The Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl dreams are quickly vanishing after embarrassing themselves in a 34-27 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday at Cowboys Stadium.
With two weeks to prepare for the Titans, Dallas looked like a team that was playing its third preseason game.
Turnovers, penalties, mental mistakes and uninspired play exemplified what the Cowboys have become since Jerry Jones became the De facto head coach.
Following the game, cornerback Terence Newman was more concerned about identifying the problems rather than finding solutions, and that is exactly why Dallas continues to struggle.
“At this point in time, it’s not about trying to find answers, it’s more so about trying to find the problem,” Newman said. “What is the problem? How do you put your finger on it? It’s one of those things you have to look at from a mass standpoint.”
The problems that plagued the Cowboys against Tennessee are the same issues they’ve had since Bill Parcells resigned as head coach.
They were ill-prepared and lacked focus, but most importantly they lacked mental toughness.
Tony Romo threw three interceptions and generally played like the guy from two seasons ago who was more concerned about his social agenda than being the quarterback of the Cowboys.
Romo was under pressure throughout the game, getting sacked six times for minus 36 yards. But even when he had time to throw, Romo forced passes into coverage.
On the Titans opening drive of the game, Dallas committed three pass interference penalties – two by Mike Jenkins – that resulted in Tennessee taking an early 7-0 lead without having to put much effort into scoring.
The Cowboys committed 12 penalties on Sunday for 133 yards, giving them 38 in four games this season. When a team averages nearly 10 penalties a game, that clearly indicates a lack of discipline.
Kicker David Buehler missed a 44-yard field goal attempt, his third miss of the season and all of them have been makeable.
Everyone associated with the Cowboys organization should be ashamed of themselves, and not just because of they way the team played on Sunday.
They should be ashamed because the same problems that Newman doesn’t seem to have a clue about take place every week, but nothing is being done to effectively deal with the problems.
When those issues are obvious to a fan of the team and not one of their players, everyone in Valley Ranch should be very concerned.
For a team with this much talent to perform as poorly as it has so far this season is inexcusable, despite what some in the Cowboys locker room may want us to believe.
If the Cowboys don’t get their act together very quickly, not only will they waste an opportunity to play for a Super Bowl title, they’ll be lucky to even make the playoffs.
