Prescott, Cowboys have been in this situation before. But this is different, in a bad way

Somehow, there is still confidence in where the Dallas Cowboys are headed.

After yet another loss to a contender in the NFC Sunday, the Cowboys are looking dead in the barrel in a season quickly falling by the wayside.

But if you ask owner Jerry Jones, he has not lost hope in what the second half of the season could look like — despite a first half that has been nothing short of disappointing.

“I have seen too many times that when this thing gets dark, I’ve seen the positive jump up and go from there,” Jones said after the loss to the Falcons in Atlanta. “Personally, I’m a long way from being dismayed about our team this year.”

Unfortunately for Jones, his optimism is not widely shared.

In a 27-21 loss on Sunday that saw the Cowboys give up three sacks to a dormant pass rush from Atlanta, fall behind by two possessions in the first half for the third consecutive game and Dak Prescott leave in the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury, the sting of losing has begun to show its face.

In the first half, head coach Mike McCarthy was caught on camera slamming a tablet onto the turf at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a rare public display of emotion. In the second half, Prescott could be seen mouthing “We [expletive] suck” to fellow quarterback Trey Lance on the sideline. In his postgame press conference, Prescott appeared defeated with his head down and fingers tapping on the podium, as he will now have to spend the week rehabbing a hamstring injury while also preparing for another challenge against an NFC contender in the Philadelphia Eagles.

An argument could be made that Dallas’ last hope at savaging an otherwise lost season is to make a move before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline. Jones did say that the team “has some things in the mix” that could upgrade it going into week 10.

“We’ll probably do a couple things this week,” Jones added.

A couple things, one thing, nothing. Regardless, the Cowboys are far from being contenders.

Sitting at 3-5, the Cowboys were in the same situation in 2018 when they owned the exact win-loss record heading into the second half of the season that it does now. Needing to make a move, Jones traded a first-round pick for wide receiver Amari Cooper and Dallas subsequently rattled off seven wins in eight games to make the playoffs.

The difference in 2018 is that Dallas had a competent offensive line that featured three All-Pro starters. It had a running game that featured a prime Ezekiel Elliott who had already generated 680 yards on the ground (so far this season he’s rushed for 149 yards.) It also had a defense that was only giving up 18.9 points per game. This time around, the Cowboys don’t have any of that. To make matters worse, the majority of the team’s personnel that could right the ship is banged up.

“Obviously, with the injuries, things could help,” Prescott said postgame. “Where that is, I’ll leave that up to the decision makers. If and when they want my opinion on it, I’ll give that. But in the same sense, the foundation of the team is the guys in the locker room. We have to do better and play better.”

But even with Jones’ confidence and his sneak peek into the Cowboys’ potential moves over the next 48 hours, he lowered the expectations when the team’s current situation was compared to when he traded for Cooper six years ago.

“Don’t look for that,” Jones said. “Don’t look for those kinds of things, OK?”

Best case scenario, the Cowboys will get DaRon Bland, Micah Parsons and Brandin Cooks back from injury this week to provide a boost to both sides of the ball. That wouldn’t solve every issue, but it would give Dallas more of a fighting chance against its division rivals next Sunday.

But even with those guys in the fold, this team has shown through eight games that it is simply not good enough, especially in the trenches. Costly penalties, mounting issues with young players and veteran players alike, and multiple injuries have the fate of this team slowly coming into form as the calendar turns to November.

The real question that remains about this week is if the players that we will be talking about after the trade deadline on Tuesday will include fresh faces on the 53-man roster — or how far up the Cowboys can find themselves in the first round of the NFL Draft.

Because even if Jones is retaining hope, it appears to be lost everywhere around him.