BLAME GAME

By Mike Rifkin

On Sunday the Detroit Lions went into Dallas and whooped the Cowboys 47-9 and on Jerry Jones’ 82nd birthday. The Cowboys are still winless at home and if you go back to the wild card game against the Packers each game has been a blowout, despite the score of the Ravens game. The Cowboys are on the bye this week, and there’s been speculation of a potential coaching change, but is that what is needed for this team to play better? So, who is to blame for the issues of the Dallas Cowboys? There’s one answer, no it’s not the head coach (although he’s not helping), it’s not the 60 million dollar quarterback (he’s not helping right now either), it’s the guy who put this team together. 

Every year people want to hype up the Dallas Cowboys as they are the same group that Tom Landry or Jimmy Johnson coached. The truth is we talk about the Cowboys because of Jerry Jones. Jerry is the singular reason the Cowboys get the national television games, he’s the reason the media talks about his team. Are they a talented team? Absolutely, but every time the Cowboys play a major opponent they fail, and Jerry can talk about how the team won 12 games each of the last three seasons, but at the end of the day that is not how they’re judged. Now Jerry is starting to get testy with the media when asked some questions about what is going on, but the truth is Jerry is to blame and he can’t admit it. 

Last year after the Packers game in the playoffs, Jerry had three major decisions : What was he going to do with Mike McCarthy, What was he going to do with Dak Prescott, and how much money was he going to pay CeeDee Lamb?  

Mike McCarthy should have been let go after the Packers game, because it had been the same story the season before. Instead of extending McCarthy, they’re letting him be a lame duck coach, which means after every loss people will question his job status. Had they fired him, the Cowboys had his replacement in the building in Dan Quinn, now Quinn is leading the renaissance of the Washington Commanders. So if McCarthy coaches the rest of the season and is let go, who is going to coach this team? Would Bill Bellichick want to be the coach of the Cowboys or is he eyeing another job? Mike Vrabel will be out there, but does he want the job, is there a young coordinator Jerry really likes to take over? The answer should be Vrabel, but they had the answer in their building. 

Then there’s what happened with Lamb and Prescott. Lamb held out of training camp until he got his four year 136 million dollar contract. Lamb has been one of the best receivers in the league, and deserved his money, but why did Jerry wait to pay him? The same can be said about Prescott, who became the first 60 million dollar player hours before week one. Dak Prescott is a top ten QB, but the reason he got paid elite money is because of how Jerry has handled his contracts before. Remember when Zeke Elliott went to Cabo? He had two years left on his deal, Dak didn’t and needed to be taken care of. For whatever reason Jerry Jones doesn’t believe in Dak and it’s cost his checkbook. If he doesn’t believe in him he should have moved off just like he should have with McCarthy.

 Another reason taking care of Dak and Lamb earlier could’ve helped the Cowboys, they could’ve signed DERRICK HENRY, who signed with the Ravens and crushed the Cowboys in week two. Henry signed a two year 16 million dollar contract with Baltimore. It was widely speculated that Henry, who has a place in Dallas, would sign with the Cowboys, but Jerry Jones couldn’t find eight million dollars to give him. Now the Cowboys are dead last in rushing yards per game averaging 77.2 yards per game. 

You want to blame McCarthy fine, you want to blame Dak fine, you want to blame Mike Zimmer also fine. At the end of the day all of the Cowboys issues start with the guy who is the real face of the franchise and that’s Jerry Jones. And instead of getting chippy with the media, he needs to take responsibility for why the Cowboys haven’t been to the NFC Championship game since the late 90s. It’s been all downhill since Jimmy Johnson was fired, so Jerry what happens next if this team continues to spiral out?