The Dallas Cowboys have outdone themselves, reaching a new level of underachievement
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones says he ‘can’t remember’ a more disappointing loss.
ARLINGTON — Of the myriad ways the Cowboys have disappointed their faithful over the last 25 years, a daunting assortment at that, Sunday’s 23-17 wild-card loss to San Francisco may have elbowed its way to the front of the pack.
Simply losing would have been bad enough, considering it’s been a quarter century since the Cowboys made a decent playoff run, and this team gave every appearance of being capable of ending that streak.
But the Cowboys demonstrated all season long that it’s never simple, which was the story again Sunday before 93,470 at JerryWorld, when Dak Prescott got sacked by the umpire on the final play, the officials huddled, and the referee announced, “The game is over.”
The game may be over, but the autopsy will go on. And on.
And on.
“This,” Mike McCarthy said, “is gonna sting for a long time.”
McCarthy must take his share of blame for a season that ended before it should have, but in particular he’ll have to answer for the fact that the NFL’s most penalized team lived up to its reputation Sunday. The Cowboys tied a playoff record with 14 penalties for 89 yards. Several of those penalties allowed San Francisco, which started fast and held on after injuries to key defenders, notably Nick Bosa, to protect its lead as the Cowboys rallied too late once again.
And, once again, a few of the Cowboys tried to make out like the officials are against them. Asked what he thought of fans who threw trash toward the game officials as they left the field, Dak said, “Give them credit.”
But here’s the thing: No matter what your opinion of the officiating or the umpire, Ramon George, colliding with Dak as he tried to set up for the last play, it was a boneheaded play all around.
Out of timeouts, the Cowboys had the ball at their own 40 with 14 seconds left. Kellen Moore, who certainly won’t put this game on his résumé, called for a quarterback draw. Dak’s winding 17-yard run left the Cowboys with four seconds. Once on his feet, Dak tried to get in position to clock the ball. But George, who must at least touch the ball before the snap, collided with Dak as the former attempted to get to the line of scrimmage. Both quarterback and umpire went down, and the clock expired before Dak could spike the ball.
Considering the number of penalties overall and the ineptitude of the hosts, the ending reflected the tenor of the game.
Blame the refs if you will, but what do you say about a team that commits three neutral zone infractions? Micah Parsons, the brilliant rookie, was guilty of one such penalty, but he pointed no fingers.
“It just came down to, obviously, we got flagged a whole bunch,” he said. “Penalties just killed us down the stretch.
“We just gotta clean things up for next year.”
Frankly, I don’t know what it says that a rookie gets it, but the head coach and the $40 million quarterback don’t.
Jerry Jones wouldn’t point any fingers afterward, refusing to second-guess his coach or quarterback. But he knows this team. He knows it’s talented. He called it “one of the best groups of players that I’ve ever been around.”
He also knows its tendencies.
“We had a team that the whole year would basically disappoint to some degree and then turn around and show,” he said.
“And this was a game that we needed it to show.”
Instead, it flopped.
When was the last time you were this disappointed after a loss?
“I can’t remember,” Jerry said, and walked away.
Asked if he thought the Cowboys underachieved Sunday, Dak didn’t argue.
“Playing for the Cowboys, it’s Super Bowl or nothing,” he said. “We definitely underachieved.
“And it sucks. Point blank.”
The premature end of this season, and the manner in which they lost in particular, is on the players, coaches, even the building. JerryWorld’s quirks came in play twice, once because a Cowboys receiver lost a ball in the sun and another time when the Cowboys punter hit the video board looming over the field. The afternoon sun has always been a problem here, but Jerry has always tried to minimalize it. He could put up shades or curtains, but he doesn’t like the aesthetics of it.
And it cost him late in the first half when Dak tried to hit Cedrick Wilson for a first down, and Wilson never even saw the ball as it whistled past his helmet.
A slew of mistakes by the 49ers allowed the Cowboys to come back in the second half, but the game never should have come down to that bizarre last play. Even Jerry said so. He wasn’t going to hold it against his coaches or quarterback that they thought anyone could run in the middle of the field and clock the ball in 14 seconds. I won’t disagree with that. The Cowboys did plenty to kill their chances before it came to that.
“I’m just disappointed that we were in that spot,” Jerry said. “I didn’t think I was gonna be standing here with you tonight, visiting about this.”
If it’s any consolation, Jerry, I thought there was a good chance. You never knew what you were going to get with the Cowboys this season. But give them this, they outdid themselves Sunday. JerryWorld still needs shades, and the curtain came down on the Cowboys’ most disappointing season in 25 years. At least.
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