Cowboys Have No Answers and Neither Do We

For one glorious week, we all thought the years of suffering had finally ended. But it only took three hours in Minneapolis for it all to come crashing back to Earth with a massive thud.

The 13-year drought of playoff wins may have ended, but it’s still been 14 years (and counting) since a Super Bowl. Wade and Romo finally won a playoff game, but how long will they remain stuck on just one playoff win?

At the end of each season, with the burning sting of disappointment still fraying our nerves, Cowboy fans desperately seek answers to fix what went wrong. Many want to fire the coach. Others want a different quarterback. Just about everyone wants someone – anyone else to be GM.

But every year, our pleas are ignored and history eventually has no choice but to repeat itself once more. You know that trite saying about the definition of insanity doesn’t seem so trite this time of year.

There will probably be a tweak here and a tweak there, but nothing of any significance – nothing that will actually result in the season ending in anything more than yet another bitterly disappointing playoff loss.

We foolishly thought it was different this time. There was no December swoon. Romo finally learned how to protect the ball down the stretch. Mr. Fix-It finally fixed the perpetually underachieving defense. The planets had finally aligned.

Yeah, not so much.

December was a mirage generated by an inordinate number of games against tanking divisional foes. Romo saved a month’s worth of lax ball security for one disastrous game. And Wade’s supposed extreme makeover of his defense into Doomsday 3.0 was nothing more than fool’s gold.

So, where does that leave the Cowboys? They’re certainly not a bad team. In fact, they’ll probably make the playoffs again next year. And when looking at their roster, it doesn’t reveal any glaring weaknesses – other than at kicker. They got rid of all the malcontents and locker room cancer, even bringing in the type of natural-born leaders they’ve lacked so long.

There simply aren’t any easy answers. We all think we know what’s wrong and how to fix it, but that’s just not the case. Jerry doesn’t know. Stephen doesn’t know. I don’t know. You don’t know.

And not knowing is what makes this so hard. There’s nothing we can cling to as a glimmer of hope for the future – nothing that will lead to this team finally getting over the hump once and for all.

We have nothing whatsoever to feel good about going into next season, other than we’re not the Rams or Lions or Bills. Of course, if we were one of those teams, at least we’d have a high draft pick.

The reality of the situation is we’re in about as difficult a spot as a team can be – not bad enough to blow it up and start over, but not good enough to expect progress with the existing cast of characters. It’s true NFL limbo, and it sucks…hard.

The Cowboys don’t have any answers. They’ll be back again next season trying again. As fans, we also don’t have any answers. We’ll get over the disappointment and unwittingly get lured back into the false promise and unrealistic expectations that come with each new season.

And so the vicious cycle continues…