comeback” against the Ravens on Sunday, but you’ll forgive me for finding it a little hollow overall.
This is our stock market report after the recent chaos this team has caused, and all arrows are pointing south except for one.
Let’s begin.
Stock price falls: Dak Prescott
We start here because he is the team’s leader, but he was far from the biggest problem on Sunday. Overall, Prescott’s day looks great statistically, but like the rest of his teammates, he found his form far too late for it to really matter. For now, Prescott seems to be playing in weekly episodes of Chopped where he’s asked to make filet mignon out of gummy bears and cheese, these days feel a lot like the early days of 2018 and the infamous wide receiver-by-committee approach.
However, he is correct in his postgame statement that the offense needs to do more to help the defense. The defense is a big problem in itself right now, but it has done well even after a few hits. Baltimore punted twice after its first two touchdowns and the Cowboys turned them into zero points. The quarterback bears his share of responsibility for that.
Share price fell: CeeDee Lamb
But so did the person who lost the ball on the first possession, and that was CeeDee Lamb. There are a lot of hot rumors going around about CeeDee right now, with words like “giving up” and “sulking” being thrown around. That’s not my style, but the broadcast seemed to show a player who was rather uninterested in what was going on around him.
It’s fair to say that Lamb’s performance right now is probably being affected by the lack of training camp. While you can “blame” Lamb for this, it’s hard to say that his behavior was wrong for him personally. Players have the right to mind their own business.
But that doesn’t mean you can close out a game when your team is starting some sort of comeback (it still feels silly to call it that). When the pressure is on and everything is intense, that’s when you’re needed the most. Considering there was similar discussion about Lamb last season when the Cowboys were losing important games, it was just disappointing.
Share price falls: Tyler Guyton
It feels so unfair to say that about him because he has quite a mountain to climb without any real knowledge of the country. Who knew it was hard to play left tackle in the NFL?!
Guyton could very well turn out to be a great player for this organization, but the reality is that he is not one right now. In fact, he is below average right now. Is that shocking? Is it a big surprise that after three NFL starts, we are not seeing the greatest tackle of all time? Relying on rookies is always a bold gamble, and here we are.
Share price falls: Terence Steele
The advantage of being inexperienced does not apply to Terence Steele, as he is in his fifth NFL season and on his second contract with the Cowboys. Poor performance cannot be tolerated here.
You’d think that with Guyton living on an island (so to speak), Prescott and the Cowboys could rely on the seasoned veteran on the other side to steady the ship. But that’s not the case.
Steele is the second longest-tenured veteran on the offensive line, and the quality of play we’ve seen from him over the last three games doesn’t reflect that.
Share price falls: Mike McCarthy
These are by no means ranked, but you could put Mike McCarthy at the top of the list. McCarthy has done some incredible things (relatively speaking) during his tenure, and while we would all agree that he is not exactly in a stable situation, we see both the head coach and offensive playmaker is unacceptable.
From a head coaching perspective, McCarthy has outperformed Jason Garrett in almost every way except one. That’s a bit of a double entendre, but you’ll remember when we talked about how the Cowboys players always tried hard for Garrett even though they didn’t in the end. We’re seeing a lot of under-effort from this group right now. But how can you blame them when they know he’s in a contract year? There’s no stability. The is not McCarthy’s fault.
From a play-calling perspective, there is no concept on offense. What happened to movement? What happened to scheming players getting free passes? We’ve seen it! Sitting back and asking everyone to play heroes is not a viable strategy, but here we are.
Share price falls: Micah Parsons
Parsons is arguably still the best player on this team, but last week he noted that this game would be an opportunity to make a statement. Good for him.
But when you say something like that and you don’t get it done, it’s a sign that all is not well in the house. Parsons is just a player and he seems to be trying his best but he can’t make a difference at the moment. We’re asking him to do more and be even more incredible. That’s inherently unfair but he acted and talked like a player who welcomes these kinds of opportunities.
Share price falls: Caelen Carson
Again, seriously, relying on rookies early in their careers is not only unwise, but can also be detrimental to their long-term success. Caelen Carson looks nothing like the player who impressed all training camp. He missed what seemed like an easy tackle on Nelson Agholor that turned out to be a huge advantage. That can’t happen.
Overall, this “situation” is the one that Dallas is least to blame for. DaRon Bland’s injury was unforeseeable and put them in a bad position. But this is where not hedging your bets in advance can come back to haunt you.
Share price fell: Mazi Smith
Honestly, what more can we say? Always for the sake of always just feels mean. Unfortunately, the Cowboys don’t have much of a choice here due to poor play, injuries, and whatever you want to call what happened to Jordan Phillips. Expecting Smith to be great because he was drafted in the first round last year is a shot in the dark.
Share price falls: Mike Zimmer
The only other candidates the Cowboys were reportedly considering for the defensive coordinator position other than Mike Zimmer were Rex Ryan and Ron Rivera. That always seemed questionable to me.
Zimmer looks like he’s not up to the modern NFL game. And how could he be? He’s been out of the league for a few years. We know his name and remember the dominant groups under his command. Nostalgic made us want this to be great like a reboot of a sitcom from our youth, but none of those shows ever work. This one didn’t either.
In addition, a hallmark of Zimmer’s past is that teams are rough and tough and have fight and malice in their games. This Cowboys defense allowed 158 yards on Sunday due to broken tacklesYou can’t tell me that this group plays with discipline.
Addition: Brandon Aubrey
The guy kicked a 65-yard field goal. He rocks. That’s all I got.
