It’s no fun being pessimistic about your favorite team. We all have our collective opinions about the Dallas Cowboys here, but the foundation of them all is one common denominator. We want the Dallas Cowboys to be successful and win.

Criticizing the team or noting their shortcomings in certain areas does not make it untrue to an individual or fan. Great characters, coaches, and players grace this team’s franchise history and set expectations for the annual group that we all want to see upheld.

This didn’t happen on Sunday by any means, but as we wrote in our postgame recap, it hasn’t happened since the beginning of this past offseason. Dallas was no match for the Baltimore Ravens not because of anything specific that happened on Sunday, but because of what happened in March and April. Studying for ten minutes before a test is a bad habit.

You may be proud of the comeback the Cowboys pulled off on Sunday against the Ravens, but you’ll forgive me if I find it a bit hollow overall.

This is our inventory report after the latest mess this team left behind. All arrows are pointing south except one.

Let’s get started.

Stock Down: Prescott Roof

We’ll start here because he’s the leader of the team, but he was far from the biggest problem on Sunday. Overall, Prescott’s day looks great statistically, but like the rest of his teammates, he found his form far too late to really matter. At the moment, Prescott seems to be starring in weekly episodes of minced meat in which he is asked to make filet mignon out of gummy bears and cheese, these days feel a lot like the days of early 2018 and the infamous wide receiver by committee approach.

That said, he’s right in what he said after the game, which is that the offense needs to do more to help the defense. The defense is a big problem in its own right, but they did come out strong after getting hit in the face a couple of times. Baltimore punted twice after their first two touchdowns, and the Cowboys turned those into zero points. The quarterback bears a fair share of the responsibility for that.

Stock Down: CeeDee Lamb

But so does the one who blew the first possession in question and that was CeeDee Lamb. There are a lot of hot comments going around about CeeDee right now with words like “give up” and “pout”. It’s not my style but the broadcast seemed to show a player who was rather disinterested in what was going on around him.

It’s fair to say that a lack of training camps is probably hampering Lamb’s effectiveness at the moment. While you can “blame” Lamb for that, it’s hard to say that what he did was wrong for him as an individual. Players have the right to manage their own affairs.

But that doesn’t mean you can walk out of a game if your team is making some sort of comeback (it still feels silly to call it that). When the pressure is on and everything is intense, that’s when you’re needed the most. Considering there were similar discussions surrounding Lamb last season when the Cowboys were losing big games, this was just disappointing to see happen.

Stocks Down: Tyler Guyton

It feels so unfair to say this about him, because he’s being asked to climb a pretty big hill without any knowledge of the lay of the land. Who knew it would be hard to play left tackle in the NFL?!

Guyton could very well be a great player for this organization, but the reality is that he isn’t right now. In fact, he’s below average right now. Is that shocking? Is it a huge surprise that we’re not witnessing the greatest tackle of all time after just three NFL starts? Relying on rookies is always a risky roll of the dice, and here we are.

Stocks Down: Terence Steele

The advantage of being green cannot be applied to Terence Steele, as he is in his fifth NFL season and his second contract with the Cowboys. Poor performance cannot be tolerated here.

You would think that with Guyton on an island (so to speak) Prescott and the Cowboys could rely on the wily veteran on the other side to steady the ship. That is not the case.

Steele is the second-longest-tenured veteran on the offensive line, and the quality of play we’ve seen from him in three games doesn’t reflect that.

Stocks Down: Mike McCarthy

These aren’t ranked by any means, but you could put Mike McCarthy right at the top. McCarthy has done some incredible things (relatively speaking) during his tenure, and while we can all agree that he’s not exactly in a stable situation, what we see from both the head coach and the attacking playmaker is unacceptable.

From a head coach’s perspective, McCarthy has outplayed Jason Garrett in almost every way except one. This is a bit of a stretch, but you’ll recall that we talked about how the Cowboys players always put in effort for Garrett, even though they ultimately didn’t. We’re seeing a lot of low effort left and right from this group right now. But how can you blame them when they know he’s in a contract year? There’s no stability. That is not McCarthy’s fault.

From a play-calling standpoint, there is no design on offense. What happened to movement? To openly intriguing players? We’ve seen it! Sitting back and asking everyone to play hero ball is not yet a viable strategy, but here we are.

Stock Down: Micah Parsons

For what it’s worth, Parsons is still the best player on this team, but he gave a message last week that this game would be a statement of sorts. Good for him.

But when you say things like that and you fall short, it’s representative that things aren’t quite right in the house. Parsons is just one player and he seems to be doing his very best, but he’s not a difference-maker at the moment. We’re asking him to do more and be even more incredible. That’s unfair in its nature, but he’s walked and talked like the kind of player who welcomes such opportunities.

Stocks Down: Caelen Carson

Again, seriously, depending on rookies early in their careers is not only unwise, but potentially detrimental to their long-term success. Caelen Carson looks nothing like the player who impressed throughout training camp. He missed what looked like an easy tackle on Nelson Agholor, but turned out to be a huge gain. That can’t happen.

Overall, this “situation” is the one where Dallas deserves the least blame. DaRon Bland’s injury was unpredictable and set them up badly. But this is where not hedging your bets ahead of time can backfire.

Stocks Down: Mazi Smith

Honestly, what else can we say? Piling on for the sake of piling on just feels mean. Unfortunately, the Cowboys don’t have much of a choice here due to poor play, injuries, and whatever you want to call what happened to Jordan Phillips. Expecting Smith to be great because he was a first-round pick last year is screaming into the void.

Stocks Down: Mike Zimmer

The only other candidates the Cowboys reportedly considered for their defensive coordinator position outside of Mike Zimmer were Rex Ryan and Ron Rivera. That always felt iffy to me.

Zimmer seems like a poor fit for the modern game of the NFL, and how could he be? He’s been out of the league for a few years now. We know his name and have memories of the dominant group he led, so the nostalgia in us wanted this to be great, like a reboot of a sitcom from our youth, but none of those shows ever worked out. This one either.

What’s more, a hallmark of Zimmer’s past is that groups are rough and tough and have a fighting spirit and a mean streak in their play. This Cowboys defense allowed 158 yards on Sunday due to broken tackles. You can’t tell me this is a group that plays with discipline.

Stocking Up: Brandon Aubrey

That guy kicked a 65 yard field goal. He rocks. That’s all I got.