The Cowboys have a long way to go to fall out of the playoffs. (Anyone watching Sunday night’s game knows the Giants are similarly flawed.)
But if Dallas comes up short again, Cowboys fans will remember one sequence in Sunday’s loss to San Diego for a long time.
Trailing 10-3 and on the doorstep of scoring, the Cowboys ran Marion Barber four straight times. The final three runs were from the one-yard line, and they were all stuffed.
“I don’t know what they were thinking but after the second time you gotta think, `don’t run that play no more,’'' Chargers linebacker Tim Dobbins said after the game. ``I don’t know if they watched film or what.”
Dobbins was in on three of the tackles and knew what was coming.
“In our mind, we knew he wasn’t blocking. We knew he had to get the ball. He’s not getting paid to block. Everybody knows that, everybody in the stands knew that. We knew it was going to be a flip or a dive, one or the other. I don’t know what they were thinking,’' Dobbins said.
The Dallas staff thought their massive, highly paid offensive line could push San Diego back a yard. It didn’t happen that can’t fall just on on the coaching staff.
The talk of a December swoon won’t stop, but perhaps the Cowboys just aren’t that good. Tony Romo is playing well, yet they are a borderline playoff team like everyone expected before the season.
Unfortunately for Dallas, the toughest part of their schedule fell at the end of the season again. And it’s just getting started.