The 2019 Dallas Cowboys did something that typically only elite teams have done across NFL history

We are far enough removed from the 2019 Dallas Cowboys season ending that the dust is starting to settle and reality has long set in. It is officially the offseason.

In the coming months we will all look back many times at a season squandered by a Cowboys team that simply could not get out of their own way. In dropping games to teams like the New York Jets and Chicago Bears (not to mention a contest against the Minnesota Vikings that they should have won) the Cowboys dug themselves too deep of a hole to climb out of and were one of the 20 NFL teams left to find January plans that didn’t include the playoffs.

There were things that the 2019 Cowboys did well though, which is really the problem. It’s not like we’re talking about the season that the Cincinnati Bengals had that was totally dysfunctional and void of any promise. This should have been a good team. Heck, it was a good team. They simply couldn’t be good enough for long enough or at the right times.

In analyzing the highs that the most recent edition of the franchise experienced, the incomparable Bob Sturm from The Ticket and The Athletic put forth some information on Tuesday that is surely going to have you feeling sad (sorry to do this to you in the New Year). Sturm has made it a habit to track “knockout” victories for the Cowboys this season and explained where this past season’s team ranks in that category among teams across NFL history.

The answer is high. the answer is also pain.

Sturm’s full piece is worth your time but this particular table is so damning. Consider that the Cowboys have seven wins by the qualifications that he outlined and that they had eight wins total on the season. The only one outside of this group was the eight-point victory that they had against the Detroit Lions.

In many ways this summarizes who the Cowboys were this past season. When they won they absolutely dominated teams and if they weren’t doing that, they weren’t doing much. This is a team that made it a habit of winning close game after close game during the 2018 season a year ago and it’s more than obvious now how that wasn’t sustainable.

We have yet to see what the direction of the Cowboys is really going to be in 2020 as the organization is taking their time in parting ways with Jason Garrett (the assumed route they are going to go in). Whoever is coaching the team next season needs to do a better job of capitalizing the talent on this team because it’s capable of doing some special things.