Welcome to a very sarcastic and bitter version of What They're Saying. What - you expected rainbows and care bears? Nah, things might turn around but right now, it's nothing but dark storm clouds in Big D. I mean, when Jerry Jones says this:

"I've had all the fire knocked out of my butt tonight," [Jerry Jones] said.

You know it's bad and I don't even know what the heck that's exactly supposed to mean. Did he eat some bad bean burritos with extra hot-sauce or something? Whatever it means, I know it ain't good.

And when you're head coach is saying stuff like this:

"We didn't look like that kind of team that is going to turn it around today,'' said suddenly vulnerable head coach Wade Phillips. He added later, "This is the worst game this team has played since I've been here. ... I'm angry, disappointed and embarrassed. We shouldn't get beat like that.''

You're preaching to the choir, Wade. We shouldn't get beat like that, but we did. The team played without any fire because Jerry was hoarding it all in his butt.

Here's the scary part, there were quite a few quotes that came close to saying the Q-word. Quit.

For instance, after the long Steven Jackson TD run. 

"I think they got their heads down a little bit after that," Phillips said of the Cowboys quitting.

Zach Thomas:

"When they had that long run, you can't let that seep into your head and it did mine," Thomas said. "It snowballed, and it sunk into a lot of our guys' heads, including myself. We didn't play well at all."

Now I'm not saying they quit, but they sure sound like a beaten team. Usually I don't quote the opposing players in What They're Saying but Steven Jackson had some interesting things to say that were on the same subject. This after watching tape of the Cowboys defense this week.

"We really felt their body language as a defense...if you jump on them, we felt we could take them out of their game," Jackson said. "We wanted to kill their morale.

"They're a very talented team. It's something we felt if we could jump on them, we could put them away."

There's that talented team thing again. It's now gotten so far into the organization's head that they are calling themselves out about believing their own press clippings from last year and earlier this year.

"Part of it is, this is not last year's team," Phillips said. "This is this year's team. We won some close games [last year]. We came from behind last year and did a lot of good things, and we seem to think we can do those things, and we haven't done them. Especially lately."

Jason Witten.

"We've got to look at ourselves and try fix it because you can't talk about talent and all that stuff," tight end Jason Witten said. "That doesn't mean anything. We just have to go do it."

Even the usually mute Leonard Davis had something to say.

"I don't really talk a lot like that . . . not really a rah-rah guy," Davis said. "But when I got something to say, I don't care, I'm going to speak my mind. It really wasn't a big deal."

"We just can't ride the wave anymore," he said. "Last year is last year. We can't look back at last year. It doesn't help us now. That's really all I said."

Click the link below, there's more, including what the team plans to do about this mess.

So the question becomes can the Cowboys do anything about it? Can they do anything to turn this season around? Well, they're saying the right things, although we've been hearing this for a few weeks now.

"[Jerry] was pretty disappointed," linebacker Greg Ellis said, "but he also said some positive things. You're going to get knocked on your butt a whole lot of times in your life. It's how you choose to respond to that that will determine success or failure in life. This is our opportunity to show what kind of people we are made of and fight back."

Ken Hamlin isn't going to let people off the hook including rookie Mike Jenkins who struggled in his first start. And he doesn't want to hear about who is not on the field, but the players on the field need to start taking responsibility.

"I'm going to keep reiterating," Hamlin said. "People that are out there are accountable. We hold them accountable to their play. And they've got to play. We can't worry about people on the sideline. They can't help us. When they get back, we're going to be glad to have them back. But the guys who are out there, they're accountable and we hold them accountable."

Really? I haven't heard much of that accountability-thing yet, maybe it's all going on behind closed doors. Another guy in the secondary who needs to start playing a whole lot better is Anthony Henry.

"We're still professionals," Henry said. "We have our own responsibility and we have to bring it together as a team. That's the main thing."

The main thing would be to stop giving up easy passing TD's, but that's just me.

And the bizarre comment of the post-game has to go to Zach Thomas.

"Ever since the (game against Cincinnati two weeks ago) we thought everything was going to come easy. It hasn't. We just haven't got better, including myself," linebackerZach Thomas said. "The second half was awful. Just awful. You can't cry about it. If you've got pride, you have to keep working. ... We have a lot of problems we have to fix."

Ever since the Cincinnati game you thought things were going to come easy? A game where you guys barely beat a team that has yet to win a game this season? I mean, I get the rest of the comment; you guys were awful, and I don't want to hear crying either but just somebody fixing it. But why anybody thought things would come easy after scraping by with a win in the fourth quarter against one of the worst teams in the league is beyond me. Maybe a lot of that kind of delusional thinking has been going at Valley Ranch.

And poor Roy Williams, he actually thought he was going to a team that wins.

"Yeah, I didn't really expect this, but I'm not worried about it," [Roy] Williams said. "We're a little down right now, but we'll make it back. I'm not too concerned."

No too concerned? Wait a few weeks and you might be.

So yeah, I'm sarcastic and bitter. But things have to get better, right? There's a plan to fix this, right Wade?

"I don't have an answer for it," [Wade] Phillips said. "If I did, we wouldn't have played like we did. But we're going to do something about it."

Could you be more vague? That doesn't exactly inspire confidence. We, the fans, are expecting more.

"It is not the time to sit around and moan and feel sorry," [Jerry] Jones said. "Our fans are expecting more and they expect us all to get in there and come up with anything we can do to make us better."

Could someone at the Ranch give me an idea of what that might be? I'm just asking.