Cowboys limp into their bye cloaked in mediocrity. This is the birthday gift Jerry Jones gave himself.

The homefield advantage has been lost.

The defensive tenacity has vanished.

The offensive potency has been absent.

And when Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones turned 82 years old on Sunday, his birthday became just another milestone marking 27 straight seasons of football calendars turned and burned. Both in the near term — an embarrassing 47-9 home defeat to the Detroit Lions — and in the long term, via a reminder that Jones’ Cowboys haven’t won anything of Super Bowl consequence since he was in his early 50s and the only pads Dak Prescott was wearing were diapers.

Let that be your frame of reference as these Cowboys head into their bye week. Injury-riddled on defense, lacking an identity on offense. Led by a head coach who is on the clock, bogged down at 3-3 and looking at the distant tail lights of the NFC’s most competent teams.

The NFC East? The Washington Commanders (4-2) look better.

The entire NFC North, from first to last, is probably better.

The NFC South’s Atlanta Falcons (4-2)? Probably better. Even the San Francisco 49ers — also sitting at 3-3 like the Cowboys and with their own brand of problems — are miles ahead.

As of Sunday, the Cowboys have lost four straight at AT&T Stadium, including blowout losses to the Lions, New Orleans Saints in Week 2 and the Green Bay Packers in last season’s playoff dud. The offensive line is a mess. The offensive scheme is imbalanced and the defensive coordinator, Mike Zimmer, looks lost trying to fill the shoes of his predecessor, Dan Quinn. Even AT&T Stadium’s social media department is having some seriously cringeworthy moments, at one point posting a photo of the home crowd on X along with an attendance figure Sunday, but blurring out the score of the game because it was so out of hand. That, of course, drew the attention of the Lions’ social media account, who then put it on blast.

In the middle of it all, Jones is not only getting older, but also seeming out of touch, with a curiously undefined plan of…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-14 05:16:45

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