Only the Dallas Cowboys could turn a hopeful narrative into a buzkill in less than 24 hours
FRISCO – You have to pay tribute to the cowboys.
No team in the NFL can turn hopeful prospects into despair faster than Dallas.
Despair is perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. The loss of right tackle La’el Collins to a suspension and receiver Michael Gallup to a strained calf aren’t fatal blows. Both should be back before the first half of the season is over.
But the enthusiasm generated by a loss of comfort to Tampa Bay in the opener – yes, there is such a thing – barely had time to revitalize the Cowboys fan base before the news hit.
Gallup’s injury was the first to show up. A source said he would be out for three to five weeks. Collins’s five-game suspension for violating the NFL’s abuse policy was announced about an hour and a half before head coach Mike McCarthy’s meeting with reporters at The Star at 5 p.m.
“That’s something I can’t talk about right now,” said McCarthy. “I know the timing is a bit awkward.”
Questions about Collins’s suspension and Gallup’s loss overshadowed the encouraging aspects of the team’s 31-29 loss to the Buccaneers.
Talk about a buzz kill.
“The game was a Heckuva game,” said McCarthy. “I thought the atmosphere was great. I loved the way our players went out there and attacked.
“The condition challenge, I thought you hit the target there. The style of play was exactly what I was looking for so there are a lot of really good things out there
“But at the end of the day, when I look at the overall result of the game, I think it’s more about skills vs. wins.”
The narrative that opened the game was that the Cowboys had little to no chance of beating the reigning Super Bowl champion on their home field. The narrative that emerged from that game shifted to people wondering how Dallas had lost.
Tom Brady. This is a good start.
But it can be argued that Dak Prescott more than kept up with the GOAT. The Cowboys won the sales battle 4-1, held the ball nearly nine minutes longer than Tampa Bay and saw the Bucs penalized 11 times for 106 yards.
“I think we’ve shown everyone what we’re capable of,” said McCarthy.
McCarthy will also tell you that this league is about winning close matches. He cites the statistics that for the majority of the teams an average of eight games per season go back to the last series with a dubious outcome.
The Cowboys led one point into the final 1:24 before Brady developed an 11-game, 57-yard drive that earned Ryan Succop’s game-winning field goal two seconds behind the clock.
Ezekiel Elliott called it a great start that the cowboys can build on in the future. His teammates shared this opinion.
“We fully expected to win this game if we get in here,” said Randy Gregory, the defensive end. “If a few things go differently, we’ll win this game.
“We said in the locker room, these are the defending champions. This is the guy, the team that (people) think is going to win another Super Bowl.
“We are right at the top with them. We believe so. We just have to build on that, come back and get better. “
Dallas needs to improve in the short term without Collins and Gallup. Both players should be back before October finishes.
More adversities will come. Every club does that. But that wasn’t part of McCarthy’s message in the locker room after the narrow defeat.
What did he say to his players?
“I loved their fight,” said McCarthy. “I loved the juice. I loved the energy.
“It was fun. I mean, that was a fun ass game. I mean, I loved everything on the sidelines, loved the warm-ups, the whole thing. That’s a stupid comment, but I loved everything about it. I thought ours Boys stick to the game plan, they did it. I found the adjustments, the communication on the sidelines to be excellent. I thought our energy and our style of play were what we were looking for. “
He didn’t stop there.
“I was really excited about the swings in the game and how we reacted to it because that’s what big games are about,” McCarthy continued. “You have to fight your way through the adversity and our boys handled it very well and we reacted almost every time they threw something at us. We felt very, very comfortable and confident at the end of the game.
“Somehow we are there. All you have to do is take the next hurdle. We have to win these games. It’s about victories over skills.
“That’s an issue here in case you’re wondering.”
Staff Writer Michael Gehlken contributed to this report.
Watch David Moore on The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310 and 96.7 FM) with the Musers at 9:35 a.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the Hardline every Tuesday and Friday at 4:30 p.m. during the regular season.
More cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News can be found here.
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