Cowboys Coach Delivers Brutally Honest Assessment on ‘Really Bad Number’ That’s Plaguing Dallas

The 2024 Dallas Cowboys season has been a wild ride—unpredictable, frustrating, and full of missed opportunities. For a team that has built its identity around strong defense and careful ball security in recent years, this season has been marked by one glaring issue: self-inflicted wounds. Specifically, turnovers.

After a few seasons of being among the best teams in football at both protecting the football and taking it away, the Cowboys’ turnover woes have taken a dramatic nosedive. Over the last five games, Dallas has committed 15 turnovers, an alarming statistic that has only worsened an already struggling offense. While the defense remains elite, the constant giveaways have been a massive burden on a team that is still in the hunt for postseason success but now finds itself battling internal issues.

The Turnover Crisis

The Cowboys have been turning the ball over with an almost reckless abandon in 2024, with a particularly troubling recent stretch of mistakes. The turnover differential, which is often a key indicator of success in the NFL, has plummeted to a brutal -10. To put that in perspective, only the Tennessee Titans (-11) and Jacksonville Jaguars (-14) have worse turnover margins in the entire league.

This lack of ball security has been a major hindrance, especially for an offense that already had struggles before the turnovers began piling up. Of the Cowboys’ 18 turnovers on the season, 10 have come via interceptions, and 8 have been fumbles. That’s a bad combination, especially for an offense that is already inconsistent in its execution and has struggled to find a rhythm under offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.

As Schottenheimer himself pointed out, the focus on minimizing turnovers is something the team works on daily, but the results have yet to reflect that emphasis. “It’s something that we educate these guys on each week, we practice it every day,” Schottenheimer said. “I do think we do a good job of educating … (but) honestly to be minus-10 … it’s a really bad number.”

The most recent example of a costly miscue came in the form of Cooper Rush’s fumbled snap—a moment that encapsulated much of what’s gone wrong with the Cowboys’ offense in 2024. It’s a reminder that while turnovers can happen to any team, the Cowboys’ chronic issues with holding onto the ball are putting a tremendous amount of strain on their chances of winning.

Coaching and Execution: Where is the Disconnect?

With a turnover differential this bad, you can’t help but wonder whether the issue is a matter of coaching or execution—or perhaps a little bit of both. The Cowboys’ staff has done everything in its power to stress the importance of ball security, but the results have been dismal. The coaching staff, led by Mike McCarthy, is left to grapple with the reality that their teachings aren’t translating to on-field success.

“There’s only so much we can do as coaches,” McCarthy said in a recent press conference. “At some point, it’s about the guys taking ownership and executing what we’ve worked on all week. We’ve got to find a way to turn it around.”

The issue of turnovers has exposed a deeper concern: Are the players really listening to the coaching staff? Or has the message simply fallen flat? In a season where expectations were sky-high after back-to-back playoff appearances, the Cowboys’ inability to protect the football is a glaring weakness that has yet to be corrected.

This is where the “lame-duck” theory comes into play. With McCarthy and the coaching staff’s long-term futures uncertain, it’s easy to wonder whether a lack of motivation or accountability is creeping into the locker room. Are the players as invested in the team’s success as they should be? The turnovers would suggest a lack of discipline—something that can happen when focus and urgency start to wane.

What’s at Stake?

For the Cowboys, the turnover problem could not have come at a worse time. With the NFC East still up for grabs and the playoffs within reach, Dallas can’t afford to keep giving away games. A team that prides itself on defensive prowess should not be in a position where it consistently hands opposing offenses extra opportunities. The defense has done its part, but it’s hard to win games when your offense is giving the ball away at the rate the Cowboys have been.

This isn’t just about statistics—it’s about trust. Teams that take care of the football typically win the turnover battle, and in doing so, they win games. In the case of the Cowboys, they’ve been losing both. The team’s inability to balance the scales on this front will continue to prevent them from reaching their full potential in 2024.

Until the Cowboys figure out how to limit these self-inflicted turnovers, their season will remain on a dangerous path. As Schottenheimer rightly pointed out, “If it doesn’t get better, it’s going to be hard to win a lot of games moving forward, so it has to.”

It’s a make-or-break moment for a franchise that has been stuck in the middle of the pack for far too long. Can they clean up their act and turn the season around? Or will these costly mistakes continue to haunt them through the remainder of the year?

If the Cowboys hope to make any noise in the postseason, they have no choice but to clean up their turnover issues. It’s as simple as that.