The Dallas Cowboys lost a fifth straight contest, falling 34-10 to in-state rival Houston on Monday night to push their record to 3-7 in a season marked by moribund play, blowout defeats and devastating injuries.
Literally, the sky is falling in Dallas.
"It's very frustrating. It's frustrating for everybody, frustrating for players, frustrating for coaches," head coach Mike McCarthy said after the latest loss. "I know it's disappointing for the fans. We have a lot of moving parts going on, and we just have to be cleaner and more detailed in certain spots. We're not playing well enough, executing well enough, coaching well enough to overcome some of the mistakes we're making at the critical times of the game. Even in the first half, we had some opportunities there, you know, to get some more points and didn't get it done. We just have to play cleaner in these tight spots, and we did not do that tonight."
It's not simply that the Cowboys can't win games. It's that most aren't close. Dallas is off to an 0-5 home start in 2024, allowing 37.4 points per game with a -11 turnover margin at home this season. The only other team without a home win this season is the New York Giants, who just benched their starting quarterback. The NFC East rivals appear to be battling to see who can have the more depressing campaign.
"It sucks," receiver CeeDee Lambsaid. "It's not so much coping. It's moving on to the next one."
The offense is predictably stagnant without Dak Prescott. There's no semblance of a run game, and Lamb is the only consistent threat. The defense has been gashed with or without Micah Parsonson the field. The Cowboys have allowed 25-plus points in five straight games, the longest active streak in the NFL.
"Well, I mean, hell, they better be frustrated," McCarthy said. "I mean, we're all frustrated. You know, I think there would be something wrong if they weren't frustrated."
From the inactive offseason to the delayed extension to the questions about McCarthy's future, doom was foreseen early in the process for the 2024 Cowboys. They've run right into that fire, unable to come out the other side. The rash of injuries hasn't helped but underscored how little depth was built into the roster.
"We won one game my first year," owner Jerry Jones said after the loss, via ESPN. "One. And so have we had rough seasons? Yes. Yeah, I've been around. Certainly we have. And we've had other tough years. And this one, we didn't anticipate the record. And the way we're playing right now, we wouldn't have anticipated that. But, not, this isn't -- y'all have heard me tell these old stories until you're sick -- but not, you stay in this league long enough, you'll have times like this."
McCarthy noted that the struggles aren't due to a lack of effort.
"Yeah, I thought they fought. Absolutely," he said. "We're just, you know, our problem isn't effort. It's not ever during the week. I haven't seen that. We're not making critical plays…But, yeah, I'm disappointed. I'm frustrated for our guys because I know how much they put into this. We just got to keep banging away here."
At 3-7, McCarthy has seven more games to bang away until, inevitably, their season ends short of the postseason. Then, the big questions about Dallas' future begin.