National Football League

Are the 2019 Dallas Cowboys finished?

Published Dec. 23, 2019 12:09 p.m. ET

Martin Rogers u2014 @MrogersFOX

If you really put your mind to it, there are all kinds of ways in which you can make a case that the Dallas Cowboys’ season is not over.

If Dallas gets by the Washington Redskins in Week 17 and the Philadelphia Eagles somehow stumble, then a place in the playoffs would beckon, with a Wild Card round matchup headed for AT&T Stadium.

The mathematics say it’s still feasible. The Eagles have been massively inconsistent, the NFC East has been wild and wacky and one final crazy twist (even a Philly loss to the New York Giants) surely is within the realm of possibility. There have been bigger shockers on the last day of the season before.

If those who bleed silver-and-blue say it enough times, maybe it will come true. The Dallas Cowboys’ season is not over. The Dallas Cowboys’ season is not over ...

But it sure as heck feels like it, doesn’t it?

It isn’t because of dumpster fire memes in the wake of Sunday’s demoralizing defeat to those same Eagles — one that gave Philly a numerical edge with one game to go in the National Football League’s weakest division of all.

Nor because the Cowboys’ odds plummeted immediately following the 17-9 setback, with the team now a dismal +2200 with FOX Bet to win the NFC, a ghastly +6600 to win the Super Bowl and a 25 percent chance, according to FiveThirtyEight, to see postseason action at all.

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In truth, it feels like Dallas is done because of the simple fact that nothing has gone right for the Cowboys this year, so why should it start now?

There is an air of resignation around the place, starting with owner Jerry Jones. When it mattered most, on Sunday, there was no magic, no sparkle, just the simple reality that an expensively built team was outplayed by an opponent that wanted it more.

“This was about, in the biggest game of the season, the Dallas Cowboys scoring zero touchdowns,” FS1’s Nick Wright told First Things First. “This was about head-scratching play calling. Dak (Prescott) and Jason Garrett either failed to grasp or didn’t want to acknowledge the gravity of the situation.

“Only Jerry Jones did. Jerry Jones understood, ‘It’s a wrap now, fellas.’ Your season is over because in the biggest spot of the year you scored zero touchdowns. It is a devastatingly disappointing finish to a devastatingly disappointing season.”

It was hard to see all this coming. Ezekiel Elliott’s holdout was a distraction coming into the campaign, but, once it was sorted, the Cowboys seemed to have the pieces in place to make a serious run. Many picked them as a genuine and legitimate Super Bowl contender.

The problem on offense, apparently, wasn’t whether they were good enough; it was about if they were too good. Namely, having paid Elliott, could they also afford to keep Prescott and Amari Cooper?

Prescott has played well enough that his omission from the Pro Bowl roster was regarded as a glaring snub, but his efforts have not translated into the kind of results Jones was looking for. After starting 3-0, the Cowboys have since lost 8 of 12, to put head coach Garrett’s job in serious peril.

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“It’s not hard for me to go in two areas, regarding coaching,” Jones told USA TODAY’s Jarrett Bell on Sunday, in reference to considering NFL and college coaching candidates should he let Garrett go. “Whether it be coordinators, position coaches, or for that matter, head coaches. Generally, my radar is turned on. It’s not hard for me to get into thinking about coaching.”

What a depressing season in Dallas. Losing is one thing, but all too often these past months there has been the feeling that the Cowboys were beaten because they didn’t have the same cohesion and motivation as their rivals.

Even if some quirky final-day turn landed them a postseason slot, there would be little cause for optimism. Garrett’s team didn’t beat an opponent with a winning record until they toppled the Los Angeles Rams in Week 15.

Their home stadium is far from a fortress, with a 4-3 record there. Frankly, the Cowboys are a poor team that’s not just missing something, but several somethings.

“On paper, this game was not supposed to be close, because of all the injuries the Eagles have gone through, the inexperienced players they’ve had to rely on,” FOX analyst and Cowboys quarterback legend Troy Aikman said on Sunday. “It was going to be a total team effort for (Philadelphia) to be able to pull this off.”

It’s that kind of effort, when the chips are down and the season is on the line, that the Cowboys just haven’t been able to muster. Garrett responded by talking about turning his focus to the final game. There’s not really much else to do when your team’s destiny is no longer in its own hands.

This weekend, the team’s fate will truly be decided and if we’re speaking in absolutes, sure, the Dallas Cowboys’ season is not over. But unless a bizarre miracle strikes it soon will be, finally ending a sorry saga that just kept getting worse.

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