No time to throw in the towel

FRISCO, Texas – Sell out?

These words should never be in anyone’s lexicon. Especially for an athlete. Always. And if so, then I definitely don’t want her on my side. Maybe not even yours.

Get it. The Cowboys are 3-5. They have lost three games in a row. The worst start since 2-6 in the COVID-affected 2020 season in Mike McCarthy’s first year with the Cowboys and matching the 3-5 start to the 2018 season. The only worse start in recent history was the 2-7 start of the 2015 season, when the Cowboys lost starting quarterback Tony Romo to a broken collarbone in a Week 2 win over Philadelphia, 1-0. Then they lost three straight with Brandon Weeden at quarterback, panicked about trading for Matt Cassel and then using him in the next four games, all losses, hence the 2-7 start on the way to a 4-12 -Record. He also lost five games this year to newly signed Dez Bryant after breaking his fifth metatarsal in the season opener.

Does this sound familiar?

And here are the 2024 Cowboys, dealing with multiple injuries to Pro Bowl players and now facing the prospect of losing quarterback Dak Prescott for several weeks, if not the entire season. They face a tough battle, starting with a 6-2 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, 3:25 p.m., national television at AT&T Stadium. And I’m sure the way things are going, there will be a whole lot of Eagles fans when the Cowboys’ season ticket holders sell out and AT&T Stadium becomes way too green.

To make matters even more difficult come Sunday, the Eagles are on a four-game winning streak, but at the expense of three teams with 2-7 records and now one with 4-6. Not exactly what the Cowboys went through during this three-game losing streak, as they lost to teams with records of 7-1, 4-4 and 6-3.

Okay, not good. Nor the optics of having problems stopping the run and now facing the NFL’s second-leading rusher, Saquon Barkley – already with 925 yards rushing, six rushing touchdowns, with four runs of at least 34 yards – and a team that averages 174 yards per game on ground. The Eagles have rushed for at least 113 yards in every game this season and have exceeded 200 yards twice.

Further complicating matters when it comes to big plays, the Eagles have nine pass plays of at least 40 yards with Jalen Hurts at quarterback, although Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni points out that they missed this week because of Hurts’ soreness Ankle caution will be removed from the injury report until Friday. Don’t look now, but the Eagles boast the NFL’s sixth-ranked offense and third-ranked defense.

Hello, Cooper Rush, now the Cowboys’ starting quarterback and Trey Lance is one play away from playing his first snaps in two years, let’s go. And while Rush is aware of the Cowboys’ recent offensive woes, particularly with defense, he says, “We’re just trying to beat Philly.”

Big task. But in the memorable words of Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over until it’s over.” Right?

But damn, this is what these guys signed up for. You play 17 games. No matter how many wins or how many defeats. They are preparing. You play. My God, you don’t give up. You get paid, and believe me, no one wants to release bad footage knowing that free agency could be around the corner at any time.

And that goes for the coaching staff too, especially when they are in the final year of their contract and, like the players, know that unemployment is imminent.

“We still have to have that fighting mentality,” CeeDee Lamb said.

McCarthy says, “I think it’s just important to win the game,” when asked about taking a look at Lance instead of Rush.

And why shouldn’t they? NFL teams have recovered from record losses. And don’t sit there and quote me these stats about what happens when a team loses five of the first eight games of a season. Analytical percentages do not take into account factors such as who you played against, who you played against, and how young and inexperienced the players you played with are.

When there is a backbone, you don’t give up.

Let’s take last year as an example. Green Bay started the 2023 season with a record of 2:5. With three games to go, they were only 6:8. But they went on a three-game winning streak, finished the regular season 9-8, secured the final wild-card playoff spot and then beat the Cowboys 48-32 in the first round. Or take the Rams, who started 2-6 but then went 10-7 to secure a playoff spot and lost in the first round to Detroit, albeit by just one point.

Or like this year: Cincinnati started the season 1:4 and only managed a two-point conversion in the last second, which failed against Baltimore on Thursday evening. From then on it was 5:5 and lost 35:34.

Did any of these teams give up? Have they stopped? Have they started selling star players?

But here McCarthy had to answer questions about the team’s “morale.” About his dressing room. As if the loss had taken such a toll, these players are waving the white flag, when in reality they simply haven’t played well enough, as up to four starters with Pro Bowls have now missed 20 games in their careers and three more… Be Starter after missing 15 games.

Now Dak is going MIA, and who knows what’s going on with Pro Bowl guard Zack Martin, who missed both practices this week with a shoulder injury, but not this time because of previous misses with the veteran “rested.” This seems real.

So how about it, Mike? Do you still have this team’s attention?

“The reality of what’s going on in the locker room, the training, the surgery, it’s really been very consistent,” McCarthy says. “I think like everything else, we all do, and it’s really been that way throughout my career: when things don’t go the way you want them to, you grab it and go a little harder. “That’s the only thing I’ve seen.”

“I haven’t seen any change. If you look at the practice tape, I’ve always just used young guys and said we’ve got some young guys to play with, they’re growing. This is part of the practice climate established here. So I haven’t seen any decline, the weight room…this particular team is clearly a very consistent football team.”

And when it comes to this “morality” question?

“Moral? We all want to win,” he says. “It’s frustrating and hard and because you have to answer questions like this. That’s part of our job, but I don’t see any real decline. Nice to be home, gotta win a home game, haven’t won a home game yet this year.”

Like a ray of sunshine amid the dark clouds hovering overhead, it appears Micah Parsons will return on Sunday after missing the last four games with a high ankle sprain. Has practiced on a limited basis this week and will in all likelihood play on a limited basis after not playing a game for six weeks come Sunday. Think pass rush.

And even Parsons was asked if Cowboys owner Jerry Jones didn’t sell at the trade deadline, which Jerry never does. Never throw in the towel. And you know, when Micah talks, people listen.

“Yes, I spoke to Jerry. He came over and watched me train last week and he just said, ‘I’ve been here before. (Roger) Staubach called me and he said, ‘We were 3-5 (one season), and we still made a run,'” Micah says, with Staubach likely referring to the 1974 season when the Cowboys were 1-1. 4 started but finished 8-6, a narrow win over Washington “That gives Jerry his old-fashioned belief.” And when your owner believes in that and really believes that these are the right people, that gives the guys in the Locker room confidence. It should be because your owner believes in you. Even if you haven’t had the greatest success and things aren’t going your way, he still believes you could still do great things.

“And honestly, you should too. We’ve been a winning team the last three years, a 12-5 team. Obviously we’ve suffered more losses than ever before at this point, but you know, we still have high hopes for the players, we just have to stop beating ourselves and that’s the penalties and things like that.

Maybe McCarthy needs to go full-blown John Belushi in the locker room before the game Animal housethe memorable line he reminded his roommates of as they were expelled from school for poor grades and sat around moping, memorably shouting, “What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No, it’s not over now because when the going gets tough… it’s going to get tough.

“Who is with me? Let’s go! Come on!”

OK, a little cheesy, but you get the point. There is no giving up in football.