Ten things to ponder about the Cowboys and their coaching situation as we roll into 2020:

1. 24.

It was a popular TV show dealing with cataclysmic events around the world from 2001 to 2014. It takes on new connotations now as the Cowboys’ run of seasons without a visit to an NFC Championship Game just grew to 24 years.

Keep in mind that the Cowboys entered the NFL as an expansion team with bottom-of-the-barrel talent and no draft picks in 1960. And yet in their first 24 years they went to the NFL or NFC Championship 12 times.

2. Q. Name three reasons Jerry Jones has stayed with Jason Garrett for so long.

A. Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have had three head coaches in the last 50 years. They combined to win six Super Bowls. And, of course, there’s a coach in New England who has captured six titles in the last two decades. Stability is the name of the game in the NFL ... if you can find the right coach.

“I look around over the years,’’ Jones said after Sunday’s game, “and I see very few clubs not have a lot of coaches.’’

Jones kept convincing himself that better playoff results were ahead for Garrett. They were not.

3. In case you were wondering about Urban Meyer’s age, if the Cowboys choose to pursue him and eventually hand him the coaching reins, he won’t be the oldest coach Jones has hired. He won’t even make the top three.

Bill Parcells was 61, Wade Phillips was 59 and Barry Switzer was 56 at the time of their hirings. Meyer, who seems like he has been a fixture on the college scene forever, is 55.

4. Expect Baylor’s big Sugar Bowl appearance Wednesday to be Matt Rhule’s last game with the Bears. It sure feels like the New York Giants are going to make him their No. 1 option to replace Pat Shurmur. And there are reasons to think he might be a better choice to come out of the college ranks than the more decorated Meyer or Lincoln Riley.

Baylor coach Matt Rhule is pictured during the Big 12 Championship Game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2019. (Tom Fox / Staff Photographer)

Rhule got football players to go to Temple. Rhule got Baylor from 1-11 to 11-1 in the regular season in two years. It’s one thing to recruit and win with Heisman talent. It’s another to take three-star players and beat up on Texas.

5. Congrats to Dak Prescott on throwing for more than 4,900 yards and coming within 1 yard of Tony Romo’s team record. The Cowboys’ job is to make sure he never does it again. The top five in passing yards this season were Tampa Bay’s Jameis Winston, Prescott, the LA Rams’ Jared Goff, the LA Chargers’ Philip Rivers and Atlanta’s Matt Ryan. You won’t see any of them in the playoffs in January.

And, by the way, the Cowboys were also 8-8 when Romo threw for 4,903 yards in 2012.

6. With the 49ers holding the top seed in the NFC, you wonder if another team will pass the Cowboys in Lombardi Trophies. San Francisco will be going for its sixth, trying to join New England and Pittsburgh. The Cowboys have five. Keep in mind that when the Cowboys won their fifth after the 1995 season, San Francisco had five, Pittsburgh had four and New England had zero.

7. The Cowboys finished with almost 400 more yards than the Baltimore Ravens, who were second to Dallas in total offense. So there are certainly ways to look at Kellen Moore’s first season as coordinator as a success. But even with 47 points in the finale, the Cowboys finished sixth in points, and you should do much better than that when you’re so far ahead of the field in yards.

8. Zeke Elliott got paid to be the best back in football last summer. He was good this season, not great. While he finished fourth in rushing, he was just two rushing attempts behind Tennessee’s Derrick Henry but he was 183 yards behind the league’s rushing leader. His averages per carry in his first four seasons are 5.1, 4.1, 4.7 and 4.5. He had a nice bounce-back year in touchdowns, but the lack of explosive plays has to be a concern. Elliott had four runs of 20 yards or more. That’s the fewest among the top 15 backs. He had 14 as a rookie, 11 last year.

9. Those of us old enough to remember 1974 can recall how strange it felt for the Cowboys to not make the playoffs. They had gone in eight straight seasons starting in 1966. And it would be another 10 years (1984) before they missed the postseason again.

In their 24-year run of not getting beyond the second round, the Cowboys have missed the playoffs 14 times.

10. My earliest 2020 prediction: The Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens open the season with a Thursday night game against the Cowboys. It could happen. Dallas is at Baltimore and Cincinnati as part of next year’s schedule with the AFC North.

Regardless, when the Cowboys get around to finding their ninth head coach, he needs to start preparing for Lamar Jackson.