In the 1976 film, Network, UBS anchor Howard Beale tells his viewers that “I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!”
With 1:50 left in the first half, as Darnell Savage ran back a 64-yard Pick Six, I was Howard Beale like I've never been before in my life.
I've never been as angry, or disgusted, with the Dallas Cowboys as I am today. How about you?
Are you “mad as hell” yet? Are you going to take this anymore?
We are now 28 years removed from the last time the Dallas Cowboys played in an NFC Championship game or a Super Bowl.
Six head coaches have come and gone in that span. Dozens of players have wasted their careers here without so much as winning a divisional round game.
Eight NFC East titles, a 5-6 record in Wild Card games, and a 0-7 record in the Divisional round are all they have to show for it.
And that just isn't good enough.
Heads Need To Roll
If I lived in Texas I can almost guarantee you I'd have been in the parking lot at The Star before sunrise this morning.
I'd have a guillotine and a stack of body bags piled up next to it too. There's a whole lot of folks that need to be unemployed today.
Sunday's 48-32 loss to the Green Bay Packers needs to be the final nail in several professional coffins.
I don't care about three straight 12-5 records and two divisional titles. They mean nothing.
I've said even before the season began, at minimum, the Dallas Cowboys needed to make the NFC Championship game or else.
The same went for Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott too.
Well, good morning and welcome to “Or Else.” And the first head to roll is the highest in the building.
Jerry Jones Needs To Go Away
Jerry Jones can remain the owner. But he needs to be an absent one.
And if he refuses to go quietly, Stephen Jones needs to check him into a retirement home and put him on the strongest meds they have.
No more radio shows. No more interviews.
Don't show up to work at the office and if he insists on attending games at Jerry World then put up one-way glass on his suite.
We don't want to see him at the games on TV any more than we want to see Taylor Swift at Chiefs games.
We're done with you, Jerry. It's not us, it's you.
“I don't have any comments, questions or answers on why we didn't do what we wanted to do tonight,” Jones told reporters, per NFL Network's Clayton Holloway. “I won't get into any of the addressing of coaches, personnel, any of it.”
Well, Jerry, we're more than willing to if you won't. The common denominator in the last 28 years of frustration in Dallas is you, Jerry.
After over a quarter-century of underachievement, the jury is in: You don't know how to build an NFL roster that can win a Super Bowl.
So stand down and let someone take over that can.
Make Will McClay a real GM, with the full powers that come with the job.
He cuts the deadweight. He trades whoever he needs to trade and drafts whoever he needs to draft.
In short, build a team that will win a football game after the first weekend of January.
Once that's done, Jerry Sr., Stephen, Charlotte, and Jerry Jr. all need to spend their NFL Sundays at church, or the country club. Anywhere but AT&T Stadium.
Sweep Out The Coaches' Offices
With McClay fully in charge, there isn't one coach that should keep his job after Sunday.
Seattle wants Dan Quinn? Take him, Al Harris, and the rest of the defensive coaches too for that matter.
Mike McCarthy?
Get out. And every offensive coach on staff should be a half-step behind you out the door.
Special Teams coach John Fassel?
Beat it. If you can't get Sam Williams to stop making stupid penalties on special teams you have no place here either.
You all had the No. 2 seed. You had a home playoff game against a quarterback making his first post-season start.
And you turned him into Aaron Rodgers 2.0.
Clean out your desks.
And we don't need to bring in Bill Belichick either. We've seen how bringing in a washed-up former Patriots head coach plays out.
Remember the four-year run of Bill Parcells in Dallas?
We don't want that again.
Nor do we need to bring in another retread from the coaching carousel. We've had four years of that with McCarthy.
Find innovative, up-and-coming, young coaches on both sides of the ball.
Coaches who can gameplan and motivate their teams to get it done when the playoffs begin.
Rebuild The Roster
With very few exceptions, the 53-man roster needs a massive overhaul.
We'll start at quarterback. Dak Prescott is not it.
He's not Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman.
He's not even Don Meredith or Craig Morton. At least they got the Cowboys to their league championship games.
He's not even Danny White – who at least got Dallas to three straight NFC Championship games.
At best, he's Tony Romo 2.0. That's not good enough.
Prescott has not earned an extension – despite a solid regular season in 2023.
Yes, he cut down on the turnovers and questionable passes. In the regular season.
But what did he revert to on Sunday?
Turnover Dak. For the second straight year, he tossed two first-half picks in a playoff game.
Good regular season numbers are meaningless without postseason success. Prescott is 2-5 in the playoffs.
He's had eight seasons to prove himself.
All he has proven is that he's not the one.
Tony Pollard has to go too. He isn't an RB1 and he shouldn't be paid like one.
Michael Gallup, Tyron Smith, and Terence Steele also need to move on.
The defense is not spared either. Sam Williams needs to take his bone-headed plays at the worst possible time elsewhere.
Stephon Gilmore was burned so many times in the last few weeks Gordon Ramsey called him a doughnut.
It's time to clean house and rebuild.
We're mad as hell, Jerry, and we're not going to take this anymore.
