The National Times - Crisis-hit Cowboys nearing rock-bottom ahead of Commanders clash

Unfortunately, however, there is every chance that the iconic NFL franchise is still making its way to rock-bottom as they prepare to face the in-form Washington Commanders on Sunday.

Record defeats, a miserable home losing streak and a season-ending injury to star quarterback Dak Prescott would have been bad enough.

But on Monday, just to add to the impression of an organization engulfed by chaos, sections of metal sheeting from the roof of the AT&T Stadium plunged to the field before the team slumped to an abject 34-10 defeat to Houston.

The jokes about the sky falling in on Dallas wrote themselves.

Not for the first time, the franchise that likes to think of itself as "America's Team" had instead become America's punchline.

But after the Cowboys latest loss, which virtually extinguished any chance of a ticket to the post-season, even the team's harshest critics began to take pity.

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith, who regularly delights in trolling the Cowboys, insisted that the club's crisis was no laughing matter.

- 'Horror show' -

"This is a horror show," Smith said solemnly on ESPN's 'First Take' program this week.

"I like getting on the Cowboys fans, and I enjoy their misery. But they've stripped the fun out of this because of how god-awful they have been. I can't believe how bad they are."

The Cowboys' fall from grace has been decades in the making.

The team which dominated the NFL in the early part of the 1990s -- winning three Super Bowls in four seasons between 1993 and 1996 -- has not been back to the championship game since that golden era.

Head coaches and quarterbacks have come and gone, and none have come close to returning the Cowboys to the pinnacle of the NFL, despite the team being ranked as the most valuable sports franchise in the world according to Forbes, with a valuation of $11 billion.

The one constant during those decades of disappointment has been owner Jerry Jones, the Texas billionaire who bought the team in 1989.

Jones, one of the NFL's most colorful and polarizing personalities, was at a loss to explain the team's current problems.

"I don't know that there's anything beyond the obvious -- and that is we just aren't playing very well," Jones told reporters after Monday's home defeat to Houston.

The Cowboys stat-line this season makes for grim reading.

After opening the campaign with a 33-17 defeat of Cleveland, the wheels came off in a 44-19 home loss to the New Orleans Saints where Dallas' vaunted defense leaked a whopping six touchdowns. To date, the Saints have scored more touchdowns at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington this season than the Cowboys.

- Brutal losses -

Other brutal losses have followed, notably a 47-9 home shellacking by the Detroit Lions, and a 34-6 trouncing by the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Cowboys, who are 3-7 in the NFC East, are the only team in North American professional sport who have not managed to win a game at home in 2024.

There is every chance that Washington, led by their talented rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels and expertly coached by former Dallas defensive guru Dan Quinn, will add to the Cowboys' woe when they host the Texas club on Sunday.

It has left Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, who is in the final year of his contract, facing a bleak future. McCarthy put a defiant face on his team's problems as they attempt to somehow stop the bleeding.

"We got seven losses. We've got to go. Backs against the wall. We got to fight, scratch, claw," McCarthy said. "We've got to do everything we can to go win the next game. That's where my mind's at."

Jones, meanwhile, attempted to put a brave face on the team's season of woe, insisting he has seen worse.

"You stay in this league long enough, you'll have times like this," the 82-year-old tycoon said.

T.Bailey--TNT