Gronk: 'Soft' Cowboys Are Not 'Mentally Tough!'
FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys are in search of reasons for their consistent failures as a road team, coach Mike McCarthy calling it a "gap'' compared to how they play at home and quarterback Dak Prescott calling for the organization's "great problem-solvers'' to get busy.
But FOX NFL analyst Rob Gronkowski said in the postgame after Sunday's 31-10 loss at Buffalo - a defeat that drops the playoff-bound Cowboys to 10-4, but with a 3-4 road record this season and an overall 8-9 record away from home in the last two years - that he can pinpoint the problem.
The Cowboys, he asserted, are not "mentally tough" enough to win on the road.
"When you can’t go on the road and win a big game in a hostile environment with weather that isn’t on your side, isn’t in your favor, it means you’re not mentally tough,'' Gronk said. "The Dallas Cowboys are not a mentally tough football team.
The Cowboys can argue otherwise until they are out of breath. But the fact is, Dallas was blown out by San Francisco earlier in the season, lost at Philadelphia more recently, were crushed by the Bills in Week 15.
Toss in Dallas having lost to the Arizona Cardinals in Glendale earlier in the year, a defeat that set the tone for a race to the playoffs, and likely not to a higher seed, and Gronk's claim does not seem out of line.
“We did not play well,'' conceded McCarthy after the game in wet and windy Buffalo. "There’s just too big of a gap in (our play on the road vs. at home). We gotta be much better on the road.''
That is a fact. The "how'' and "why'' are the things in doubt ... unless you listen to Gronk, who last year at this time called the Cowboys "pretenders,'' and who now thinks he has the "how'' and the "why'' nailed.
"It has been shown this year twice now,'' said Gronk, an all-time great tight end with Super Bowl toughness on his resume. "And now they got absolutely blown apart versus the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo with a crazy atmosphere."
If Dallas has a "fix'' here, it has a chance to show it off. The Cowboys' next game is on Christmas Eve. Against the Dolphins. Yes, on the road in Miami.
