ARLINGTON - Stop us if you've heard this before, but the Dallas Cowboys and self-inflicted wounds go together like peanut butter and jelly in 2024.
In the 34-6 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at AT&T Stadium, the Cowboys had five total turnovers, which paved the way for yet another blowout defeat and zapped any shred of hope some fans had of an upset victory.
The Cowboys had four fumbles and an interception as they gifted-wrapped the Eagles a victory without having Nick Sirianni's team get out of second gear.
For head coach Mike McCarthy, he was left with one overriding theme coming out of the loss.
"To me, the game's about the giveaways, it's unacceptable," McCarthy said. "Our last two home games, we've had 10 giveaways. You can't win games at any level like that. To be in there at halftime in a one-score game, to go out there and turn the ball over three times, we need to make some adjustments. I'm disappointed.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat this, you can't win not taking care of the damn ball."
Mental mistakes and turnovers have plagued this Cowboys team, and despite the constant talk about needing to be better and McCarthy now twice saying the turnovers are "unacceptable," they are still happening.
So that begs the question: where to now?
Dallas is sitting at 3-6 and has nothing positive heading into next week's game against the Houston Texans, so the outlook is bleak.
The hardest part is that the majority of its struggles this season have been brought on by itself. The offense has now had at least two turnovers in four straight games, and in the last three, two of them have seen Dallas record five turnovers.
And as McCarthy stated, for an NFL team, to use one word? Yes, that is unacceptable.
