Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys are not going to the playoffs, and after Sunday’s 34-17 home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, don’t seem all that interested in going into the ensuing offseason that’s sure to be full of drama with any good vibes at all. There hasn’t been much of anything that’s been consistent for the Cowboys this season, not in the big picture and not within the play of any one position group. The Week 16 loss to the Chargers guarantees the Cowboys cannot having a winning streak this season that is longer than any of their losing streaks, with the current one being at three games and just two games remaining to play. The Cowboys won three in a row directly before the start of this active three-game losing skid.
There is going to be ample time once the NFL playoffs begin with Dallas on the couch to break down Brian Schottenheimer’s first season as head coach and offensive play-caller, and diving into the final statistics of the season will be one of these ways. There’s no way around the fact this is a bad team on the field right now, and many of the defensive stats will reinforce this, but not all stats will back this up especially when looking at the offense.
With six catches on seven targets for 51 yards against the Chargers, CeeDee Lamb surpassed 1,000 receiving yards for the fifth season in a row. With Lamb over 1,000 receiving yards and George Pickens already surpassing this mark, the Cowboys have a pair of 1,000 yard receivers for just the fourth time in franchise history. Their most recent instance of this happening was 2019 with Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup.
That’s right. In recent history from the transitions but continuity-mindful changes from Kellen Moore to Mike McCarthy to Schottenheimer, the Cowboys wasting top-ranked offenses as a whole is unfathomably nothing new, but seeing it specific to their talent at receiver is more shocking.
The Cowboys missed the playoffs with eight wins in 2019, a mark they’ll need to win out to achieve this season. Going back even further, the Cowboys had Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn surpass 1,000 yards in 2006, went to the playoffs at 9-7 but lost to the Seahawks in the Wild Card round. Drew Pearson and Tony Hill in 1979 were the only other Cowboys receivers to do this in the same year, and that 11-5 team lost their first playoff game to the L.A. Rams as well.
There was legitimate reasons for hope that something was different this season about the duo of Lamb and Pickens, but also times where one was without the other on the field, and now in back-to-back home losses a Pickens 38-yard touchdown feels like the only real impact play made by either despite what the final stats say. It also doesn’t help that the Cowboys went scoreless for...
