America’s Team may still be America’s Team, but America’s Team isn’t drawing the same kind of eyeballs in their home market.
Via Barry Horn, formerly of the Dallas Morning News, the Cowboys generated a Week One rating of 28.2 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for their road game at Carolina. That’s the lowest number since the Cowboys produced a 25.2 in 2009.
No one should be surprised. The Cowboys, while still a compelling aspect of the overall fabric of the NFL, have become a somewhat boring team, with a Salisbury-steak-and-lumpy-spuds offense that features two stars, a diminished offensive line, and a collection of No. 2 and No. 3 receivers.
And instead of fixing the problems, the Cowboys are trying to act like there’s no problem at all, and that in time everything will be OK. Chances are things won’t be OK, absent an effort to reimagine the offense in order to get more out of the players they have.
Some coaches adhere to their scheme no matter what. Other coaches adapt their plays to the players they have. The sooner coach Jason Garrett and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan do that in Dallas, the more interesting their team could be. And if they wait too long, they eventually won’t be the ones fixing the offense.