Blame it on Rio? Cowboys aren't good enough to avoid schedule trap | Opinion

Opinion: Blame it on Rio? These Cowboys are not good enough to avoid the trap

Tired. Flat. Overwhelmed.

And bamboozled.

The Dallas Cowboys lost – no, were flat-blasted – by a previously winless team that was led by an undrafted rookie quarterback.

Take nothing away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with Jalon Daniels subbing for an injured Baker Mayfield. They were desperate, hungry and determined to bring their best effort to Jerry World and succeeded with a 24-16 triumph that undoubtedly made for a sweet, chartered flight back to Florida.

The Bucs (1-4) rushed for 241 yards, with 165 coming from Bucky Irving and 72 coming on one run early in the third quarter. They created three turnovers. They had Todd Bowles dialing up a multitude of exotic blitzes and special teams coach Danny Smith chomping hard on that chewing gum – before and after his unit took a fumble on a kickoff return. They had a time of possession figure of 39 minutes, 21 seconds.

Now that’s dominance.

Yet the Cowboys (2-3) did not just lose to the Bucs. They lost, too, to a brutal stretch of the NFL schedule that had them playing three games in 12 days, with the itinerary including 10-hour flights to and from Brazil, where they had that disastrous crunch time meltdown in the loss to the Ravens.

Blame it on Rio?

Sure, these are big boys. Pros. As the L.A. Rams can attest, having been walloped by the 49ers in Australia in Week 1 after their travel plans backfired, the international jaunts are part of the big-business deal as the NFL expands its global reach.

Yet the Thursday night debacle seemed possible way back in May when the NFL schedule was released. The Cowboys had long flights to and from Brazil, then a trip to Houston, then a short week.

None of that works as an excuse for the Cowboys performance – and it doesn’t appear that anyone in the team’s orbit used the schedule as an excuse, four days after squeaking out a win against the winless Texans.

‘Embarrassing’: Worker heckles Cowboys QB Dak Prescott after loss

No, this too is a case of a team not being good enough to avoid the trap that came with the schedule and the matchup against, well, a team that could have been overlooked.

It went down as your basic gut punch. Or as Cowboys owner Jerry Jones put it to the gaggle of reporters outside the locker room, “Extraordinarily, extraordinarily disappointed.”

Even with the missed tackles, even with the already-shaky defense getting gassed on a Tampa Bay opening drive that went 15 plays and two seconds shy of 11 minutes, even with the busted coverage that left Tez Johnson roaming free for a 64-yard catch, even with the penalties and even with the dropped passes and bad Dak Prescott passes, they still had a chance to win.

And even with Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer inexplicably deciding to go for two after Dallas cut into a 14-point deficit with a touchdown – they didn’t convert and would have been forced to chase the bypassed PAT had they scored again – they still had life.

“This game, the NFL, comes down to finishing games,” Schottenheimer said during his postgame news conference.

DeRon Bland blew it in crunch time when he muffed the football that had pick-six written all over it. Jake Ferguson came up short in crunch time when he didn’t haul in what became Prescott’s second and final interception.

So, no excuses, but the Cowboys received no favors from the schedule.

What, did Jones tick someone off at NFL headquarters again?

Sure, in this age of NFL TV on nearly every day of the week, almost every team encounters some type of weird schedule sequence that seems unfair. Yet with NFL international football not going away (and teams typically go to international destinations a couple days or so earlier than usual), the NFL should consider that toll when booking the games that follow global travel.

The Ravens left Brazil and had games the next two Sundays, home and away. Three games in 21 days.

The Rams left Australia and had a Monday night home game in Week 2. Two games in 12 days.

The Cowboys had three games in 12 days.

Next time out, though, the schedule won’t work against them. The Cowboys have 10 days until they meet the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.

After Thursday night, it promises to be a long, long 10 days.

Follow Bell on X: @JarrettBell

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Blame it on Rio? Cowboys aren’t good enough to avoid schedule trap | Opinion