There was not much to feel good about from Monday night’s Dallas Cowboys game.
The Dallas Cowboys were beaten again on Monday night and made sure that Thanksgiving Day will carry the drama of potentially being the team’s first win at home this season. Take a second to really think about that and ponder where we are right now.
We have reached some dark times for America’s Team and Monday night’s fiasco against the Houston Texans was the latest instance of it. Sure, things were competitive in a literal sense in the first half, but we all knew that the dam would break and boom did it ultimately go.
Just about everything we saw left us feeling sour and down, but there was a small bit of good developments to come from the massacre.
Here is our stock report from the entire game’s action. Full disclosure I attended the game in person so my perspective is from that point of view.
Stock Up: Luke Schoonmaker
It was unideal to see Jake Ferguson leave the game as early as he did and when he departed we all assumed that Schoonmaker would not exactly contribute much based on everything we have seen of him to this point. That is kind of how it goes.
But Schoonmaker had what was easily the best game of his career. Obviously we are talking about a low bar here, but it seemed rather clear that he had a nice relationship going with Cooper Rush and he was a high point of consistency and dependability. You like to see that.
Stock Up: Brevyn Spann-Ford
Similarly, who would have ever thought that this season would yield a potential breakout moment for Spann-Ford? He was fantastic on Monday night.
This isn’t to say the Cowboys have discovered a new group of young tight ends, but Cowboys fans had to be pleased by what they saw. In a lost season where everything is falling apart you certainly want to see pieces who will be around for the rebuild show signs of life.
Stock Up: DeMarvion Overshown
Something else you want to see is players you are planning on being cornerstones of the future project looking like verifiable superstars. It feels like we get at least one “did he really just do that?!” moment from DeMarvion Overshown a game at this point.
There is no question that the future is bright if he is a part of it.
Stock Up: CeeDee Lamb
The last ‘up’, spoiler alert, belongs to CeeDee Lamb because it really did seem like he fought quite hard in this game. There is a narrative going around that he had bad body language and all of that jazz, but Lamb seemed to do everything in his power to try and light a fire under the offense with his own play. He is just simply only one player.
Unfortunately attrition takes a toll on everyone and it was not enough of an effort to make a significant difference.
Stock Down: Micah Parsons
Parsons winds up in the stock down category because we have developed unreal expectations of him. Such is the case when you prove to be the exception the way that Parsons has.
That being said, what notable play do you recall him making? I don’t have an issue with his projects and podcast to be clear, but he was quite vocal throughout his ventures with C.J. Stroud about wanting an opportunity to go against him. Did he really do much about it?
Parsons has to singlehandedly save the Cowboys right now and that is an admittedly unfair thing to ask of him; however, he has earned the right for us to do it.
Stock Down: Terence Steele
We can only say the same thing 500 times in a row, but my goodness this problem is not getting solved.
Steele is easily the least dependable offensive lineman of a group that, when healthy, features two rookies and a Zack Martin who is clearly way past his prime and injured. It is wild how he is consistently getting beat and making matters more difficult for his quarterback, whoever that winds up being.
Stock Down: Mazi Smith
Like with Steele, there is no way to say this differently, but Mazi Smith is not a good football player and his presence is only hurting the team.
At what point will the Cowboys officially call this? It was barely into his third season that we saw them wave the flag with Taco Charlton. Will the fellow Wolverine get that long? If so that just lengthens the amount of time for him to do damage in.
Stock Down: Mike McCarthy
It will never be okay or fine or whatever you want to call it that the Cowboys sent Mike McCarthy into this lame duck year and stripped his team down to its bare bones before asking him to make it all work. Nobody could have thrived in that, especially with all the contractual chaos and general chaos that this team provides.
All of that being said, Mike McCarthy has clearly mailed it in on this season and on a human level it is hard to totally fault him. He knows what all of this is and that as it is happening his boss is talking to Michael Irvin at the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight about how Deion Sanders should hold his post. Again, who could succeed in all of that?
We can ask unfair things of people who prove to be worthy of them and to some degree McCarthy did with all of his regular-season success. But his offensive design is so stale and boring and representative of someone who is already halfway out the door.
Stock Down: John Fassel
STOP WITH THE FAKE PUNTS.
STOP WITH THE FAKE PUNTS.
STOP WITH THE FAKE PUNTS.
Seriously, what good are they accomplishing? We are past the point of cleverness and are now at recklessly aggressive.
Stock Down: Jerry Jones
After the game/loss/embarrassment there was a quote from CeeDee Lamb where he said that it was obvious that everybody (as in other opponents) want to embarrass the Cowboys. My interpretation on what Lamb said was that this was a result of the regular-season success that Dallas has had over the last few years, that the logic is that other teams view them as a trophy to be had. I suppose that is possible.
But my own assessment of that quote, or rather disposition, is that everybody wants to embarrass the Cowboys because that is the thing to do these days. Jerry Jones has created a circus where opposing teams get to come in and be the show and dance around at the home team’s expense. This is not new to anyone around here, but it feels hard to refute right now. Jerry has turned the Cowboys into the silly thing that everyone wants to poke, mock and pose for pictures in front of.
Again, this isn’t new information. But it takes a toll. It must be exhausting to be the losers every single time in that sense. Jerry has officially turned the Dallas Cowboys into the Washington Generals and literally everyone gets to be the Harlem Globetrotters when they square off against them.
Like with those exhibitions, we know the results of each and every single one of these. Spoiler alert, the Generals never win.