'53 Brands': Bombastic (and Losing) Cowboys 'Have Met the Enemy, and He is Us'

No Longer 'In Control of their Own Destiny' - the Phrase the Dallas Cowboys Have Been Mouthing For Three Months - This Team With A Losing Record 'Has Met the Enemy, and He is Us'

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys, for three months spouters of the cliche "We control our own destiny,'' are about out of games, are about out of chances, are about out of even the stuff they store in barrels here at The Star in Frisco: Bombast.

“Don’t fold,” said defensive leader DeMarcus Lawrence, when in the wake of a 17-9 collapse at Philly on Sunday he was asked what message he'll deliver to teammates. “Everyone is gonna want to divide us. Don’t fold. We’re going out to play this last game, and we’re gonna win this m-----f-----.”

It's true that the "Lost 'Boys'' (and not just "lost'' on our Philly buses and plane) have not been eliminated from playoff contention. Dallas can still capture the NFC East and a home playoff-opener if it wins the season finale next Sunday at home against the Redskins while the Eagles lose at the Giants.

But I'm betting against there being celebratory champagne flowing in that post-game AT&T Stadium locker room.

The 7-8 Cowboys have gone 4-8 in their last 12, have lost five of seven on the road, and in what I so often call "A .500 League'' aren't even that. And yet, based in part on Tank's message, they still think the problem is "the noise outside the building,'' the "everyone who wants to divide us.''

Once upon a time, a sly cartoonist named Walt Kelly had his character "Pogo'' utter a phrase originally designed to poke fun at military pomposity. 

"We have met the enemy,'' Pogo said in a way that eventually skewered 1960's and '70's American society as a whole, "and he is us.''

There are pockets of honesty in the Dallas locker room - even if the honesty drips of self-defeat.

A mopey receiver Amari Cooper questioned the play-calling (which included him being "rotated out'' on key snaps late in the game) before conceding, “I didn’t play my best game at all. It was terrible.''

QB Dak Prescott played valiantly but poorly, unwilling to blame his scattershot passing day on his bum shoulder. “I’ve sat here after every game pretty much, win or loss, and said the good part about it is that we control our own destiny,'' he said. "But that’s gone. That’s out of our hands now. That’s unfortunate. It’s very disappointing.''

And running back Ezekiel Elliott was maybe most frank. Somebody asked him if the better team had lost. It's a fair question; after all, the Cowboys players themselves are the ones who've spent the last four months telling me what a "great team'' they have.

“How can you say we’re a better team if we didn’t go out there and beat them when it was time to do it in crunch time, and we needed one win to solidify the division, and we couldn’t do it?” Elliott answered.

Bingo. Finally. Mercifully. The truth. They do not have superior players. They are "the No. 1 offense in the NFL'' but not in any way that shows up on the field. They have high-profile defensive "stars'' but not in any way that shows up on the field.

The Cowboys are not the better team, because losing teams are not better than even mediocre ones.

Meanwhile, lame-duck coach Jason Garrett's "steady hand'' isn't enough. His postgame message? 

“The biggest thing we have to do is to try and process this game, learn from it and move forward,” RedBall said. “Go and have a great practice on Wednesday and preparation for Sunday.”

He's wrong, of course. "The biggest thing'' the Cowboys have to do is about a revamping of an organization that says all the right things but does too few of them. This is a franchise that is all about "image'' and "marketing'' and "PR,'' and it has bred a roster that I've nicknamed "53 Brands.''

They aren't bad people or bad players. But their focus is divided, as is surely the case with many athletes of today, between "sacrifice for teammates'' and "cashing in'' (two long-standing and understandable sports constants) plus now more than ever, "image'' and "positioning'' and "branding.'' 

"53 Brands.''

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— fishsports ✭ (@fishsports) December 23, 2019

Tank Lawrence issued another potent statement in the losers' locker room, a potential powder keg, when he said, "Talent without a direction is nothing at all.''

Is this a jab at coaches, a poke at players, a harsh look in The Linc visitors locker-room bathroom mirror?

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This football team has, finally, met the enemy. And they've surely come to the realization that their tormentor is not the Eagles, the Giants, the Redskins, the media, the fans or fate. Every member of the Dallas Cowboys must recognize that he's "met the enemy. And he is us.''