They filed down the hallway inside AT&T Stadium in silence or disbelief. Heads were down. Spirits crushed.
In a matter of 44 seconds, the Dallas Cowboys had gone from euphoria to devastation.
A deflected punt was about to set the Cowboys up in Cincinnati territory with less than two minutes to play and a chance to win. Instead, Amani Oruwariye mistakenly attempted to field the punt and muffed it back to the Bengals, who went on to score the game-winning touchdown.
“I won’t wish this on anybody,” edge rusher Micah Parsons said in a quiet locker room after the Dec. 9 loss that left the Cowboys at 5-8 and all but eliminated their playoff hopes. “You can’t even put that in words, bro.”
Ultimately, the Cowboys’ failed season was not determined by that game, but the loss paints a picture of how the their 29th straight year without a Super Bowl played out.
As 2025 begins, the Cowboys find themselves at a crossroads. Owner and general manager Jerry Jones must decide if he wants to bring back head coach Mike McCarthy and his staff, as their contracts expire in a matter of days, and whether this roster needs a few tweaks or a full rebuild to genuinely contend for a Super Bowl.
To answer those questions, he’ll have to look back at what went wrong in 2024.
Injuries played a role. Five former Pro Bowlers — Dak Prescott, Zack Martin, DeMarcus Lawrence, Trevon Diggs and CeeDee Lamb, totaling nearly $90 million in cap space — ended the season on injured reserve. But that wasn’t the sole reason for the poor record. There were questionable offseason roster decisions, an offense that took a step back from 2023 even when healthy, and a slow start on defense under new coordinator Mike Zimmer.
Down the stretch, an undermanned roster rallied, but how that will affect Jones’ thinking about McCarthy’s future and the roster remains to be seen.
“There’s no question you’d be really avoiding a fact if you didn’t acknowledge that the loss of Parsons — and the loss of Prescott, the loss of Lawrence — that those kinds of things didn’t make a difference,” Jones said. “Were they the only reason we didn’t have success this year? No, not at all … There’s all kinds of elements going on out there.”
The Cowboys went 7-10 after owner and general manager Jerry Jones said they were “all-in” for 2024. Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire
IN JANUARY, JONES, 82, used the term “all-in” to describe the Cowboys’ approach to 2024, yet the way he defined the approach and his actions seemed at odds.
His “all-in” didn’t mean extending McCarthy and the coaching staff, who were in the final year of their deals, despite three straight 12-5 finishes and three consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since the 1990s.
All-in did not mean adding to a roster that had needs after losing running back Tony Pollard, center Tyler Biadasz, defensive end Dorance Armstrong and left tackle Tyron Smith in free agency.
It didn’t mean adding elite free agent running back Derrick Henry, who signed with the Baltimore Ravens. Instead, they brought back Ezekiel Elliott, who spent last season with the New England Patriots, on a one-year deal to lead a running back-by-committee backfield. It didn’t work. Elliott’s yards and yards per carry dropped for the ninth straight year. It wasn’t until Rico Dowdle was named the lead back in the second half of the season that the Cowboys’ running game showed life.
Elliott was deactivated for the Nov. 3 game against the Atlanta Falcons for a number of missed meetings. Multiple sources said the Cowboys discussed releasing Elliott then but opted to give him one more chance. In Week 18, Elliott had his request to be released granted by the team.
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Henry, who finished second in the NFL in rushing yards, said he was interested in coming to the Cowboys. Jones said on numerous occasions the Cowboys could not afford him. Henry was guaranteed $9 million and counted $5.1 million against the Ravens’ cap this season. The Cowboys could have matched either figure or structured the contract differently to lower his 2024 cap number.
The more important question was whether Henry would have delivered the same rushing stats that he did with Baltimore, where he was named to the Pro Bowl and totaled 2,114 yards from scrimmage and 18 touchdowns. Jones intimated in numerous interviews after games that it would have been unlikely because of the state of the Cowboys’ offensive line.
The Cowboys started two rookies, left tackle Tyler Guyton and center Cooper Beebe, for most of the season. Martin, the Future Hall of Fame right guard, was not at his best because of a right ankle injury that eventually required season-ending surgery. Right tackle Terence Steele struggled as well. Martin gave up five sacks in 10 games, which is the third most he has allowed in a full season. Steele was attributed a career-high 14 sacks.
“I probably got a little out over my skis, thinking we could just plug those guys in,” Jones said on 105.3 The Fan, while acknowledging he believes both players have bright futures.
Even before Prescott suffered a season-ending hamstring injury, the offense struggled. In 2023, he finished tied with the San Francisco 49ers’ Brock Purdy with the best QBR in the league at 73.4. This season, Prescott finished 29th with a 46.1 QBR.
In 2023, the Cowboys scored 30 or more points 10 times. They did so three times this season and needed three special teams’ touchdowns to do it in wins against the Cleveland Browns and Washington Commanders.
Every major offensive statistic dropped in McCarthy’s second year of calling plays, but that was not what galled him most. It was the giveaways. The Cowboys had 28 turnovers, including a league-high 14 fumbles. To McCarthy, that has correlated to fewer third-down chances and red zone chances.
“The No. 1 thing when I look back on the quick eval of our season, offensively, we haven’t taken care of the football well enough,” McCarthy said.
Mike Zimmer said he would have done some things differently early in his first season as Cowboys DC. Sam Hodde/Getty Images
THE ADJUSTMENT TO Zimmer’s scheme also took longer than anticipated. For three years, the Cowboys had one of the better scoring defenses in the NFL and took the ball away better than anybody, with pressure as their calling card under coordinator Dan Quinn.
Quinn played man coverage 60.1% of the time from 2021 to 2023. Zimmer mixes his looks more, especially calling more blitzes. Entering Sunday’s finale, the Cowboys played man coverage 50.9% of the time compared to 48.9% in zone.
Early on, the Cowboys could not stop the run and gave up points in bunches. The New Orleans Saints scored touchdowns on their first six possessions in a 44-19 win in Week 2. The Ravens, with Henry rushing for 151 yards and two scores, jumped out to a 28-6 lead through three quarters before holding on for a deceptively close 28-25 win.
At one point, the Cowboys were down their top four pass rushers: Parsons, Lawrence, Marshawn Kneeland and Sam Williams, who suffered a torn ACL in training camp. Their top three cornerbacks — Diggs, DaRon Bland and Jourdan Lewis — played one game together the entire season.
“I wish that when I came in, that I would’ve done everything the way I wanted it done and not kind of try to blend things,” Zimmer said. “I was just doing things I was uncomfortable with, and so I had to do what I had to do.
“You come in, and here was the situation: They were good last year, right? So I don’t want to really rock the boat. I probably wasn’t as tough as I typically am. I probably wasn’t as hard-headed about how I want to do things, is the best way to say it. That’s what I regret the most.”
Injuries to key players, such as Dak Prescott (4) and CeeDee Lamb, played a significant role in Dallas’ struggles this season. AP Photo/ Brynn Anderson
THE SEASON’S LOW point came against the Detroit Lions, when the Cowboys suffered their worst defeat (47-9) at AT&T Stadium since it opened in 2009. Avenging a controversial loss to Dallas last season, the Lions used a tackle eligible play nine times and attempted a hook-and-ladder to tackle Penei Sewell while up 28 points.
“They were trying to be sarcastic with it,” cornerback Jourdan Lewis said after the game. “They were trying to embarrass us, but I mean at the end of the day, they can do whatever they want to do. … It’s our job to stop it.”
The day after that game, the players’ leadership council had their biweekly meeting, but this one was the longest of the season, lasting roughly 90 minutes, compared to the usual 20-30 minutes.
“There was a lot of shouting, but there’s some good stuff that came out of it,” special teams ace C.J. Goodwin said. “You can have those arguments with your brothers because that’s our brother and you’re going to love him regardless. … It was a soul-searching thing.
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“You get blown out by a team, especially when I think we were still pretty healthy, and that’s not like us. That’s uncharacteristic.”
The Lions loss was the first of five straight defeats, the longest losing streak the Cowboys have had since 2015. In 2020, McCarthy’s first year, the Cowboys lost four in a row on their way to a 6-10 finish.
On Nov. 3, against the Falcons, Prescott was lost for the season due to a right hamstring avulsion that required surgery. Lamb suffered an AC sprain in his right shoulder in that game but continued to play until Week 16, when he was shut down.
And Prescott and Lamb weren’t the only key players lost in a season in which injuries played a massive role.
Lawrence suffered a Lisfranc injury in his right foot in the Sept. 26 win against the New York Giants and did not play again. Parsons suffered a high left ankle sprain a quarter after Lawrence’s injury and missed four games.
Second-year linebacker DeMarvion Overshown was the bright spot on the Cowboys defense, but then he tore the ACL, MCL and PCL in his right knee on Dec. 9 against the Cincinnati Bengals. A week later, the season ended for Diggs, a Pro Bowl cornerback, when it was determined he would need surgery to repair cartilage in his right knee that could keep him out until training camp.
When it was announced Lamb’s season was over, Parsons posted the famous Fresh Prince of Bel-Air meme of Will Smith all by himself in the series’ final scene.
The Cowboys are 1-3 in the playoffs under coach Mike McCarthy and missed the postseason in 2024. Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
YET AT THE darkest times, McCarthy had his best moments. The depleted Cowboys won four of five games, and they remained alive in the playoffs until Week 16.
“It’s really just the culture he’s instilled since he’s got here,” said Brock Hoffman, who took over at guard for Martin. “It’s like I knew there was no way guys were going to go out there and lay down. This team was going to continue to fight whether we were eliminated from the playoffs or not.”
But will it be enough for McCarthy to earn a second contract?
Jones was effusive in his praise of McCarthy late in the season. He was impressed that McCarthy kept an undermanned team competitive, winning four of their final seven games. However, he always stopped short of guaranteeing the coach would be back in 2025.
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Jones’ decision could come down to McCarthy’s five years at the helm, rather than the past two months. Jones said last week on 105.3 The Fan that he does not have a timeline to make a decision on the coaches.
Yet McCarthy was hired in 2020 to do what Jason Garrett could not do over nine full seasons: advance the Cowboys to at least an NFC Championship Game, if not a Super Bowl.
In 13 years with the Green Bay Packers, McCarthy had the team in the NFC title game four times and won Super Bowl XLV. The Packers made the playoffs nine times.
With the Cowboys, he has won one playoff game and suffered two disappointing home losses in the postseason to the 49ers (2021) and Packers (2023).
In 2019, Garrett was similarly in the last year of his deal and missed the playoffs with an 8-8 record. After the season ended with a 47-15 win against the Commanders at AT&T Stadium, Garrett’s future was in limbo.
Jones said nothing of his plans. Garrett continued to show up at The Star. It wasn’t until a week later that the club issued a statement that Garrett would not return, which came after the organization interviewed McCarthy and Marvin Lewis for the head-coaching job.
If Jones opts to make a ninth head-coaching change under his ownership, what will be the criteria for the new coach?
He has hired from the college ranks (Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer). He has hired the hot offensive coordinator (Chan Gailey). He has gone with the defensive coordinator with head-coaching experience (Wade Phillips). He has promoted from within (Dave Campo, Garrett). He has hired Super Bowl winning coaches (Bill Parcells and McCarthy).
McCarthy was announced as the head coach 10 days after the 2019 season ended. When Parcells walked away after the 2006 season, the Cowboys took three weeks and interviewed 11 candidates before Phillips was named coach.
McCarthy downplayed his contractual status all season, never wanting it to be a distraction, but noted the effect it has on the family.
“We need to finish the race,” he said as Week 18 began.
Now the race is over.
Will McCarthy get a chance to run another one with the Cowboys?