I'm glad I've got my other interests because this is becoming less and less fun for me. I'm just really hurting RN with this loss. I'm sorry. Normally I try to stay upbeat, but it's incredibly painful and hard to do now.
I hear you.
But, at least as far as the regular season goes, there's several things to remember.
1. Even with the loss, and a win by the Eagles (if they do) Cowboys will still have a 2 game lead. They don't have to win every game, every loss by the Eagles or Washington makes it that much harder for them to catch Dallas. Neither of those two teams are likely to win out. Cowboys just have to match their wins or at worst win the tie breaker or maybe even just win one less.
Win the division and you at least get one home game, not lately a big advantage, especially for Dallas, but come playoffs, after a 17 game season, it's a benefit to not have to travel to a win or go home game, and sleep in your own bed.
2. Missing Cooper, Lamb, Lawrence and Gregory. All will be back, probably by the next game, or the game after at the worst. They are much better than their backups, the team will be better. McGovern is getting game experience, which he hasn't had a lot of so far. May get better by the end of the year.
3. It's not like the Cowboys are getting blown out every game, this was an overtime loss. The 4 players mentioned above are surely worth 4 points, and probably more. One or two bad calls that don't go against Dallas and some of these could be wins.
4. The problems like in this game are nearly all within the Cowboys' control. Block better, get the defensive alignments straight, pay attention to penalties.
Of course all this doesn't mean the Cowboys are SB bound, as noted this is about the regular season. And Dak will never be a Brees, Rodgers, etc. The missed wide open throw in the last drive is a perfect example, not to say it lost the game, it didn't, but he continues to pull those stunts, and after this many years he'll probably not quit doing so. Can he make the bad throws only when it doesn't matter so much? Could be just possible.
But lesser quarterbacks have won SBs, who's to say Dak can't as well? Russell Wilson only got to the SBs when he had the NUMBER ONE defense. Give Dak a top-5 or even top-10 defense and he's plenty good enough. It's not, and won't be, on Dak to overcome an otherwise mediocre to average team. The Cowboys' defense is mediocre at this point, maybe getting the 4 players noted back will put the team up to contender status, but to be sure it's not there now...