The Effects of Another Dallas Cowboys Loss
The Cowboys lose another playoff game in hilarious fashion. What does America's Team do next?
Do you know what my first thought was while I was watching the Dallas Cowboys lose another home playoff game? That won’t be the last time; it’ll happen again, in laughable fashion, quicker than you can possibly imagine. It has been decided that the Cowboys, who went 12-5 this season, are chokers, and that is a plausible statement. In what seems to be every season since the Dubya administration, a Cowboys season goes like this: excitement over early victories against meager opponents; rough patch that shows that the team is flawed still; a playoff berth that has fans reeling; a playoff loss that feels shockingly anticipated.
This time, it happened in the form of the blowout by the hand of the Green Bay Packers, the wild card team that was going on the road to play in Cowboys Stadium, commonly referred to by “Jerry’s World.” (It is somewhat affectionately named for Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones). In a 48-32 score that looks closer than the game actually was, the Pack drove up the field against the Cowboys seamlessly. Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who is the third dynamic talent to play for the yellow and green in the last 30 seasons, finished with three touchdowns on the day — all of which were done while distorting his body, and making throws that are out of the ordinary. Love, as his namesake is in regular life, is a force; he’s a big reason why the Packers have a chance to make a deep playoff run.
Still, the Cowboys losing is as usual, all about the Cowboys. For many reasons — salary cap for one, unlucky bounces for another, rough defense play — Jerry Jones’s Cowboys haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1995. They never seem to lack talent: wide receiver CeeDee Lamb is uniformly excellent; quarterback Dak Prescott is a MVP candidate, and has thrown for 202 touchdowns to just 74 interceptions in his career. If Prescott plays longer, and stays healthier than former Cowboys phenom Tony Romo did, he could possibly be a candidate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. No, it is not the roster that is the reason for the Cowboys’s failures, but rather possibly coaching and management, or God deciding that their run in the 1990’s was too hedonistic. Head coach Mike McCarthy will almost surely be fired after this performance. It happened in front of a visibly annoyed Jerry Jones, who every year is forced to watch losses like this happen. They pile up; coaches like McCarthy, who used to coach Aaron Rodgers when the latter was a Packer, are supposed to have gameplans that prevent brutal losses like this. Much has been considered about McCarthy’s ability to come up with a plan that can defeat worthy opponents. The Cowboys looked overmatched on defense yesterday against a quarterback who was playing his literal first playoff game as a starter. If Bill Belichick, who recently parted ways with the New England Patriots, was watching, then he would smirk; either it was because he would never come to Dallas, or because he’d have a lot to fix if he did come.
McCarthy, long unpopular amongst NFL wonks, will probably be let go by Jones. This is thei third straight year that ends with an early loss in the postseason. Losses like this make the owner point fingers. At one point, Jones throws a piece of paper he was holding down in disgust; someone has to pay for beating and it won’t be the man who owns the team. However, coaching the Cowboys isn’t the job that people think it is. Not only is Jones demanding, he is very gregarious and comfortable in front of the camera; he is a public facing man who loves the spotlight. He made the Cowboys in his light — startlingly shiny and bombastic — and he loves it. Even fans that complain about him have to admit that Jones and America’s team go together; it’s a family business too, and their forceful celebrity is a part of that business. Stephen Jones, Jerry’s son, has become more a part of the decision making in the past couple of years. When the Jones family talks, people listen. The coaches have to contend with their wide-legged charisma and chaos. Bill Parcells hated it; it gives me reason to think that Bill Belichick might also. (Jim Harbaugh, fresh off of a national championship with the University of Michigan, seems to be a better fit. He is as weird as the Jones family is, and could possibly appreciate them taking the spotlight away from him and his eccentricities).
Another Cowboys nugget: people tend to enjoy seeing them lose. The Cowboys being such a force in the Clinton administration has made it so their downfalls are routinely discussed and televised ad nauseam. The NFL puts them on television frequently because their games receive large ratings from fans across the world who know the brand. That star is blinding — not just famous. Most of this is just natural: people enjoy seeing the Los Angeles Lakers lose too; doubly so, with the New York Yankees. The Cowboys seem to have it worse than these franchises because of their scale of attention, versus how many times they are actually good. They are popular but excessive; talented but fragmented; electric but loudmouthed. They aren’t quite as clean-cut and traditional as the Yankees. They aren’t as excellent as ther Lakers. The Cowboys are synonymous with prominence, not necessarily winning. To some, they represent the appetite of America and its decline too. People root for them to lose like they rooted for Biden to defeat Trump. The next coach they have should look to calm all of this hoopla down. It doesn’t help them win.
Twitter had its fun with the Cowboys loss, especially sportcasters with millions of followers. Fox’s Skip Bayless, a Cowboys fan, decided that McCarthy wasn’t the right coach anymore. “I am DONE with these heartless, gutless, playoff frauds”, the mercurial Bayless said, throwing his jersey in the garbage like a teenager. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, a Cowboys hater, did his trademark video: a long drawn out laugh, prompted by a stare at the camera. Smith did it with less gusto this time, however, as to say: we’ve been here before; we’ll be back again.