ARLINGTON, Texas – The game was more than two hours old and I had yet to write a single word for this column.
I've done this too long to have writer's block or be speechless, but this one was a little tougher to construct because ... it's not just one thing. It's more like a hundred things.
OK, so maybe not 100, but it's probably a lot closer to that than just pinpointing one area that has to improve.
The Cowboys just got beat down in this game, in every aspect you could possibly lose.
The Bucs were better on offense. They were better on defense. They were better on special teams. They were certainly better prepared, and they executed much better in the clutch situations.
The ONLY area in which the Bucs weren't better than the Cowboys is the ONLY reason they didn't win this game by three touchdowns, and that was penalties. Tampa Bay had a whopping 14 penalties, some of which cost them points.
Can you just imagine how bad this game would've been if the Bucs had played with more discipline and a little less greed? I mean, at the end of the game, I was shocked that Todd Bowles even decided to go for the fourth-down call at the 1, knowing a field goal would give his team a 17-point lead and effectively end the game right there.
Still, while that miscue opened the door for the Cowboys to possibly get back in the game, they ultimately slammed it shut themselves.
This is one of those nights where you can literally blame just about everyone who was involved.
Now before we play the "blame game," I will address what I know of the situation that occurred in the tunnel postgame. I wasn't down at that end when Dak walked to the locker room and an independent driver of either a limo or car service shouted the word "embarrassing" at Dak and then muttered some other things when he thought the quarterback was walking away.
Hey, say what you want about whether what was said was actually true. Even Dak himself agreed with the verbiage. Was it the right time or place to do that? Obviously not. But something tells me that driver won't ever get the chance to be that close to the situation again, so he went for it.
Dak also knows the very reason he had to address the question is because of the performance his team put on display Thursday night.
Let's start with the offense. While the term G.O.T.I. resurfaced again this week in the locker room, with Dak doubling down on the moniker and his belief the Cowboys are indeed the "Greatest Offense There Is," it definitely wasn't the best timing considering how the offense performed just a few days later.
My take is this: No, the Cowboys are not G.O.T.I. However, if they're not even close to that, they don't have a shot to win right now.
The Cowboys, just like last year, must be great at all times for this team to think about winning games. That's why it's so hard to place all the blame in one area.
On one hand, you just expect the defense to struggle. So when they do, do they get a pass because of your lowered expectations?
And because the offense has been scoring 30 points a game, when they have one of those nights like Thursday where it just doesn't click, do we throw them under the bus for falling short?
And then there's the special teams, which once again had a play that cost them points, with KaVontae Turpin fumbling a kickoff that led to a field goal.
And let's not dismiss the coaching staff, either. The decision to go for two points when down by eight was one that Brian Schottenheimer stands behind as a team philosophy. I guess I'm just too old school for that because I would never do that so early in the game. I understand the thought process to go for the win at the end when it comes down to that, but not at that juncture. As it turned out, I guess it didn't matter, but could you imagine how bad it would've been had the Cowboys scored at the end, missed the 2-point conversion to tie and lost the game 24-22? Once again, the decision-making at the end of games has been questionable.
And let's not give Christian Parker a pass either. Sure, it sucked to lose Joey Porter Jr. to an illness right before kickoff. That definitely changed things with the coverages, but the decision to play off and not rush Jalon Daniels more than they did was shocking. I remember the third-quarter series in which the pressure forced a third-and-21, but then they backed off, literally, and let the Bucs convert a pass for exactly 21 yards.
And this isn't just my reaction after the game. I tweeted in the first quarter that I had seen enough and thought the Cowboys needed to blitz Daniels way more than they did because he's not as good under pressure and this secondary just can't cover for that long. But that's not what they did, and as the game went on, Daniels just kept getting more comfortable.
On the other side, Dak wasn't comfortable at all. The blitz affected him all night, and the offense, shockingly, just couldn't get into a rhythm until it was too late.
Like I said ... it's not one thing that's hurting this team. Yes, it probably starts with the defense as the biggest issue. But on this night, the offense and the special teams weren't far behind.
Sadly, that's not the kind of balance you're looking for.
