Morning After Wk 9- Skid Continues in ATL

Cowboys lose third straight game, take on more injuries as Falcons coast to victory.

It was yet another disappointing day in a season that doesn’t appear to let up.

This franchise is down pretty bad right now, and those who were wise enough to forecast a substantial step backward in 2024 should probably collect their winnings. It appears I was guilty of believing in past quality offering hints at future success, and if anything seems unlikely right now, it is future success.

There doesn’t appear to be much of that left in this current group, which, of course, introduces the obvious conclusions.

We appear to be living in the last days of this particular Cowboys era.

The Dallas Cowboys needed a win in the worst way possible to stop that bleeding, and despite showing some positives, were never terribly close to threatening their opponent for that victory. Atlanta seemed pretty unstressed all day long as they continued their form of five wins in six weeks, pushing the battered Cowboys out of the way. Bijan Robinson was just as impressive and high-quality as we expected, and Kirk Cousins had a rather comfortable day picking out his targets on his terms and scoring whenever they felt slightly threatened. At 6-3, Atlanta has the feel of a team that will play in the postseason and likely win their division on the way.

The Cowboys, however, do not.

Dallas lost its third straight game on Sunday, something they have avoided wonderfully here in the last three years. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that we applauded the Mike McCarthy regime for having two impressive and distinguishing traits that I am sure you recall.

First, they were able to always win their home games and establish a real advantage in games played in front of their own fans. However, they are still winless at home this season (0-3) and now, absurdly, are racing Mike Tyson to see who can get a win at AT&T Stadium first (or at all).

Second, they almost never lost consecutive games. They were 11-1 from the start of 2021 until last December when they finally lost back-to-back games at Buffalo and Miami. Then, they lost consecutive games to the Saints and Ravens this year, and then again to the Lions and 49ers. But they had never lost three straight with McCarthy and Dak Prescott both at their posts.

Well, we can scratch both of those positives off the list now, as they lost yet again to these Falcons, 27-21, in a game that was both quite winnable and yet never really very close to being won. I hope that makes sense because, walking away, it did not seem that Atlanta is a vastly better football team. However, it would also be pretty disingenuous to say that the Cowboys were ever able to appear likely to win.

And that is kind of where we are right now. They are no longer able to rise up in the face of defeat and stop the spiral with a show of force. Rather, if losing is a disease, then this 3-5 football team better get treated quickly. Because there might not be much of an end in sight, other than the end of a coaching staff, and from the looks of those things, those veteran coaches might not protest too loudly. It is as if they know this current situation is on life support, too.