ARLINGTON – The Dallas Cowboys bumbled their way to a fifth straight loss on “Monday Night Football” here at weather-worn AT&T Stadium, falling 34-10 to the Houston Texans. … and creating a great deal of questions about what to do with this roster for the remainder of 2024.
What to do in 2025? We’ve made pretty clear what the Joneses family’s plan is there: “Blow It Up” and remodel. This team is relatively light in ballast in terms of long-term contracts with coaches and players and the blueprint is in place – with a possible $100 million in cap room available next March.
But what about now? With Dak Prescott sidelined for the season, the Cowboys handed the job to Cooper Rush for a second consecutive start. … an understandable move as long as the club is still trying to win – and able to benefit from a win.
Rush was asked to do way too much here as he attempted 55 passes … though he did racking up 354 yards (with one touchdown and one interception). Overall, it was a great improvement from his Week 10 performance, when he managed just 45 passing yards in a blowout loss to the Eagles.
There was one other difference from week to week as well: Against the Eagles, the Cowboys used young backup QB Trey Lance in mop-up duty. But against the Texans? Lance – who like Rush is out of contract after this season – remained locked up on the sideline, ball cap on his head.
And in reviewing the postgame comments from the Cowboys powers that be? They might want to make sure they’re on the same page.
After the game, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy lamented not getting Lance into the game for at least a series.
“I think the one thing I should have done at the end that I didn’t do was put Trey in there,” the coach said frankly. “I could have got him a series. That’s one thing I second-guess myself on.”
McCarthy could’ve done so as an experiment (Dallas really still doesn’t know what is has here even after having traded a fourth-round draft pick to the 49ers for Lance ahead of the 2023 season). Or Dallas could’ve inserted Lance because the coaches have purportedly created “Lance packages” to take advantage of his athleticism.
What happened to that idea with the former No. 3 overall pick?
Anyway, just down the hall from McCarthy, owner Jerry Jones nudged the conversation in another direction, insisting that Rush is “the guy” because he gives Dallas “the best chance to win.”
So Lance is out? Or he’s an experiment? Or he’s a “package” that will go unused? All while the Cowboys at 3-7 and near the basement of the NFC standings try to fool themselves into thinking a win is more important than NFL Draft position?
We’re not saying Jones and McCarthy are in conflict here, exactly. But we are saying they need to figure it out so the “self-second-guessing” can be minimized.
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