The Dallas Cowboys season is not going the way anyone expected. At 5-6, the Cowboys are coming off three consecutive embarrassing losses, including two of them in primetime and one on Thanksgiving, a whipping at the hands of the Chargers that left everyone a little bit shocked.
That includes young quarterback Dak Prescott, who has struggled badly over the past several weeks. Prescott described the struggles as "shocking" and "frustrating" recently.
"It's frustrating, it's shocking," Prescott said via the Dallas Morning News. "You look around and you see the Pro Bowlers and the talent that you have, it's almost lost at words for why it's happening. But it just shows you this game's tough."
Last year's Cowboys, featuring a rookie Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott, shot out to a 13-3 record and a No. 1 seed in the NFC. Similar expectations were heaped upon this year's squad, but attrition (Ronald Leary left in free agency), injury (Tyron Smith and Sean Lee have been missing) and suspension (Elliott) have really drained the talent off Dallas' roster, an already stars/scrubs setup that has a limited amount of wiggle room when it comes to people going missing.
Some fingers have begun to be pointed in the direction of Jason Garrett and the coaching staff, particularly with the Cowboys getting outscored 74-6 (!) in the second half of the last three games against the Falcons, Eagles and Chargers. Prescott says not to blame the coaches.
"Look into it deeper," Prescott said. "You must not know much if you just point fingers at the coaching staff or point fingers at anybody, really. Then you don't know enough. Just look into it more."
But at the same time, Prescott clearly doesn't have an answer to the issue, simply noting that the Cowboys are "the same team."
"Nothing's changed, we're the same team, we've got the same players out there, so it's just about just getting back to that," Prescott said.
Spoiler: they are not the same team. They are a similar team to last year, but now are missing a lot of their players -- Prescott acknowledged that he was wrong to note they're the same with Elliott sidelined.
Look, the harsh reality is that the NFC is loaded this year and the Cowboys simply aren't catching all the breaks they caught during the 2016 season. Winning in the NFL is hard -- no one is guaranteed a successful season just because the year before was a strong effort.
The Cowboys, who appear likely to miss the playoffs this season, have a mammoth three-game stretch starting this Thursday against the Redskins at home. If they can beat Washington, the Giants on the road and the Raiders on the road, it would significantly open the door for the Cowboys to make a run when Elliott returns on Dec. 24 against the Seahawks.
But they better shake off the shock quick, because any more slip ups and the postseason becomes a pipe dream pretty quickly.
