Blogging The Boys
This season has felt broken for a very long time now.
The Cowboys have now lost five straight games, with the season falling into utter disarray ever since their gutsy win in Pittsburgh over the Steelers that seemingly signaled a positive shift in the team’s overall trajectory. Of course, it’s hard to talk about this current slide without acknowledging all of the injuries that have plagued this roster.
Micah Parsons missed that game in Pittsburgh, as did DeMarcus Lawrence, and then missed the next three games. Lawrence still hasn’t returned, and his replacement - rookie Marshawn Kneeland - almost immediately landed on the injured reserve in that Steelers game. Kneeland has had his practice window activated now and may return soon, as is the case for DaRon Bland, who has yet to play all year. But because this season is seemingly cursed, all these players started getting healthy right when Dak Prescott went down for the year, making their returns largely meaningless.
It’s easy to blame this lost season on the injuries, but the Cowboys didn’t exactly look all that crisp before players started dropping like flies either. That shouldn’t be a surprise after a lackluster (to put it nicely) offseason led to what some deemed the worst roster of the Mike McCarthy era. So is this losing streak more about all the injuries or just a symptom of the team being set up to fail by their front office? Our own Tom Ryle and David Howman have some thoughts.
Tom: Looking at the roster even before players started getting hurt, I thought that eight wins just might be the ceiling for this team. The offensive line was suspect, the running game had no clear lead back, and the defense also had some big question marks, starting with the interior of the line where run games either get handled or gash you. Once again the aversion to using free agency to really improve things was in play, and it boded ill.
All that has come into play, and the rampant injuries have just made it worse. But I still think the team was going to miss the playoffs even with good health. Mike McCarthy was dealt a bad hand to play, and I cannot dismiss my suspicions it was deliberate.
Now the only race of any importance for Dallas is how close to the top of the draft order they can get. We know Jerry Jones is a firm believer in building through the draft, and it looks like he will get a chance, although the odd decision to trade a fourth-round pick for Jonathan Mingo, coming off IR, doesn’t help. We are left to wonder just what Jerry said he was all in on, but we don’t have to speculate about how this season will end. The Cowboys will be at home for the playoffs. And I think that was going to happen in any case.
David: While I’m fully inclined to believe that Jerry Jones intentionally set Mike...
