The Dallas Cowboys are playing their third game in a row at home that is in front of a massive television audience as they are now going from Thanksgiving Day to Monday Night Football to Sunday Night Football. America’s Team and all that jazz. It is the first time that they will be playing a game in general though as a team eliminated from playoff contention.

This time around the Cowboys will be hosting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and are underdogs even in their home building. While Dallas has won three of their last four, the Buccaneers have won all of their last four. Needless to say it is going to be a difficult outing.

We will see how well the Cowboys fare and if they are able to make it four out of five. The early parts of this season were extremely tough, but they have been playing very well for the last month or so.

This post will serve as our running recap throughout it all. We will update things on a quarterly basis and at the end of the game sort it so that it can be read in chronological order.

Let’s go Cowboys!

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Notable Recent News

This past week saw the trailer for the Netflix documentary chronicling Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys teams of the 1990s release… if you are into that.

Injury Updates

We have known for some time that Trevon Diggs’ season is over, but the Cowboys formally placed him on injured reserve on Saturday.

Dallas signed Andrew Booth to the active roster in response.

NFL News Relevant To The Cowboys

As noted up top… the Washington Commanders beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday and in the process they eliminated the Cowboys from playoff contention.

The Drought™ grows all the more large.

Up Next For The Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys are set for their final road trip of the season next Sunday as they will visit the Philadelphia Eagles. After that they will return home to host the Washington Commanders before they wrap everything up.

DALLAS – Dallas Police have identified a man who was shot and killed before 5 a.m. Saturday morning.

Officers were called to a shooting in the 9000 block of Soverign Row, which is off of John Carpenter Freeway near Regal Row.

Investigators believe 21-year-old Joseph Ortega was shot by an unknown suspect.

Ortega died at the scene.

This is an ongoing investigation. 

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Frank Serra at 214-662-4552 or frank.serra@dallaspolice.gov.

An already questionable search process for Dallas’ new city manager has unfortunately lapsed into all-out dysfunction.

Dallas City Council, it’s the holidays. Please take a breath of fresh pine air and work out this search in a new spirit of cooperation before nobody ends up wanting the job.

Given what’s already happened, chances of that are dwindling. Three of the five semifinalists already pulled out of the running late last week.

There was trouble from the start with the resignation of former City Manager T.C. Broadnax in February. He said a majority of the council lost faith in his leadership, but the timing of his “involuntary resignation” rightly raised eyebrows. Mayor Eric Johnson questioned whether his allies on the council helped him orchestrate the move so he could take a job as Austin city manager and also collect on a hefty severance.

The City Council named Broadnax’s top aide, Assistant City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, as interim manager just days after his resignation amid reservations of some of the council. Since then, the table has seemed set for her to assume the permanent role, underscored by the lack of pushback Tolbert’s received as she’s implemented sweeping changes at City Hall during her interim role. We can’t help but wonder about the chill that’s had on other potential candidates.

Another wrinkle came when the outside search firm hired to vet candidates, Baker Tilly, circulated a draft brochure advertising for the job that featured a photo of the Houston skyline. That was in late August, and since then some council members have blamed both the firm and an ad hoc search committee for moving too slowly and without transparency to the full council.

Tensions erupted this month when three council members — Paula Blackmon, Gay Donnell Willis and Jaynie Schultz — tried to wrest control from the committee and hold an emergency meeting of the full council. That flopped when only two other council members showed up at the Dec. 16 meeting, not enough for a quorum.

Blackmon told us she expected a quorum, but “it became clear to me that some phone calls were made to pressure people not to show up, and that is their decision.” Another bad look for the city.

A meeting the same day of the ad hoc committee weirdly ended up in executive session for nearly three hours. Members emerged with a plan to virtually interview the semifinalists Monday, the day before Christmas Eve. That seems like a big ask of the candidates and a crummy process. Candidates deserve an in-person interview.

It’s been hard to keep track of who’s on whose team in this mayhem. There are clearly two sides on the council: those who want Tolbert to get the job, and those who aren’t yet sold on her and want a more extensive search.

Council member Cara Mendelsohn, a member of the ad hoc committee, told us any grievances with the search should have been handled privately and that council members not on the committee have wrongly injected themselves in what is a serious effort.

“This unprofessional behavior risks scaring off strong candidates and reflects poorly on our city,” she said.

That may well happen even more than it has and, at this point, who could blame them? From the start to now, the city has hardly put its best foot forward. We urge the City Council to embrace the quiet of the season, take a moment and begin again in earnest in the New Year.

Rushing this process serves no one and least of all the residents of Dallas.

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