Opinion: Dallas Cowboys dealt another reality check in playoff exit

zekecowboy

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LOS ANGELES – So this is how it ends for the Dallas Cowboys.


The rising defense gets run out of town. Ezekiel Elliott gets stuffed – even on a crucial fourth-and-one. The weirdest calls go the wrong way. Hope is put on the shelf until next season.

Rams 30, Cowboys 22.

The Cowboys, with some of the NFL’s best young talent and two division titles in three years, may believe they can envision a championship run from here. But until proven otherwise, what a mirage.

“We can grow, and we have to learn from our experiences,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett contended.

Here’s a real-time reality check: The divisional round of the playoffs is Dallas’ glass ceiling.

For the third time in five years, the Cowboys have been good enough to find themselves in the second round of the NFC playoffs, one win away from the NFC title game. And once again, this is the end of the line. Two years ago as a No. 1 seed, they were eliminated by a last-minute dagger from Aaron Rodgers. Before that, it was the Dez Bryant catch that wasn’t. Now it’s L.A.’s two-headed rushing monster – Todd Gurley and C.J. Anderson – as the symbol of doom.

With Gurley and Anderson both cracking triple-digits, L.A. rushed for 273 yards – most in playoff history for the Rams, most in playoff history against the Cowboys – to flip the script for what might have been.

Wasn’t it the Rams’ D that was supposed to have the problems stopping the run?

L.A. allowed an NFL-worst 5.1 yards per carry during the season but held the NFL’s rushing champ to 47 yards on 20 carries. Meanwhile, the Rams’ high-flying offense, with the fancy passing game creations of young wizard Sean McVay, suddenly found a new identity especially for this moment.

More: Terrell Owens blasts Cowboys coach Jason Garrett yet again as Dallas falls in playoffs

More: Opinion: Rams show they have the makings of a top Super Bowl contender

You might think that the 32-year-old McVay, the league’s youngest coach, is the NFL’s version of Harry Potter, given his magic touch for scheming open receivers. Well, on Saturday night, McVay turned into Ground Chuck, and the Cowboys had no answers to slow down a Rams running game that was reminiscent of the run-first system that Chuck Knox employed for the Rams in the ‘70s.

The Rams ran on a season-high 48 attempts while Jared Goff threw just 28 passes. Of course, there was the McVay touch to all of the ground work, as the Rams repeatedly used the so-called “jet-action” – typically fake end-arounds or “ghost sweeps” that threw Dallas’ defense for a loop.

“The reality of it is they’re a team that gets a shifts and motions, and they can get your eyes,” Cowboys linebacker Jaylon Smith told USA TODAY as he left the Coliseum. “You have to be locked in and queued into your key. That’s something that got the best of us tonight.”

And add it to the list of lessons the Cowboys need to learn from. Dallas had the NFL’s fifth-best run defense during the season, but the unit looked like a shell of that on Saturday.

You heard that by listening to Kris Richard, the highly regarded assistant who calls the defensive plays for the Cowboys. He sounded disgusted when someone asked him if the run fits were out of sync.

“If a team is running the ball, we’re not fitting correctly,” Richard said. “It’s as simple as us getting out cleats in the grass as doing things correctly.”

Maybe the Cowboys will learn from this. Perhaps they can make schematic adjustments. Maybe the intensity will go up a notch. Like every team, there will be personnel tweaks here or there.

Richard, like Garrett and Smith, compared the setback to a scar that can heal over time.

“It hardens you,” Richard said. “What do scars do? Either they wound you and send you away, or every time you look at a wound, it’s a reminder that they can’t break you.”

Maybe so. But the Cowboys were in this spot two years ago and grew only so much from that. They learned enough to get right back to the divisional round … only to fall flat again.

Perhaps that’s why Garrett cringed when the notion of taking steps to the championship level was mentioned as he walked up the ramp leading to the buses. After the Cowboys clinched a playoff berth in December, Garrett told his players that it wasn’t a matter of settling for progress – the mission is to win it all now.

Well, the Cowboys failed again in that regard. They are going home again, with this generation of Cowboys doing no better than their predecessors. Dallas hasn’t won a Super Bowl since XXX, following the 1995 season – which also happens to be the last time the Cowboys won in the divisional round, too.

And there’s no guarantee that they’ll get back to the this stage any time soon.

Sure, they have core players like Elliott, Smith, Dak Prescott, Amari Cooper and Demarcus Lawrence (who is set to cash in as a free agent) in tow. But this is the NFL, where fortunes can change in a hurry.

That lesson – and the urgency to seize the opportunity when it is there to be grasped – needs to be the biggest takeaway for the Cowboys in the wake of another sad ending.
 

nightrain

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The Monarch Notes version displays that the Rams beat the Cowboys at their own game. Rather handily too, because the score was not indicative of the beating they took.
 

CWR

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I tried to read it. I couldn't finish it, Im too depressed.

I realize its just a game and so on, but I was having such a tremendous time leading up to these playoff games.

I was celebrating football all week, watching all the games, listening to cowboy radio, just engrossed by it all.

I was on the bbq, celebrating with family and friends alike and just having a blast.

I honestly never believed we'd make it to the superbowl but I did make the mistake of believing wed break through that divisional round barrier and make progress this year.

Im so sickened by that defensive effort I dont know what to do with myself. I suppose its better than losing on something fluky again but I am shocked at how this game went.
 

zekecowboy

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I tried to read it. I couldn't finish it, Im too depressed.

I realize its just a game and so on, but I was having such a tremendous time leading up to these playoff games.

I was celebrating football all week, watching all the games, listening to cowboy radio, just engrossed by it all.

I was on the bbq, celebrating with family and friends alike and just having a blast.

I honestly never believed we'd make it to the superbowl but I did make the mistake of believing wed break through that divisional round barrier and make progress this year.

Im so sickened by that defensive effort I dont know what to do with myself. I suppose its better than losing on something fluky again but I am shocked at how this game went.

Its hard too read but it is "Reality".
 

mattjames2010

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I tried to read it. I couldn't finish it, Im too depressed.

I realize its just a game and so on, but I was having such a tremendous time leading up to these playoff games.

I was celebrating football all week, watching all the games, listening to cowboy radio, just engrossed by it all.

I was on the bbq, celebrating with family and friends alike and just having a blast.

I honestly never believed we'd make it to the superbowl but I did make the mistake of believing wed break through that divisional round barrier and make progress this year.

Im so sickened by that defensive effort I dont know what to do with myself. I suppose its better than losing on something fluky again but I am shocked at how this game went.

Jerry is rubbing his hands together and laughing. He thanks you as well.

And you’ll behave like this next season as well.
 

dallas72

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No one is talking about the bogus Refs?
Dak on the grasp call was a joke...cost us 3pts or possibly the game
Dak was rolling out who knows what could of happened downfield
 

Fritsch_the_cat

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The Monarch Notes version displays that the Rams beat the Cowboys at their own game. Rather handily too, because the score was not indicative of the beating they took.

Agreed, that the Rams just overpowered them and imposed their will on both offense and defense is the most concerning part. The team looked like it quit early.
 

Red Dragon

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I tried to read it. I couldn't finish it, Im too depressed.

I realize its just a game and so on, but I was having such a tremendous time leading up to these playoff games.

I was celebrating football all week, watching all the games, listening to cowboy radio, just engrossed by it all.

I was on the bbq, celebrating with family and friends alike and just having a blast.

I honestly never believed we'd make it to the superbowl but I did make the mistake of believing wed break through that divisional round barrier and make progress this year.

Im so sickened by that defensive effort I dont know what to do with myself. I suppose its better than losing on something fluky again but I am shocked at how this game went.


Same here. I had no Super Bowl illusions but genuinely did feel that it was "time at last" to break past the divisional round barrier.
 

Deep_South

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So, the Rams exploited a weakness in our defense we didn't know we had. We fix it and come back next year. There is only one winner in the NFL every year -- everyone else goes home losers at some point and it's not easy for any of them. It's certainly not easy for us, but we're a young team, and like Tony always said -- we need to get better.
 

JakeCamp12

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The last 25 years has been one gigantic, very long reality check.

Yeah this entire BS line that getting smacked around for 60 minutes will harden you for next year is such a crock of crap. The only hardened people around here are the fans who keep swallowing this garbage as Garrett limps home after the divisional round after being completely out coached yet again. The great Hot Boyz looked like Hot Garbage for the entire game and our most sought after coordinator had zero answer for it. Instead of wasting a roster spot on Irving, maybe they should have found a DT that actually wanted to play every week and be at the Star for meetings. Instead, Jerry's Home for Wayward souls left this moron on the active roster knowing he would never suit up after blowing off multiple drug tests. This is just one example of why this team can not get over the hump. All is too cozy at the Star and everyone on the roster is enjoying being part of the celebrity that comes with being a Cowboy.
 

Creeper

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The danger in being a fan is that sometimes reality is not in the picture. But go back to the beginning of the season. When you looked at the Cowboys roster and scanned the list of DTs, did you think, "oh man, we are going to be tough to run on"? and that was before we found out David Irving lost interest in being a millionaire for life.

Or when Travis Frederick went down with his illness, did you think, "man, Joe Looney finally gets a chance to show what he can do"? Of course not.

My thoughts were the defense was going to be a disaster. A gimpy MLB, a great but aging veteran LB who has hamstrings made of rice paper, wet rice paper, and a defensive line with one guy who can actually play. The offensive line lost an all-pro center and now had a backup playing next to a rookie second round pick who look undersized. All I could think about was Connor Williams and Joe Looney facing off against Fletcher Cox twice. We had no TE and really no #1 WR. That's reality.

I was wrong about a few things. The defense. Moving Byron Jones to CB was a good move. Awuzie, Brown and Woods all turned out to be much improved and excellent DBs. A Woods had some game at DT and even the perennial pothead Randy Gregory showed he has some game. Coach Richard got a lot out of this group and made them a top defense - but I was not wrong about their DTs who could not stand up to the better interior offensive lines. This is fix #1.

The Cowboys overachieved in 2018. That's the reality. That's how they should face the off-season. They are not 1 player away. They need to keep upgrading everywhere. They have a lot of players they should keepo keep but they should not be satisfied with what they have on defense or offense.
 

Praxit

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No one is talking about the bogus Refs?
Dak on the grasp call was a joke...cost us 3pts or possibly the game
Dak was rolling out who knows what could of happened downfield
.....yah, that might of turned into something positive. But the damage was dealt by front 7. They zombied out. The Hot Boyzzz.....fizzled out like a White Dwarf.
 
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