No More Cowboys 'Candy-Coating,' Says McCarthy
"We're not doing the basics,'' coach Mike McCarthy said after yet another uninspired effort, this one an NFL Sunday Week 7 loss at Washington by a 25-3 score. "Let's not candy-coat it.''
"Candy-coat it''? Who's been "candy-coating it''?
Well, the Cowboys themselves have, I guess.
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The NFC East has waited almost two months for one of its member teams to assert itself in a way that, in the case of Dallas, would no longer require sugary-sweet lies from team leaders. The division-leading-for-a-moment Cowboys could've managed to register an at-least-inspired effort against a Washington that came in at 1-5, but ...
The wait drags on.
Unless we count Washington as having been "assertive'' by winning (and maybe in the NFC East, 2-5 at this point is all it takes), the stage here simply set us up to continue having to observe what might be the NFL’s worst division ever.
The NFL low mark for the poorest cumulative record in NFL history is a .344 winning percentage for the 2008 NFC West. It went 22-42 and was won by 7-9 Seattle.
Today’s NFC East? Philly leads a foursome of strugglers that are a combined 7-20-1, a winning percentage of .268.
The traditional NFL goal is to “get to the tournament.” If it takes just seven or even six wins to capture the division, whichever flawed club manages that will take it.
But in the case of one flawed club in particular, its fibs must cease. No, not the ones about "anonymous sources'' and "cowards.'' That toothpaste is out of the tube, and besides, every person who works inside The Star knew the allegations from a tumultuous week inside Cowboys HQ were all true.
So, no, they should not worry anymore about the truthful talk of dissent between players and coaches; they should worry about the dissent itself.
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In theory, the 2020 Dallas Cowboys—too physically intimidated to defend a cheap-shot victim in Andy Dalton, too emotionally weak to "look in the mirror'' at what really ails this team—can repair itself. One of these lousy division foes is capable of winning six or seven games and of winning the NFC “Least,” and of therefore hosting a first-round playoff game.
So, no more "candy-coating,'' right?
From Everson Griffen: "We never quit. We don't quit ... Morale is great.''
Ick. My fingers are syrup-sticky just from typing the words.
The goal, right now, is to get good enough to have to eventually find a way of dealing with the cheap shots of maybe being “the worst good team ever.'' What a joy that would be ... as it is nothing compared to what the Cowboys' coaches and players have already subjected themselves to, a sort of self-abuse that comes from creating a "candy-coating'' that has for two months insulated them from truths they cannot bare to admit.
