Are Cowboys 'Tough Enough' to Win at Miami? Notebook
WHITT'S END 12.22.23:
Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …
*Nobody – amplified by the Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks – said it would be easy.
Dallas Cowboys fans are freaking out in the wake of last Sunday’s pathetic performance in Buffalo. I get it, the 31-10 blowout was ugly and lethargic. But, what, you expected it to be painless? Just score 40 points every game and cruise unimpeded to the Super Bowl?
How quickly they forget.
On their way to winning the World Series this season, the Rangers hit more than a couple potholes.
In August they endured an eight-game losing streak and dropped 16 of 20. On the final day of the regular season they were shut out, coughing up the AL West division title and being forced to hit the road as a Wild Card in the playoffs. In the ALCS, they lost three consecutive games at home to the Houston Astros including a kick-to-the-crotch, 5-4, Game 5 defeat in which they surrendered a 3-run homer in the 9th inning.
In 2011 the Mavs also faced their share of adversity in route to the championship.
They lost starting forward Caron Butler to a season-ending knee injury on Jan. 1 and dropped nine of 11 games to start the new year. And in their first-round playoff series against the Blazers they choked away a 23-point, second-half lead in losing Game 4 in Portland and facing a 2-2 series.
The Cowboys? Their 1990s Super Bowls were so long ago that our distorted memories remember them blowing out every opponent. But in 1993 they started the season 0-2 and trailed XXVIII to the Bills, 13-6, at halftime. In 1995 they lost a December heartbreaker to the Eagles in Philadelphia when Barry Switzer called the same failed play on consecutive 4th-and-1s at Dallas’ 29-yard line. In XXX they led only 20-17 and the Pittsburgh Steelers had the ball with four minutes remaining.
Yes, these Cowboys were humbled in losses by 32 to the San Francisco 49ers and 21 to the Bills. But unless you’re Michael Jordan or the ’72 Dolphins, banners come with bumps and bruises.
On Sunday we get to see if the bumps and bruises add up to Dallas being "tough enough'' to overcome.
Even the infamous "Load Left" double-fail at Philly in 1995 didn't stop the Cowboys from going on to win the Super Bowl.
*It’s blasphemous to think Luka Doncic isn’t the Mavs’ MVP, but … entering the weekend they are 0-4 without rookie center Derek Lively II in uniform. In two games this week without the 7-footer protecting the rim, the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Clippers made an uncanny 43 of 47 point-blank shots.
*The Rangers are already losing talent from their World Series “team.” TV analyst C.J. Nitkowski (and his mind-numbing analytics) is leaving their broadcasts to take a similar job with the Braves in his hometown Atlanta. At this point we still think the Rangers will be on Bally Sports in 2024, but the network’s parent company this week refused to pay them their full rights fee. If an agreement isn’t reached by the Spring, Rangers’ TV broadcasts will be controlled by Major League Baseball.
*As a kid I always asked Santa to bring me something sportsy. A Bob Hayes jersey. An ABA basketball. A new baseball glove. Electric Football! But one year “Santa” forgot that atop my list was a Cowboys helmet. In a panic – as our family tale goes – he ran out to the nearest sporting goods store only to find out that they were sold out. And that, folks, is how I (temporarily) was a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals. Somewhere there’s just gotta be a photo of me and my very confused face on Christmas morning reluctantly trying on that hideous orange helmet.
*Sad sign of the times: Imagine being a backup college quarterback on a high-profile, nationally ranked team. Pressed into duty because of injury to the starter, you fill in and lead your team to two crucial wins in a season that winds up in the CFP. But then, just a few weeks before the semifinal game, you up and leave the team.
Preposterous? Not if you’re former Texas Longhorn Maalik Murphy. He entered the transfer portal last week, ending his Burnt Orange career and voluntarily skipping the Jan. 1 showdown with Washington.
Explained Murphy, “I hate it. I’m super invested in (Texas). … It’s hard to walk away.” Hard? I mean, shouldn’t it impossible to walk away?
*Speaking of college football, Texas finished with the No. 5-ranked recruiting class for 2024. Texas A&M came in at No. 17, TCU 31st, North Texas 72nd and SMU No. 88. Keep going down the list – way down there sandwiched between “powerhouses” Texas State and South Alabama – is, at No. 98, Colorado and style-over-substance fraud Deion Sanders. You’d think Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsperson of the Year” wouldn’t have any trouble luring top players to Boulder. But he did. Big time.
*Cowboys crumbs: They are +171 points at home; -4 on the road, the largest discrepancy ever in the era of modern football (1933). … McCarthy sipping hot chocolate on the sideline in Buffalo reminded me of Switzer eating a hot dog while coaching the Pro Bowl. … Miami Dolphins’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is 15-2 in his last 17 home games; Dak Prescott 9-8 in his last 17 road games. …
Jerry Jones on disappointing first-round rookie Mazi Smith: “He’s shown us everything that caused us to take him. He has Larry Allen superhuman strength.” He does? … Also Jerry: There is no “bully blueprint” to beat the Cowboys. There isn’t? … They have won their last nine games after a loss. Haven’t endured back-to-back defeats in more than two years: Nov. 21-25, 2021. …
On fake turf this year: 10-1; on grass 0-3 (Arizona, San Francisco, Philly). … Nice Christmas Eve memory: Beating the Eagles, 40-34, a year ago to clinch a playoff spot. Naughty Christmas Eve memory: With temperatures hovering around 0, every toilet in Texas Stadium froze over before the 1989 home finale.
Wrote the late, great Frank Luksa, “Thus endeth the Cowboys going 1-15, a season so foul it wouldn’t flush.”
*Hot.
*Not.
*There are almost 1,600 high school football teams in the state of Texas. What are the odds that the two best – champions in the biggest classification – are separated by only eight miles in southern Dallas County? DeSoto and Duncanville, bisected by I-35 about 15 minutes south of downtown Dallas, each won their second consecutive state title last weekend at AT&T Stadium. They cakewalked in their championship games by 60 (DeSoto) and 16 (Duncanville) points. DeSoto won its six playoff games by an average of 34 points; Duncanville 37. For the season they went a combined 29-1, with only one of the 30 games decided by less than 21 points. Which game? On Oct. 28 DeSoto beat Duncanville, 49-35. The best high school football in the state is played in our backyard.
*“Drugs are bad for you.” 90-year-old Willie Nelson: “Hold my bong.”
*During Wednesday night’s loss to the Clippers in which they fell into an early 22-point hole, Doncic barked at teammate Grant Williams for a slow defensive rotation. But he deserves his share of blame, in the form of five turnovers (the rest of the team had only one) and six missed free throws (still his Achilles heel).
*Everyone deserves a second chance. Except this guy: 31-year-old Nestor Flores was driving drunk last weekend when he hit a pedestrian. The victim smashed onto the hood of the car and through the windshield, his dismembered body winding up in the passenger seat. Flores, rather than calling for help, drove almost 40 miles to a Jack & The Box in White Settlement. He was asleep in his car when cops arrived. Flores was previously convicted of a DUI in 2020. If there is any justice, he will never again get behind the wheel of an automobile.
*Once a free gift to their loyal followers in lean years, Rangers FanFest now costs $20 per person. Once upon a time, I witnessed an 18-year-old girl spectacularly hold Nolan Ryan’s legendary feet to the fire.
*Excuse me while I get my Scrooge on: We officially have an epidemic of football players dangling brightly colored mouthpieces from their facemasks without ever actually using them to protect their mouths. Like accessory air fresheners hanging from the rearview mirror, only even more useless. … Can we please get the NFL Competition Committee to outlaw entire defenses running 60+ yards into the opposite end zone to celebrate a turnover? “Preening in the end zone without actually scoring a touchdown” = 15 yards. … And then there’s basketball. At times I barely recognize the sport founded on “dribbling” …
*The other day I was daydreaming about time travel – ya know, like you do – and constructed this perplexing prism: If you went back in time and kept your parents from meeting, you’d never be born. But if you don’t exist in the first place, how would you go back and stop your parents from meeting and making you exist? To be continued …
*Life after basketball hasn’t been kind to Don Nelson-era Mavericks big men. Shawn Bradley suffered a horrible bicycle accident in Utah in 2021 and is paralyzed from the chest down. And this week Eric Montross died in North Carolina after a long battle with cancer. Somebody check on Christian Laettner, Raef LaFrentz and Chris Anstey, stat.
*Fox 4’s Mike Doocy had a virtual sit-down with Jimmy Johnson this week. The highlight? Trying to describe his complicated relationship with Jerry: “People really don’t understand our relationship for the simple reason that I don’t understand it, either. When I’m with him it’s like we’re a couple of brothers. We are both egotistical, and we’re very proud of what we accomplished. And so sometimes things come up and you go, ‘Well, that’s not how exactly it happened’.”
Jimmy goes into the Ring of Honor Dec. 30.
*For Christmas, my Big Brothers Big Sisters lil’ bro Ja wanted “one of those cool puffy coats.” Tuh-dah!
*Who needs Santa when you have Luka? Again this year, Doncic is helping 275 teens, children and newborns in both North Texas and his home in Slovenia. With four local events around the Metroplex, he’s providing Christmas presents and financial support to families with kids in the hospital for the holidays. Cue the feels!
*Then and now, my fave Christmas song: No. Words. Necessary.
*This Weekend? Friday’s let’s go to a Christmas party. Saturday let’s go to a Christmas party. Sunday let’s watch Cowboys-Dolphins at a Christmas Eve party. As always, don’t be a stranger.
