Dallas Cowboys play Lucy to the fans Charlie Brown

Incapable of stringing back-to-back wins yet again, the Dallas Cowboys find new ways to play Lucy to the fans’ Charlie Brown.

The Dallas Cowboys are on a journey to nowhere. One step forward, two steps back. This is the culture that has been bred by management, the head coach and the offensive coordinator.

Every time something good, like last week’s 40-7 victory, happens, the next week comes and wipes it away. Sunday’s 20-17 loss was yet another example of Lucy moving the football just when Charlie Brown is ready to kick it.

The same reason the Cowboys have lost every other game this year was the downfall this time. Blah, blah, blah, quarterback play. Yadda, yadda, yadda, mind-numbing coaching decisions. Rinse and repeat.

If you’re hoping anything will change for the better this year, you should temper those expectations immediately. As long as Jason Garrett is the head coach, Scott Linehan is calling the plays and Dak Prescott is doing the quarterbacking, this is what you’re getting.

The Dallas Cowboys lost their third game of the year when the defense held their opponent to less than 20 points. It was the second loss keeping the opposition under 17. With an opportunity to build off of a win last week and take ownership of first place in the NFC East, only one side of the ball showed up, again.

It’s fair to wonder when rumblings of a divided locker room will make their way out. The defense, top ten in all major categories including second in points allowed and third in yards allowed is getting hung out to dry.

With a simply average offense, this team would easily be 5-2 or 6-1. Instead, at 3-4, the Dallas Cowboys must try and win a division with one hand tied behind their backs.

I’ll save you the time and drama and just let you know right now, it’s not going to happen. This coaching staff has found a way to regress back to the early part of the decade when 8-8 was the standard. Since their Christmas Eve loss to Seattle last year, the Cowboys have alternated losses and wins. Prior to that game, the won three straight after losing three straight. Perfectly average.

The offensive woes are not limited to just road games in 2018 either. That’s surface level. Look deeper. Since Scott Linehan was promoted to Offensive Coordinator in 2015, the Cowboys have averaged 21.6 points per game. That is not offensive wizardry. It’s on the low end of average, just barely better than the bottom of the barrel.

It has now become painfully obvious that the 2016 season for Prescott was an aberration. The Cowboys benefited from a lack of tape to exploit his weaknesses. He has progressively regressed ever since. Every game features multiple instances of someone either too afraid to make a throw, unsure of what “NFL-open” means or incapable of making the proper reads.

Meanwhile, the coach continues to mismanage time, make bad decisions at inopportune times and get outwitted week after week, no matter the adversary.

Yesterday, the Dallas Cowboys traded a first round pick for receiver Amari Cooper in an overtly obvious panic move. Dallas has a bye week and nine games to turn around the offense. The decision makers naturally choose yet another receiver instead of firing the coordinator.

When this move does not produce the intended result, do not be shocked but don’t blame Cooper either. Receivers cannot make as big of a difference as a quarterback or competent play-caller would.