The Dallas Cowboys head into their bye week at 3-3, but no one in or out of the organization should be feeling good about it.
So, what’s the one thing the Cowboys can do coming out of the bye to put the team back on track? Clearly, the answer is to play all of their remaining 11 games anywhere except AT&T Stadium.
Dallas is 3-0 when playing on the road and in an outdoor stadium.
When they return home to Arlington to play at their home stadium, they are 0-3, and they’ve had the doors blown off of them by halftime.
Technically, the streak is actually four straight home blowouts by halftime. The Packers had a 20-point lead by halftime in the wild card rout of Dallas back in January.
Only against the Ravens did the Cowboys muster any kind of serious threat to try to win the game. The other three games saw the Cowboys fold like a cheap lawn chair in a light Texas breeze.
That’s a trend that can’t continue if Dallas is to have any realistic shot at the playoffs.
So, maybe Jerry Jones needs to arrange a minor catastrophe to render AT&T unplayable and move the Cowboys’ home games back over to the Cotton Bowl.
It may be their only hope.
The Treacherous Road Ahead
Once Dallas returns to action, the next four games will be fraught with peril.
The Cowboys play road games at San Francisco and Atlanta, followed by home games against the Eagles and the Texans.
Yes, 0-4 is entirely possible here. Especially if Dallas keeps settling for field goals when the opponents are scoring touchdowns and going for it on fourth down at their own 38 in the second quarter.
Dallas could easily have been 1-5 after today.
Had they been playing teams with actual quarterbacks when they beat the Giants and the Steelers those wins would probably have been losses instead.
Those games were far too close as it was, despite Dallas having the better overall roster in both cases.
The Cowboys can’t finish this four-game run any worse than 5-5 on the season. Anything less and it’ll be time to start thinking about next year.
Hutchinson’s Gruesome Injury
There are some injuries you wish you’d never seen live in the first place. So, kudos to the Fox broadcasting team for not showing the replays of Aidan Hutchinson’s brutal leg injury.
Hutchinson broke his left tibia while sacking Dak Prescott in the Lions’ win.
Here’s hoping his recovery is swift and complete. He’s a great player and here’s hoping he gets back on the field as soon as possible.
Scoragami Update
Yes, the Cowboys 47-9 loss was the first time the Cowboys ever ended a contest with that score up on the scoreboard.
Out of the 1,054 total regular season and playoff games Dallas has played in 64+ seasons, it is the 419th unique final score in team history.
In case you were wondering, it wasn’t the most points the Cowboys have given up in a loss. That honor belongs to the 54-13 beating the Vikings laid down on Dallas in Minnesota back on Oct. 18, 1970.
The most points the Cowboys surrendered in a home loss came back in 2013 when Peyton Manning and the Broncos edged Tony Romo and the Cowboys, 51-48.
Speaking of Tony…
Say What, Tony Romo?
Romo is probably going to hear it this week for referring to the Washington Commanders as “the Redskins” during Sunday’s broadcast.
To be fair, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve caught myself typing Redskins instead of Commanders here and have had to go back and correct it.
To be honest, whenever I do historical posts involving Washington, I take great delight in typing Redskins. They never should have changed the name in the first place.
Outraged e-mails inbound from annoyed cat ladies in 3… 2… 1…
The Missing Man
Tonight’s game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets will be for first place in the AFC East.
Only the Jets will have a new head coach just six weeks into the season. New York unceremoniously fired Robert Saleh after the team returned from a loss to the Vikings in London to fall to 2-3.
Saleh was even escorted out of the building by security without being able to address the players or staff.
The reason for the dismissal has been vague. Aaron Rodgers was initially suspected as being the impetus for the sudden change.
But Rodgers denied any involvement, and his personal choice as offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett, for the Jets had the play calling taken away shortly after Jeff Ulbrich was elevated to interim head coach.
Ulbrich left Hackett as the offensive coordinator but turned the play calling duties over to Todd Downing.
Lost in all the chaos is Saleh, who will not be on the Jets’ sideline tonight, and the reason why he is unemployed.
During the previous Sunday’s loss in London, Saleh walked the sidelines with a Palestinian flag on one sleeve. Again, no specific reason has been given, but could that display have triggered the firing?
I hope not. I hope it’s just because the Jets’ ownership was tired of Salen’s leadership and wanted to make a change now to change the course of the year.
Because if it was, it’s a lousy reason, no matter where you stand in that conflict.
Didn’t You Get The Memo?
Last week, Lane Kiffen was called out, in this very weekly post, for Ole Miss faking injuries to get free timeouts.
The university released a statement that indicated they were aware of how it looked, that said the look wasn’t a good one, and that they would review the issue.
Then Kiffen and the Rebels went out against LSU on Saturday night and kept right on doing it. So much for that review, eh?
Karma apparently wasn’t amused as the Rebels wound up losing to the Tigers in overtime.
Justice 1, Unsportsmanlike Conduct 0.
College football needs to start flagging this until it stops. I’m sure they’ll get right on it after overhauling the targeting rule that no one can begin to understand.
I brought that one up last week too.
I’m not holding my breath on that one either.