Dallas City News

One of my favorite sayings is that multiple things can be true. This is an idea that is often lost on people, obviously mostly within any kind of argument. In a debate things tend to turn into this or that, and therefore if it is this then it cannot be that. You get the idea.

But sometimes there is a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and while we ultimately have to side with one, we can acknowledge that multiple things are true. Such is the case for the Dallas Cowboys these days.

On Sunday, the latest Cowboys season end in spectacularly embarrassing fashion, and as true as that it is, it is also true that they had a very successful season to set up for that humiliation in the first place. One thing being true does not make up for the other to be clear. But the fact that this is where we are at with this team is what is so frustrating.

The true curse of the Dallas Cowboys is that they are really good, but not as good as they need to be

You are likely aware that the Cowboys won 12 games this regular season and did so for the third year in a row. This had not been done since the dynasty days of the 1990s.

We can do this with a lot of statistics and accomplishments. Consider that the Cowboys were a playoff team for three years in a row for the first time since those days as well, or that they authored a winning streak at home that had not been seen since well before then. Remember that CeeDee Lamb just had what was undeniably the best statistical season that any wide receiver has ever had in team history.

So the Cowboys are and have been really good in recent memory. Heck, only the Kansas City Chiefs have won more regular season games than them in this three-year stretch.

But while they have been really good, they have not been as good as they need to be. Consider this definitely-will-make-you-scream nugget from ESPN’s Ed Werder.

This is actually so specifically painful that it seems impossible. How could the Cowboys be good enough to win 12 games in a row for three straight years but manage to not reach the conference championship in any of them? And how can no one have ever done this?

It is a very specific kind of failure that is literally unique to the current day Dallas Cowboys. They are good enough to have the door of opportunity opened for them, but not good enough to fully step in and take the bull by the horns.

Consider that Dallas is 1-3 in playoff games in this stretch and that the lone win came against a team with a record below .500 (even if Tom Brady was the quarterback).

So what is the solution in this world with multiple truths? You can’t deny the harsh ones but you also should not ignore the positives. We are at a crossroads and the Cowboys are going to have to figure out who they want to be and what path they want to pursue.

Either they believe in the program and its consistency (there is literal consistency here) and are prepared to bank on it moving forward, or they consider that this ceiling that has existed for over a thousand days is unbreakable by the people that they currently have in charge and go for broke with a new form of leadership.

What would you do?