The Dallas Cowboys blame pie has multiple slices

Image via Julio Cortez, Associated Press

By Lucas Kochevar

The Cowboys are one of the few disappointing teams walking away from wild card weekend with a foul taste in their mouths, however, they have to be the most disappointed out of the losing teams. To clean that nasty taste out of their mouth they’ll be having their fair share of blame pie. The question I want to look at is, who is getting the biggest slice?

The Cowboys have won double digit games for the last three seasons, they haven’t advanced to conference championship weekend in any of those playoff runs. The common denominators for each of these runs comes down to three guys: Dak Prescott, Mike McCarthy and Stephen Jones. 

There are other players that have stayed with the team, obviously, but none of them hold the same status as the franchise quarterback. Prescott has to be mentioned as a key player in the losses because he’s thrown picks during every playoff run he’s been a part of. He holds a 2-5 record in the playoffs. 

Prescott has fought through his fair share of criticisms through the years, but with another contract year approaching, Prescott’s playoff performances will be held against him. The Cowboys weren’t able to make plays when they needed to and a pick six in the first half essentially ended the season for Dallas as they were down 27-0. The Cowboys signal caller was in a nightmare as Dallas’ high-scoring offense couldn’t do anything against the Green Bay defense until the game was already over. 

While Prescott struggled on the field, head coach Mike McCarthy looked dumbfounded on the sideline. His rear end is feeling the heat as any day now, McCarthy could find himself out of a job. The head coach for the Cowboys has won countless regular season games, but when the lights are the brightest, his team looks unprepared. It’s a common indictment on the longtime head coach, who has had great playoff rosters but little success. 

Even with this reputation McCarthy has built up, I’m not sure he deserves most of the blame. Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn was dreadful. The last guy I want to mention is the architect of this Cowboys team, Stephen Jones. Jerry Jones’ son has built a hell of a team. The offensive line is terrific, the defense has serious talent at each level and there are weapons on offense. The issues come from a couple moves that look rough in hindsight. 

Trading away Amari Cooper years back, while turning around and paying Michael Gallup looks like a clear error. Cooper has been arguably a top ten receiver for the Browns and his presence would’ve made this Cowboys offense even more dangerous. There’s the discussion that he could have set back CeeDee Lamb’s development as a WR1, but I doubt that would’ve mattered because Lamb already had more targets and yards in Cooper’s last year in Dallas.

Another key issue was cutting franchise running back, Ezekiel Elliot, this past offseason. I understood this at the time and I thought Tony Pollard would come back and become the workhorse back. Pollard had a fine year, but it was clear that he was more of a change of pace guy and complemented Elliot well. On top of that, Elliot went on to have a very solid season. His numbers aren’t that far off from his last season in Dallas and he had less touches in New England.

These two moves aren’t the reason the Cowboys got blown out by the Packers, but I think these two decisions are minor pieces in what could have made the Cowboys a more well-rounded team and bigger threat. Jones has the smallest share in the blame pie, but he has a slice still. 

The Cowboys have a lot of soul-searching to do, but ultimately, I don’t know what they can do to make this team any better. There aren’t any quarterbacks that are better than Dak on the market and the options outside of McCarthy are big risks. Bill Belichick likely doesn’t want Jerry Jones over his shoulder and any other option would be a first year head coach. There will be tough discussions in big D for Jerry Jones.