The Cowboys have had their opportunities. This one just happens to be the last one of this season. I’ve written them off. While talking to my dad at the end of the latest debacle, he said “Game over, do you want to stay for the closing celebration?” I said “Season over, lets get out of here.” It was heartbreaking to say the least. He took me to the first game at TS. I took him to the last. Thanks for the memory ’Boys.

Other teams’ failures have in a fashion resurrected the ’Boys. They are not really alive and kicking, they are more like zombies, just marching to the drumbeat, not really conscious of where their next footstep will land, cashing a check, going home. Romo thinks about punting.

If they win next week it will be a surprise. If they lose, well that’s just they way they are. I only hope not to be embarrassed, again.

SOB is happy to be in this position. Would have been interesting if that mid-week press conference had happened on Saturday night. You know what, he’d probably say the same thing: “It’s exciting for us, it will be a playoff atmosphere when you play a game that might put you in there. It’s an immediate and tangible goal.” Uh, Wade, that was Saturday night.

Last week’s press conference: “The teams we’re playing down the stretch are winning teams. In the meetings and practices players are really honed in on what to do, it’s all out there for you, reach out and grab it. We control our own destiny, there’s something we can do about it, we just need to continue.”

Yeah right, we have heard that story before.

Those were tough, especially since after that I don’t think Dallas had a good team again until Aikman’s 2nd season.

There are definitely much worse defeats in Cowboys history than Sat’s, but still a really crappy way to close out Texas Stadium in a playoff like atmosphere.

The worst regular season loss is still to the Redskins in ’83. Not only did it cost Dallas a first round bye and home-field advantage, but the Cowboys were never the same again in the Tom Landry era. That ’83 team went on to lose its next two games after that, including a home wild card loss to a crappy Rams team. In the year after that they missed the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade. In fact, they only made the playoffs one more time after that with Landry, in 1985, and the 10-6 team they took that year wasn’t very impressive.

That ’83 lost to the Redskins was more than just a tough regular season loss; it marked the end of the Tom Landry era (at least in terms of him putting a true contender on the field). Literally, the Cowboys were never the same again (in the 80’s) after that loss as Landry faded into the background and new coaches by the names of Gibbs, Walsh, & Parcells became the new geniuses of the league. Sadly, nearly two decades of being in the NFL’s upper class had reached its end. It would take a new coach with a new style of play to put the Cowboys back on top some 10 years later, (but that’s another story).

Saturday’s loss to the Ravens, while disappointing, does not carry anywhere near the significance the 83 Redskins loss does. At worst it a single loss, in a season full of them that may just cost the Cowboys the playoffs. But it does mark the end of anything on a more permanent level. This team is still loaded with young talent and has yet to see its better days. Sooner or later Jerry and company will figure out what that missing piece is, (whether it’s simply staying healthy or modifying the present coaching staff).

The Ravens are a playoff team. The Cowboys are a young team w/ a terrible coaching staff. I was not surprised to them lose that game at all.