Well. Another week of questioning why I put myself through this pain and suffering every year of rooting for the Dallas Cowboys. We are officially in the area of despair in the annual Cowboys “It’s our year” cycle.

I don’t particularly think the Packers are a good team. They have absolutely no ability to run the ball. Golden dropped two different touchdowns after smoking Speed (I’m sure Speed is a super nice person, but damn he was getting killed last night.) Another week of this Cowboys defense making the opposing offense looking like the greatest show on Earth. However, the defense was not the problem last night. (Just to note that the Cowboys couldn’t catch a break with a Dee Winters pick-6 called back on the softest finger-tip down by contact I’ve ever seen.)

If you would have told me going in to Sunday Night Football that the Packers would end with 23 points, I would have COMFORTABLY said the Cowboys won by a full score. Obviously this was so completely wrong. Dak threw two interceptions (one of them being completely on the receiver again, surprise surprise.) CeeDee fell down and the Cowboys turned it over which killed a drive with scoring potential. The film through six weeks is concrete- blitz the fuck out of Dak and the Cowboys offense will completely stall. Schotty has the play calling looking as predictable as me running verts every play on Madden- they get some decent production out of Javonte, stop running the ball, and taking bad shots down the field. Dak has barely looked Pickens way this season, and Jake Ferguson is unfortunately still playing the game of football. I really hate saying it, but Schotty has to go.

Jerry Jones has invested tons of money into the Cowboys with paying premier prices for some great players, and some absolute mediocre players (e.g. Bland, Ferguson, Diggs.) He has cheaped out on the coach for my entire lifetime though. Jason Garrett lived in mediocrity. Say what you want about Big Mike, but he had this team winning 12 games a season before they flamed out in the playoffs. I’m not sure Schotty has a higher ceiling than 8-9 every year at this point. It’s clear and obvious that Schotty needs to be let go at the end of the season. I’m not going to have any hopes of that- Jerry likes to let coaches get two years too many after it is clear and obvious they need to be fired. At the very minimum, they need to hire a wonderkid offensive coordinator and remove playcalling privileges from Schotty.

The Cowboys have some serious soul searching to do because they can’t give up on the season given the circumstances. They don’t have control of their own pick (they give the best option of themselves and Green Bay to New York for the Big Q trade.) The NFC East is a joke- and we could easily see the Cowboys sitting at 6-4 given their next stretch of schedule coming up. I’m not certain what the solution could be, but my hopes are official crushed and I will wake up upset each and every Sunday coming up knowing I have to watch this absolute disgrace of a team.

---

J.A. Riley