How about them Cowboy, indeed.

Jimmy Johnson’s postgame rooster crowing in the San Francisco locker room after the 1992 NFC Championship Game launched a mini-dynasty that once again transformed the team once known for both cheerleading and championships into “America’s Team” . That dynasty ended four years later.

“America’s Team” has won just five playoff games since Tiger Woods turned pro in 1996.

They haven’t won more than one playoff game in any postseason, but they’ve lost 13 and don’t look like they’ll win another anytime soon. Things are so grim in Big D that the $240 million quarterback is his torn right hamstring it’s nowhere near the franchise’s biggest source of pain.

After being picked by many experts to win the NFC East, the Cowboys are 3-5. Dak Prescott will not play for more than a month. The defense is as weak as tea from a twice-used tea bag.

” READ MORE: No wonder the Eagles let the trade deadline slip. Cooper DeJean, Nakobe Dean, Nolan Smith and others played great.

Before the season, Sunday’s game in Dallas was supposed to be a referendum contest for the Eagles. Now, it’s a must-win for the Cowboys, who despite a recent 6-0 record at home against the Eagles, have next to no chance to win; The Eagles are 6-2 and riding a four-game winning streak. As delicious as this circumstance is to Eagles fans and many others, it is only fitting to address the question:

How did this happen? Let’s start from the top.

The Cowboys are 3-5 because Jerry Jones, the Cowboys’ owner, president and general manager, has made a series of huge mistakes over the past five seasons.

Jones hired failed Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy in 2020. To be fair, the rest of the field hasn’t turned out much better. Predictably, McCarthy was a postseason disaster. In the three seasons before this year, he won 36 regular season games, but only one playoff game.

While Jones can’t be faulted too much for hiring McCarthy, he can certainly be blamed for keeping him after the Cowboys’ 12-5 two-touchdown loss to the Packers in January. Jones could have fired McCarthy then and promoted defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, whom the lowly Chiefs poached. Washington is no longer modest; leads the NFC East at 7-2.

Similarly, Jones fired the offensive coordinator Kellen Moore after the 2022 season, scapegoating his former golden boy instead of laying the blame at McCarthy’s feet, where it belonged. In 2022, the Cowboys ranked fourth in points per game, even though Prescott missed five games with a broken thumb. Moore landed with the Los Angeles Chargers and was able to lead the offense to respectability despite injuries to quarterback Justin Herbert and wide receiver Mike Williams. However, after the Chargers fired their head coach and general manager in December 2023, Moore did not survive Jim Harbaugh’s hiring, and the Eagles pounced.

It all means that two years ago, Jones chose to blame Moore instead of McCarthy. Moore’s Eagles offense is averaging more points and yards per game than the Cowboys.

” READ MORE: Surging Eagles defense prepares for Cowboys team without Dak Prescott on Sunday: ‘We’re just stuck’

One main reason: Jones mismanaged the Cowboys’ salary cap situation so poorly that he couldn’t afford Derrick Henry, who wanted to play in Dallas. Jones recently said Henry wouldn’t have been a scheme fit, anyway.

“I don’t know if he would have a career year in our situation. … We don’t do this type of crime at all,” Jones told 105.3 FM in Dallas.

Henry, 30, had played in four of his previous five Pro Bowls. He landed with the Baltimore Ravens, where he currently leads the league in rushing yards (1,120), rushing touchdowns (12), total touchdowns (14) and has the longest TD run of the season (87 yards ). That goes for any crime.

In return, Jones offered Ezekiel Elliott a one-year, $3 million deal. The money was wasted. Elliott has reportedly been chronically late to team meetings all season, and after completely missing a third team meeting last Friday, he was not allowed to travel with the team as it lost in Atlanta. He’ll be back on Sunday, though.

The availability of the team’s best player was not as certain until Friday.

CeeDee Lamb suffered a shoulder injury last Sunday and was limited in practice all week, but McCarthy said Friday that Lamb will play. That’s big news, of course, considering Lamb was the league’s best receiver last season … and the biggest distraction heading into this season.

Lamb lasted all of training camp before Jones inevitably caved and signed him to a four-year, $136 million contract. The damage has been done. Lamb averaged nearly eight catches and more than 102 yards per game in 2023. Clearly out of sync with the offense, Lamb averaged less than five catches and less than 73 yards per game in the first three Cowboys games this season. They went 1-2.

Fiscal issues also hampered the Cowboys’ efforts to build an offensive line. They rank 27th in pass blocking and 22nd in run blocking, respectively Professional football Focus. For a team that knew it would rely on its offense to win, neglecting the line was probably Jones’ biggest mistake.

On defense, well, depth and injury sabotaged what was expected to be a flawed but dynamic unit.

” READ MORE: Eagles vs. Predictions Cowboys: Our writers make their Week 10 picks

Four-time Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, 32, has been superb through the first four games of the season, but has missed the last four games with a sprained foot and will not play Sunday. Micah Parsons, first Penn State star who led all linebackers with 40½ sacks from 2021-23, had one sack in 2024 before a sprained ankle cost him the final four games. Third-year cornerback DaRon Bland, whose 14 interceptions in 2022-23 led all players and who returned five of nine in 2023 for touchdowns — a single season record made it to Thanksgiving — broke a leg in training camp and has yet to play a game this season.

Cornerback Trevon Diggs, who tore an ACL two games into the 2023 season, hasn’t regained the form that sent him to the Pro Bowl after the 2021 and 2022 seasons. And now he’s playing with a partially torn calf.

The Cowboys defense ranks 26th in total yards and 30th against the run. The Eagles are the No. 1 offense. 2 in the NFL. By Sunday afternoon, they should have Jerry’s boys on the run.

Tune in to Gameday Central on Sunday as Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith discuss all the key questions surrounding the Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys matchup.