With the NFC East title out of reach, what’s really at stake for the Cowboys in these final four games? - The Dallas Morning News

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This isn’t the season anyone with the Cowboys envisioned.

It’s certainly not the one they wanted.

But with three-quarters of the schedule complete, let’s strip away the veneer. Stop the ridiculous pretense that an NFC East title somehow remains in reach.

Dallas owns the worst record in the worst division in modern memory. These struggles stretch beyond the early days of Mike McCarthy’s tenure. The Cowboys have won back-to-back games only once in the last 15 months and are 8-17 since late September of last year.

Accept it. The Cowboys are just playing out the string, which is why NBC did the unthinkable and bumped them from Sunday Night Football later this month.

What’s at stake for a team when nothing’s at stake competitively? Reputations. Job security. Professional pride.

Some indication that the principles and schemes of the new coaching staff have taken root.

McCarthy has spoken about the need to finish strong. That’s relative in this odd, disappointing season.

The Cowboys have gone 1-3 in each of the first three quarters. By that standard, a split would represent progress.

Imagine someone articulating that as a goal before the season kicked off.

This defense is so far gone it’s difficult to envision significant progress being made in the final four games.

This offensive line is so ravaged by injury it’s unrealistic to expect they won’t have another bad game or two — or three — before the season is done.

“We clearly understand the state of our football team as far as our record and so forth, and really we need to keep our focus tight,” McCarthy said.

A few young players have flashed promise and generated excitement for what lies ahead. Draft picks CeeDee Lamb and Trevon Diggs top the list.

But that’s about individual development. Have you seen the sort of development on either side of the ball that breeds encouragement for next season?

“Don’t have a ton of experience with this, but everyone is disappointed,’' McCarthy said. “Nobody feels good about the outcome of last night [Baltimore loss].

“This is a new experience for us to go through. Most importantly, we need to learn from it and dig ourselves out of this hole that we’ve created.’'

This team isn’t about to flip the switch. It’s not close to an epiphany. Incremental improvement should be the goal for these final four games. As McCarthy told the team in the wake of its 34-17 loss to the Ravens, there’s a lot to clean up.

“We just gotta get more a sense of urgency,’' running back Ezekiel Elliott said. “We gotta turn it up. We are running out of time.

“Four games left. We gotta go figure out how to get some wins.”

There still appears to be a sense of accountability, an obligation to team with these Cowboys. That’s key now when it’s easy to become discouraged on how this season has unfolded.

“When a man starts worrying about what another man is doing he starts to lose focus and lose the ability to really be accountable,’' defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence said. “So it’s all about just focusing on ourselves, on being accountable to each other, and keep playing our hearts out each and every day.

“But we just ain’t got all the balls rolling the right way yet.’'

Time is running out.

Expectations have been adjusted.

“We’ve still got four more left and we can go out there and turn this thing around,’' linebacker Leighton Vander Esch said. “But then again, there’s enough talking about it.

“We have to go do it.”

Catch David Moore on The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310 and 96.7 FM) with The Musers on M/W/F at 9:35 a.m., BaD radio on Wed at 2:10 p.m. and the Hardline on Tu/Fri at 4:15 p.m. during the regular season.

Find more Cowboys stories from The Dallas Morning News here.

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With the NFC East title out of reach, what’s really at stake for the Cowboys in these final four games? - The Dallas Morning News
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