ATLANTA – It’s a long season.
After three straight losses, a steady diet of drama and a glance at what’s ahead for the Dallas Cowboys – no, don’t look, cover your eyes – this could get a lot worse.
Just wait and see. The Cowboys, stung with a 27-21 setback from the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, haven’t hit the halfway point of the season and they’ve already matched the number of games they lost all of last season. And the year before that. And before that.
Long year. No, this won’t be the season the Cowboys (3-5) can end the franchise’s sorry streak of campaigns without a Super Bowl appearance, which is at 29 and counting. But the countdown clock to doomsday is surely ticking.
“Sometimes, in this league, it just takes one,” star quarterback Dak Prescott maintained. “It takes one to get it going, to get that confidence back, to feel good and rally from there.”
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Prescott, knocked out of the game in the second half by a right hamstring injury, surely meant well with such an assessment.
But translated, here’s what he might have meant: Please, somebody stop the bleeding.
These are tough times, and Prescott wasn’t the only one talking about confidence. Each week that “one” that Prescott referred to doesn’t happen, the season spirals further out of control. Gut check time keeps coming back.
“There’s no secret to this thing,” said Zack Martin, the All-Pro right guard. “It’s right back to work. We’ve got to get our confidence back.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be the Cowboys without something extra. Dallas made the trip to Atlanta without veteran running back Ezekiel Elliott, deactivated as a disciplinary measure because of an apparent pattern of missing or being late to team meetings. The final straw came on Friday when he missed a meeting.
A week earlier, it was cornerback Trevon Diggs going off on a local TV reporter in an angry outburst outside the locker room following a loss at San Francisco. He was ticked off by criticism posted on X.
The game before that, the Cowboys were blown out at home by the Detroit Lions on team owner Jerry Jones’ 82nd birthday – the 47-9 humiliation marking the worst home loss for the franchise since Jones bought the team in 1989. Then, two days later, he threatened to replace the co-hosts of his weekly radio show because of the tone of their questions.
See, it always something with the Cowboys, who began this season with coach Mike McCarthy on the hot seat as he operated on the final year of his contract.
But let’s stick to football for a minute. This time, the Cowboys had a lot of trouble with the detail stuff. Sure, their 31st-ranked run defense “held” the Falcons to 3.3 yards per carry. Yet that contrasted a pass defense that allowed Kirk Cousins to throw for three touchdowns – including connections to two of the most wide-open receivers you’ll see on the highlights, to Darnell Mooney and Ray-Ray McCloud. Coverage breakdowns.
They were a mess in so many ways. The Falcons entered the game with the fewest sacks (six) in the NFL, then sacked Prescott three times. It was bad news, too, when it came to sustaining drives, long before Prescott suffered his injury late in the third quarter. They were 3-of-13 on third down conversions (23.1%) and 1-of-5 on fourth downs. Not the way.
On one of the fourth downs, CeeDee Lamb was blown up by Jessie Bates for a 3-yard loss on a jet sweep. On another, they faked a punt only to have punter Bryan Anger’s pass to the flat resemble a wounded duck.
And there was an assortment of self-inflicted blows amid the nine penalties. The pre-snap infractions – false start, delay of game, too many men in the huddle – were particularly annoying.
“We’ve got to quit beating ourselves,” Martin said. “I’m not taking anything away from Atlanta; they’re a good football team. They did some good things. But stuff that can control…”
Someone mentioned the pre-snap penalties.
“Our margin of error is too little to do those type of things,” Martin added.
Long year. Martin was reminded of the 2018 season. That year, the Cowboys also started 3-5, then ripped off five consecutive victories and won eight of nine games in earning a wild-card berth and advancing to the NFC divisional playoffs.
That’s the hope for this long year. Of course, no team sells hope quite like the Cowboys.
“I’m really regretting the season we’re having so far,” Jones told a pack of reporters outside the locker room. “But personally, I’m a long way from being dismayed.”
Sometimes, it’s the semantics, as Jones sounded like he did after the loss to the Lions. He admitted, “I’m concerned.”
Then came the hope. The NFL’s trade deadline looms on Tuesday. Jones suggested the Cowboys will be active on the market.
“We’ve got to do a couple things this week,” Jones said.
Believe him at your own risk. Funny (or not, if you’re a Dallas fan), it has been the most active trade market in years, yet the Cowboys haven’t made a move. It’s similar to the scant activity during free agency last season that came despite Jones proclaiming that the Cowboys were “all in” to chase a championship this season.
Jones was asked if he’s still “all in” for this year. He knows. People are laughing.
“You can say that things are looking pretty bleak right now,” he said.
He was speaking truth, yet still wrapping it with hope and hype.
“I’ve been around this game a long time and I’ve seen some dark situations turn around and become something that you’re really proud of,” Jones said.
He, too, remembers 2018. But this version of the Cowboys is seemingly a long way from the 2018 edition. Now it’s a matter of just surviving the NFL’s weekly reality checks.
“Frustrated,” Prescott said when asked to describe the team’s mood. “Like last week, thought we could get this one.”
Maybe next time. Or maybe not. The prove-it games in the next three weeks include divisional matchups against the Philadelphia Eagles (6-2) and NFC East-leading Washington Commanders (7-2), and an in-state clash against the AFC South-leading Houston Texans (6-3).
This season for the Cowboys could get a lot longer in a hurry.
This story has been updated to fix an inaccuracy.