The sky had already fallen in Dallas. After the Cowboys’ latest loss, analysts are gleefully picking up the pieces and stomping on them.
The Cowboys aren’t just bad, they are fascinatingly bad. Uniquely bad for a 1-4 team. Someone at the NFL needs to research if a team with a top-four offense and defense has ever had a worse record.
Dallas’ offense is ranked fourth in the league in yards gained, while the defense is ranked third.
Of course, those stats ignore what really matters in football: points. Dallas is below average in points allowed and points scored. Here’s a quick roundup of other Cowboys schadenfreude:
A headline in the Dallas Morning News: “Wade Phillips looks more inept; Cowboys an NFL joke.”
Drew Magary writes for NBCDallas: “Presenting statistical proof that the Cowboys are horrifyingly dumb.”
Deadspin almost feels bad for the Cowboys. And then they link to a sweet compilation of the Cowboys’ comical miscues this year.
Guard Kyle Kosier will miss 2-3 weeks with an Achilles’ tendon injury.
ESPN NFC East blogger Matt Mosley says the Cowboys’ season ended in Minnesota.
The “Cowboys season is over” writes Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News.
Here’s where we disagree. The odds are stacked against Dallas, but four losses is hardly a death sentence. Look at the NFC as a whole. It’s early, but this isn’t going to be a year you need 11 wins to get into the playoffs. The NFC East doesn’t have any juggernaut teams.
A 9-7 team may very well make the playoffs, and it will certainly keep you in contention. I don’t know if the Cowboys will rally, but every season we rush to say a team’s season is “over.” Then every season, we are surprised when a squad or two rallies.
When I heard that 5% of teams that start 1-4 or worse make the playoffs, I didn’t think the Cowboys were screwed. I thought: that many?
Most teams that start 1-4 are terrible teams. Dallas is in a tough spot, but they have the ingredients to make a run with a deep veteran defense and a quality quarterback.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all for them to get back in the mix and ultimately make the playoffs. And then we’ll hear the Cowboys talk about how everyone said the “season was over.”