Cowboys’ Season Comes to Merciful End in Dallas

Not unlike a vet putting down a sick animal to spare it any more heartache, the Dallas Cowboys were finally put to sleep Saturday night in Dallas care of a last-minute loss to the New York Jets.

A season characterised by injury and improvisation has ended abruptly, ensuring the Cowboys will not post a good enough record to win the dismal NFC East.

The team looked like legitimate Super Bowl contenders for the first two weeks of the season under Tony Romo. He led America’s Team to two straight wins, including a come-from-behind thriller against the Giants on Sunday Night Football, but a pair of shoulder injuries in week 3 and again on Thanksgiving Day derailed all but a sliver of hope in what should have been a season of redemption.

In Romo’s absence, Brandon Weeden stunk up the joint just long enough for Matt Cassel to learn the playbook. When the time was right, Cassel took over as the starter and stunk things up only slightly less.

Yet the straw that broke Jason Garrett’s back occurred last night when Cassel threw an interception to Darrelle Revis on what would have been an intentional grounding call. The comical play came to represent the Cowboys entire year, and the head coach had seen enough to warrant throwing Kellen Moore into the action, if only to see what he had to work with next year.

As it turns out, the newcomer played with more fire than expected, but the determined Dallas defense couldn’t overcome his three interceptions forever. Playing in a near-hopeless situation, the former Boise State standout showed enough to warrant at least a chance at the backup quarterback position next year.

But in the likely scenario that Moore gets the start next week, the miserable Cowboys will “boast” as many starting quarterbacks as they have wins in 2015. And if that was too traumatic to read, then you Cowboy fans might want to skip the next paragraph.

For such a proud franchise, years of ridicule for stewing in the pit of mediocrity were quietened when Dallas finished 12-4 in 2014. Now, at 4-10, losing out in the final two weeks will balance out the dominance of last year, and restore the Cowboys to a perfect .500 record since the 1997 season.

But history is exactly that. Moving forward, if there’s anything the Cowboys learnt this year, it’s that depth is crucial in the NFL. Tony Romo in December used to be a sure bet. Without him, the team has tried and failed multiple times to keep the ship afloat, and it’s spiralled into a severe case of “there’s always next year” for the “win-now” ‘Boys.