How 'bout them Cowboys? It's been a while

How ’bout them Cowboys?

When’s the last time someone has said that with any conviction?

The NFL Network’s Dynasty Week team this week is your Dallas Cowboys, which means Jimmy J. should be on at some point, holding a crumpled up a white NFC champions T-shirt and uttering those famous words.

Seems like such a long time ago.

Because it is.

More than 22 years ago.

There’s now a generation of Cowboys fans who haven’t seen America’s Team in the Super Bowl. I can drop the mike here, can’t I?

In the first X games, there were 3 appearances.

From XI to XX, 2 more.

From XXI to XXX, the final 3.

 Now there are Cowboys fans, just like fans of other teams – I’m talking to you Melo, of the Giants – that think their club can win the Super Bowl on any given year.

Their presumptuously positive outlook blinds them to any warts on their roster, any gaps that could be exploited. Up until about October or so, these bandwagons are full of easy riders, people who think their quarterback can pull out any miracle finish or their defence make that definitive stand.

Unfortunately that’s because it has happened. We’ve seen it.

And for whatever reason, this phenomena seems to only happen with despised Cowboys rivals, like the Steelers and Giants. They’re two franchises to win a championship in recent times after seasons in which they weren’t even close to being the best team, only to be smiled on by the fickle football gods, with special appearances by Santonio Holmes, David Tyree, Mario Manningham.  

This golden glow extends to NFL front offices, the ones that think that by getting a ticket to the big dance, the playoffs, that they’ll end up with the Belle of the Ball, the Lombardi Trophy.

The question then is do you hitch your wagon to a longshot or ride out the rough times until your ticket turns into a favourite.

Unfortunately, the owner and general manager of the Cowboys, Jerry Jones, who made his fortunes on discovering pockets of oil miles below the surface, isn’t going to shy away from long odds.

Just as unfortunately for Cowboys fans, long odds don’t pay off very often, which is why we’re in this stretch of 14 seasons and four playoff appearances.

This generation of fans may not be able to wrap their head around the fact that over a 20-year stretch under the troika of Tom Landry, Gild Brandt and Tex Schramm, the Cowboys missed the playoff just twice. Twice.

And most of those years, only four teams made the post-season, not six.

So when Jones announces that the team doesn’t rebuild when they have a Tony Romo, the older generation winces. Romo has the best passing stats any Cowboys quarterback has compiled but wins and losses tell a different story.

Three playoff appearances, one playoff win tells a different story.

So hitch away Jerry. Another season of mediocrity awaits.

How ’bout them Cowboys indeed.  

With the Dallas Doomsday here, it's time to trade Tony Romo

Cowboys fans, this is the winter of our discontent.

First, the polar vortex just won’t leave. The miserly snowman is supposed to exit this week but he’s digging in, leaving golf sticks to get dustier and dustier.

Moreover, could it get any chillier in Big D?

DeMarcus Ware. The face of the defence for the past decade. Gone. Just like that.

Jason Hatcher. Gone. To the Redskins? That’s a double slap to the face.

Anthony Spencer. Checking out how many Benjamins the Giants want to throw at him. That’d be the triple whack.

And that talent is draining from the league’s worst defence? With no money to refill those pass-rushing needs.

We know who’s to blame. So how does owner/GM/impresario Jerry Jones right the ship? Or at least bail most of the water from the hull?

REBUILD. Say it with me, Jerry. It’s time. To. REBUILD.

 It wouldn’t take long. It potentially could be done within two years.

The hardest part would be accepting how fast the window of opportunity is closing for Tony Romo. And that the cast around the quarterback, mainly on the other side of the ball, needs a massive overhaul. One that won’t be accomplished by shuffling salary cap money around from year to year.

Love him or hate him, you have to admit Romo’s past three seasons have been the best of his career. Statistically, they’re the best three seasons of any Cowboys quarterback, Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach included.

In Romo’s first three seasons as a starter, when the team was at its best -- thanks to the input from coach Bill Parcells, Romo was credited with losing 21 fumbles. In the last three seasons, that number was down to 10.

Romo has improved his ball security and pocket awareness while still delivering the big plays and elusiveness that made him such a marked improvement over Drew Bledsoe.

Still, those last three years have delivered a 24-24 regular season mark and an 0-0 playoff resume.

If Romo were to shake off the effects of back surgery and deliver another statistically superb season in 2014, what would the team’s record be?  7-9? 8-8? 9-7?

Anyone think the upside is higher? Not with what’s looming on the defensive side of the ball.

Romo has been durable in his career, starting less than 13 games only once in the past 9 seasons -- missing 10 games in 2010 with a broken collarbone. But he has taken a lot of big shots. Those rib, hand and back injuries accumulate. Should he miss significant time in 2014, the Cowboys’ fate would be sealed.

Thus, here’s the Romo paradigm for the upcoming season: Limited upside with major risk to the downside. And would this scenario change in 2015, when his contract will account for $27.7 million in salary cap money?

 

Jones made the tough decision to part with Ware. Soon it’ll be time to move on from the last gems of the Cowboys’ Parcells era, Romo and Jason Witten. The question is not if, but when. The earlier that’s realized and accomplished, the more value they would net a franchise in severe need of an infusion of talent.

We have a problem. Houston? What can you give us? A second-rounder this year and next year’s first?  Any other offers? Done. Sign Michael Vick to a short-term deal.

Doubt there’s a market for Witten and his contract, but fish around. Seattle could use a pass-catching tight end. Then see what Gavin Escobar can do. If he’s not the heir apparent, and there was little to believe he is from last season’s snapshot, then find out now.

Trading Witten, the franchise's greatest tight end, is not done lightly, but this is the state of emergency facing the Cowboys.

Just like winter needs to release its icy grip, Jones must accept past mistakes and move on. It’s either a slow descent or a fast one: Short-term pain and a chance at a quick recovery or continued irrelevance.

Acquire as many picks as possible and carpet bomb the next couple of drafts. After all, even a blind squirrel finds some acorns.  

The disheveled state of Big D

By a Dallas Cowboys fan from T.O., not that T.O. But pass the popcorn.

My buddy Melo, a Giants fan, was trying to cheer me up after the Dallas Cowboys’ third straight regular-season ending loss with the NFC East title on the line, a loss that also meant no entry to the post-season for the umpteenth time since the Triplets retired.

I would have none of it.

I don’t need sympathy from a Giants fan. EVER, EVER, EVER.

Did I mention Melo was my best friend.

Ah, he still is.

 

That’s because that 'title' game really didn’t matter.

Win or lose, the Cowboys have become irrelevant in the NFL pecking order.

Had Dallas won, they would’ve been summarily dumped in the post-season by the New Orleans Saints, just like the Philadelphia Eagles did, only more spectacularly so. Exhibit A would be the regular-season beatdown by the team coached by the Cowboys’ former assistant. 

The Cowboys have fallen so far below the elite squads that a late-80s depth charge to 1-15 seems only a couple of seasons away. 

Too harsh?

Can Dallas play on a level field against the Seahawks and 49ers? 

Not even on any given Sunday.

Their paper-thin roster has been perennially exposed. The window on an aging roster is closing rapidly and with a lengthy salary-cap jail term in the offing, there isn't an easy way out. There are no Herschel Walkers to trade.

As I told Melo then:

When I started watching this team, they were in the Super Bowl or NFC championship game almost every year. Then when I knew better, they stomped off with three Super Bowls in four years – should`ve been four if not for Coach 501.

Now my hopes ride on a division title game for a playoff ticket that’s going to be shredded the next week?

Don't think so.

Yes, I was emotionally detached by the end of the season, which featured pull-your-heart through-the-toilet  losses to Denver, Detroit, Green Bay. Did I miss any? It was such a methadone-inducing blur.

But at some point during the gut-punching session season, there was that moment of clarity, sober second thought that crystallized where the franchise stood: At the precipice of the Steve Pelluer / Quincy Carter eras -- although with Generalissimo Jerry at the tiller, the Carter era seems so much more appropriate.

Look it up:

BP – Before Pelluer, from 1984 to 1987: 9-7, 10-6, 7-9, 7-8 – 33-30

BC – Before Carter, from 1997 to 2000: 6-10, 10-6, 8-8, 5-11 – 29-35

From 2010 to 2013: 6-10, 8-8, 8-8, 8-8 – 30-34

A one-game gap in the pre-Carter era and today.

Two seasons ago, one could argue the Cowboys could've beaten the Giants and perhaps gone on a Super Bowl run like New York but those would be pipe dreams now. The NFL balance of power has shifted and it's tilted far, far away from the NFC East.

If not for hapless Washington, New York and Philly (5-1), the Cowboys would be looking at a top-10 draft pick. Outside of the division last season, they could only beat St. Louis, Minnesota and Oakland.

Here's what else is frightening: Cue The Exorcist intro.

Both of these fall-from-grace eras were, not suprisingly, preordained by historically weak drafts.

In the BP period, it was Gil Brandt losing his touch – after two and a half decades of glory.

In the BC era, like now, the Generalissimo had assumed total control, then from Jimmy Johnson, and most recently, from the association with Bill Parcells.   

To be continued