Let me just cut to the chase, and say considering we’re in the twilight of the 2019 NFL season, and I’ve had some time to process my feelings on the Cowboys offense, let’s start with the leader Dak Prescott. I have a few glaring observations about him that have mostly been changed or reiterated since I was on the podcast with Trey. Overall on a personal level, I think Prescott had a solid year considering the trainwreck known as the Cowboys season. In fact, that entire conference was an absolute embarrassment, and it’s easy to say that considering the division winner (Philadelphia Eagles) finished with a 9-7 regular season record and a valiant, but disappointing first round playoff exit.
Prescott finished this season with career highs in touchdowns, passing yards, yards gained per pass attempt and passing yards per game, and the Cowboys finished with the best total offense in the league….without a playoff appearance this year. However, I personally attribute that success to offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who I was a big fan of during his days at Boise State. Before Moore took over, the Cowboys hadn’t cracked the league as top ten offense since 2016, so clearly the Cowboys offense has lived and died by the coaching as of late.
All of the evidence points to a talented offensive coordinator being the reason that the Cowboys were among the best offenses this season, and it’s mighty good news that they’re letting Moore call the plays next season because at times the Cowboys looked like an absolute dumpster fire on offense under Jason Garrett. Don’t get me wrong the Cowboys competed all season, their worst loss came by only 11 points, and they came close against playoff teams such as the Saints, Packers and Vikings. But when you come close against teams like the Jets and Bears, you also understand why there’s cause for some concern.
The Cowboys came close one too many times, and now they’re sitting on their couches watching the Super Bowl unfold without them for the sixth time in ten seasons. The only thing we can do now is evaluate their performance throughout the season, and I specifically want to talk about what their offense has looked like, over the course of not only this past season, but this past decade.
There were reports at the beginning of the season that Prescott was holding out for a max contract, but after this season, the Cowboys are not inclined to give him max contract money at all. Like I said, he had a solid year statistically and is still a serviceable quarterback that’ll win you some regular season games but he’s not a winner. He has one playoff win in his four seasons as a starting quarterback, and has not been able to take the Cowboys to that next level that their fanbase has been searching for to no avail.
You can throw for over 3,500 and 20-30 touchdowns in the regular season until the cows come home Prescott, but if you’re not winning games you’re going to go down in the history books as another Dan Marino or Donovan McNabb, a quarterback with all of the talent in the world who could never win big when it mattered. Therefore not if, but when the Cowboys extend him, they need to make it clear that “you’re a very talented quarterback, but you need to show us you can win if you want to be paid like a winner.” Sure the Cowboys were always able to put up the yards and points this season, but if it didn’t result in wins at the end of the day, then what was the point of it all?
News flash to the Cowboys fanbase, we’re not in the 90’s anymore, when the conversation of the best NFL teams comes up, nobody is spouting off about the Cowboys in today’s modern era. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has had to watch Wade Phillips not seal the deal in the playoffs twice in three years, and he also allowed Jason Garrett to waste so many talented players careers en route to three playoff appearances in nine seasons. So now you’re sitting with Prescott who has always had very impressive offensive units around him in his four years at the helm, but he’s never been able to culminate it into a Super Bowl or even conference championship appearance. You can blame Prescott, you can blame the coaches or you could even blame Jerry Jones, but either way somebody has to answer for the nightmare that the Cowboys have been dealing with for the past four years.
This season, Prescott had three Pro Bowl offensive linemen protecting him, two 1,100 yard receivers in Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup, the former expecting to hit free agency in March, and last but not least former Rookie of the Year winner Ezekiel Elliott, who I argue was severely underused in game time situations this past season. He only broke 100 rushing yards seven times this season, behind an offensive line as talented as the one he’s got that’s extremely embarrassing, Elliot should’ve had back to back rushing titles from last season and this season. The Cowboys offense is an offensive coordinator, general manager, head coach and/or owner’s dream on paper, but in reality, the talent of this offense was squashed and it was frankly a damn shame to watch all season.
I’m not talking about the defense in this article as you’ve noticed because when your defense manages to finish as a top ten unit overall, I’ll give credit where it’s due, the Cowboys defense played well this season. I certainly won’t forgive that performance against Aaron Jones and the Green Bay Packers at home, but other than that I’ll give them the validation that they deserve. They always say that defense wins championships, but in the case of the Cowboys, the defense existed to hopefully keep them alive for another week in a terrible division.
At the end of the day, the Cowboys offense has been riddled with talent for frankly the last decade, and every talented player to come through the Cowboys organization such as Tony Romo, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten and DeMarco Murray have nothing to show for all of their hard work. I’m usually not one to blame the coaches on football teams because that’s just not who I am as a person, but with all of the talent that has coursed through the offensive side of the ball for the Cowboys, the results have not been promising for frankly the past decade and at some point, you have to look at the management. With Mike McCarthy and Co. rolling in, there’s a chance that the Cowboys can get things moving in the right direction next season, but then again we’ve all been saying that about the Cowboys for the past decade. It’s time for the Cowboys to make something shake and very soon, because if not, in my mind, pretty soon the Cowboys are going to be known as a destination where careers go to die.
