Maybe just this once it's OK to feel sorry for the Cowboys' Jerry Jones

On Sunday evening, in a scene that has become all too familiar, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones stood in his team’s locker room and lamented another January gone awry.

“There’s no moral victory here,” he said.

For once, he could scan the room of disappointed, discouraged players and know this was not his fault. He had done everything right in building the Cowboys for a new dynasty. No impulsive free agent buys, no yanking of rookie quarterback Dak Prescott for his beloved Tony Romo, no senseless coaching changes. He even listened to good advice, a few years back and resisted the temptation to draft Johnny Manziel, taking instead a boring offensive lineman who would make the Pro Bowl while Johnny Football was flaming out.

Oh, how it killed Jerry to pass up Johnny Football.

But he did it in the name of being smart and not impetuous; of building a champion in a way that was anathema to him. Instead of chasing shiny trinkets, he made a team that football men could respect. A good, solid, responsible team that could block and tackle and not make the silly mistakes that his glamor teams always did.

Green Bay Packers beat Dallas Cowboys on final play in NFL playoff thriller Read more

Then Sunday they went out and played a hell of a playoff football game, against the hottest quarterback in football. They didn’t wilt like the Terrell Owens No1 seed team did against the Giants in January 2008. Prescott didn’t fumble away victory like Romo that night in Seattle back in January 2007. The offense didn’t stall as it did against the Packers in 2015 when Dallas got just two first downs in the whole fourth quarter.

This time the Cowboys stars made big plays. This time Prescott took them to two touchdowns and a field goal in the final quarter. This time, the Cowboys matched the Packers and looked ready to go to an overtime they were surely destined to win. Then came the catch by Green Bay’s Jared Cook that still seems too ridiculous to believe. Then came the two, 51-yard field goals from the Packers’ Mason Crosby – the first wiped by a time out and the second made right after. This after a 56-yard Crosby kick just 1:33 before.

NFL (@NFL) FACT: It doesn't get any better than this Jared Cook sideline grab.



C-L-U-T-C-H. #GoPackGo #GBvsDAL #NFLPlayoffs https://t.co/N66Ir6sctr

So, that’s how it would end this time for Jones: with Romo on the sideline, no magic in his $1.5bn stadium and a kicker from Lubbock hitting 158 yards of field goals in less than two minutes.

It’s easy to hate on Jones. And yet at some point on Sunday you had to pity the old man. He had done everything against his nature to construct a champion. The ‘Boys were the ‘Boys again and they were going to march to Houston with he, Jerry Jones, leading the parade.

Then after Aaron Rodgers, Cook and Crosby took it away he was left where he has often been left on these January nights: huddled in an overcoat, surrounded by cameras, trying like hell to keep his head from looking at the floor.

“There might have been a moral victory if we had continued to play the way it was looking earlier,” he said. “But for this bunch to come back, get it together [and] to see those guys come back and compete like that, then I know if we won this game we’re capable of doing a good job against – in this case – Atlanta and probably a good job in the Super Bowl.”

Only there will be no Atlanta, no Super Bowl for Jones. That last championship, celebrated in a raucous, all night bash at a Tempe, Arizona hotel, is now 21 years in the past. The three Super Bowl victories in four years are a distant memory. Their trophies twinkle in the lobby of his new team headquarters called simply The Star, but the dynasty that delivered them is covered in dust.

This January was supposed to change all that.

“I don’t want to say in any way it’s any consolation but I know this: They are capable of playing at this level,” he said Sunday. “The kind of level we would have expected.”

Unlike other Cowboys teams over the last two decades this one looks built to last. Prescott appears ready to be the next great Dallas quarterback. Running back Ezekiel Elliott might be the proper successor to Emmitt Smith. The Cowboys are young and sturdy and should have a window for more winning. They may yet go to three Super Bowls in four years like the teams in the 1990s.

Still, it was hard not to feel a little sorry for Jerry Jones standing there in the Cowboys locker room on Sunday night. He wanted another Super Bowl so much he was willing to stop being himself in order to get it. Then, one again, it was snatched away.

Fantasy player of the week



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Richard Sherman congratulates Matt Ryan after the Falcons’ victory over the Seahawks. Photograph: John David Mercer/USA Today Sports

“MVP. MVP. MVP”

What will be the next-to-last Falcons crowd at the Georgia Dome serenaded quarterback Matt Ryan with this chant throughout much of Atlanta’s 36-20 trampling of Seattle. It may be the most accurate thing a fanbase has shouted in weeks. Somehow lost in all the euphoria of Rodgers’ surge and Elliot’s huge rookie season is the year Ryan had in Atlanta.

During the regular season he completed nearly 70% of his passes for 4,944 yards, with 38 touchdowns against only seven interceptions. His team won the NFC South and established themselves as the most dangerous offense in the NFL and yet because he’s Matt Ryan and unflashy, most of football ignores him. The Falcons rarely move the needle themselves, even when they are very, very good. Perhaps Saturday’s victory will change those impressions. All Ryan did against what was supposed to be one of the league’s better defenses is throw for 338 yards and three touchdowns.

MVP indeed.

Quote of the week

“Don’t tell me I didn’t do my job, motherfucker. Get the fuck out of my face. Like I said, get out of my face. Don’t play with me. Don’t play with me. I just put my heart on the fucking field … Try me again, see what happens.”

It’s been a hard year for the Seattle Seahawks despite the fact they won the NFC West again. Key injuries on the defense, a hobbled quarterback Russell Wilson and a struggling offensive line made the Seahawks run to the division round especially hard. The team that once seemed like the happiest in football has grown a bit more sullen as expectations of another Super Bowl loom. Late in the season, Richard Sherman snapped at a Seattle radio show host and on Saturday night, the generally affable Michael Bennett unloaded on a Seattle television reporter who asked why the Seahawks hadn’t been able to pressure Ryan in their loss to Atlanta.

Michael Bennett goes on expletive-laced rant after Seahawks lose to Falcons Read more

Perhaps the game and the disappointment of a season-ending loss remained fresh. It wouldn’t be the first time an athlete has blown up after a tough defeat, especially in the playoffs. The bigger issue for the Seahawks is the struggle they had to win as many games as they did while trying to keep open a championship window that might be starting to close. No team with expectations will have a bigger offseason than Seattle.

Gif of the week

Jason McIntyre (@jasonrmcintyre) Time the F Out, shouts hoodie Belichickpic.twitter.com/3OTCWPcr7Y





Nothing is more fun than Gifs of Cleveland Browns’ futility but these are the playoffs, which means no more Browns mascots in elf costumes slipping on ice or ugly interceptions in the snow. The next best thing is everybody’s former failed Browns coach who has found fame elsewhere. Bill Belichick. Here is the Patriots coach going crazy during New England’s 34-16 victory over Houston on Saturday night.

Really, there is little in the NFL as amusing than Belichick when he comes unhinged. If you are adept at reading lips this blowup is especially amusing. But the best part is the fact it came not early in the night when the score was close but late in the fourth quarter with New England already up by 15 points and on the verge of kicking the field goal that would extend the lead to three scores. Belichick was angry it was taking too long to set up the field goal attempt, something that would annoy any coach. And yet his rage was burning late in a game his team had all but won.

In case you wonder just how hard it is to play for Belichick, enjoy this clip of Wes Welker learning of his demise in New England even before he knew it.

Stat of the week

Six. The number of field goals kicked by Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell on Sunday night, an NFL record. The Steelers did nothing spectacular in their 18-16 victory over Kansas City. They were plodding and methodical, chewing up yardage on a wet, frosty night. They never did get a touchdown. But, again and again they sent their 25-year-old kicker onto the field to boot the ball through the cold. He made all of his attempts, none longer than 45 yards. It could not be easy on a night like Sunday’s, played on Arrowhead Stadium’s soggy turf and yet he made six field goals look simple, like something anyone can do.

They would be the difference on a night when the Chiefs scored one last, desperate touchdown and came up empty on the two-point conversion. Just one miss from Boswell – who surpassed the old record of five, held by seven other players - and Kansas City would have been going to New England next weekend.