2011 Dallas Cowboys: December Swoons, Mediocrity and the Future

Well, Dallas Cowboys fans, what can I say?  Same Cowboys, different year. 

I know it's January, championship weekend is in full swing and the Super Bowl is imminent but I just couldn't resist looking back one last time at a 2011 season that went down like the Costa Concordia. 

Exactly how many times during the season were the Cowboys in a position to close out teams and take control of the NFC East?  How many times?

Too many. 

Instead of hosting Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons for what would've been a winnable home playoff game, Jerry Jones and company find themselves on the outside looking in.  

The fatal blows in the 2011 season came at the hands of their most hated rivals, the New York Giants, with back-to-back losses that put an exclamation point on their most recent December swoon.  

The final game of the season happened in grand fashion on a Sunday night in the cold, wet, miserable confines of Met Life Stadium (I live in the area and trust me, it's miserable).  It was only fitting that the 2011 Cowboys start and complete their season with bookend losses in New York.

What troubles me is that the 2011 Cowboys season started with such high hopes.

Gone was Wade Phillips and his relaxed, aw shucks, friendly ice cream salesman style of leadership.  Jason Garrett, coaching in his first full season and continuing to put his stamp on this organization, was leading Cowboys squad infused with some youth to go with a core still in its prime and ready to make a run. 

Despite some inexplicable losses which made me want to smash my fingers with a hammer like Sam Rothstein to that card counter in Casino, this team found itself at 7-4 heading into the stretch run.  Despite a nice winning streak against some weaker opponents, this squad met had finally met its fate.  Enter the December swoon.     

You now ask yourself, who’s to blame?  Romo?  Garrett?  Rob Ryan and his enormous beer keg belly?  The defense?  The offense? 

Well, considering the only promising component on that offensive line was Tyron Smith and the fact that Romo played with a punctured lung coupled with the fact that at times, the Dallas offense looked like a machine, I tend to not point the arrow at the offense. 

If not for Tony Romo, this team is a replica of those 5-11 teams under Dave Campo.  I think the Jets and Lions games were a Romo/Garrett collaboration and the Arizona game was just a solo act by Garrett. 

Either way, those losses were at a minimum head scratching and utterly embarrassing.  However, nothing tops the double scooping of pure turd we laid against the Giants.  Take your pick of events that you can question. 

Was it being up 12 with five minutes to play?  The failed Romo to Austin connection?  The defense that was as porous as Sponge Bob or should I say Sponge Rob?  The 44-yard jump ball/Hail Mary to Victor Cruz?  The Bear Pascoe/Henry Hynoski hurdling act?  Terrance Newman's impersonation of being an NFL cornerback? 

I can sum up those events in one word:  nauseating!

Now for the encore, my fellow Cowboy fans.  I give you the 2011 Dallas Cowboys defense led by the unsubstantiated master of not backing up his talk: Rob Ryan.  Yes, I am as guilty as any Cowboys fan of buying into the off-season hype of the belief that Ryan was finally the coordinator who was going to fix this defense.  Yeah, Jerry Jones does it again! 

Rob Ryan was going to disguise our secondary with some sort of Cher costume by bringing all these exotic blitzes, stunts, twists and turns that would leave our opponents saying no more!  Fiction can be fun Jerry, but I find the reference section much more interesting. 

It’s not just what happened in those Giants games, but the whole season.  Good football at times and mediocrity the majority of the times.  These Dallas Cowboys after the victory against Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1997 Super Bowl have gone 120-120 with one playoff win. 

120-120!  Coincidence?  Not even close.

Jerry Jones, the spotlight ultimately is right where you want it.  Right on you and rightfully so.  Your misfires in the draft and free agency, horrendous personnel decisions and your 22-year amateur general manager internship linger like stale flatulence.  

Let's take a trip down memory lane and start with draft picks. Kavika Pittman, Shante Carver, Ebenezer Ekuban, David LaFleuer, Dwayne Goodrich, Quincy Carter, Tony Dixon, James Marten, the entire 2009 draft, Akwasi Awusu Ansah and the list goes on. 

How about the Roy Williams trade?  The fact that Dave Campo was our head coach for three years?  The firing of Jimmy Johnson?  Whether it be the collapse of 2011 or collapses of years past, the one common denominator you find in it all is Jerry Jones. 

Going 120-120 over 16 plus years is a telling and compelling statistic—one that just goes to show how mediocre the Dallas Cowboys really are. 

Now that brings us to present day and the future.  With cap room ranging from $14-20 million, the 14th pick in the draft and unacceptable results in 2011 that will motivate this organization, just maybe the December swoons, the mediocrity and the future will all have a remedy.   

The question, as always, will be do you trust Dr. Jones to deliver those remedies?  Stay tuned.