Cowboys owner Jerry Jones didn't expect the poor performance from his team against the Lions.
The Dallas Cowboys' magic juice ran out in Week 14 with coach Brian Schottenheimer's team beaten in every aspect in a 44-30 loss to the Detroit Lions at Ford Field on Thursday.
Special teams was a disaster, the offense didn't click the way we have seen in the past two weeks, George Pickens had a big off day, and the defense, well, it decided to remind us of what it used to put on tape earlier in the season.
In short, there's plenty of blame to go around for what we saw on Thursday night.
After winning three straight games, which included superb victories over the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, the Cowboys never gave themselves a proper chance at beating the Lions, seeing themselves down 27-9 early in the third quarter.
And while fans were at a loss as to why the Cowboys suddenly hit the self-destruct button, so too was owner Jerry Jones.
“I’ll tell you this right now, I didn’t think I’d be sitting here when we kicked off last night explaining why we didn’t play better than we played," Jerry said. "I understand the frustration of our fans.
"But stay tuned.”
The "stay tuned" is an interesting little sound bite.
What exactly are we staying tuned for, Jerry?
At this time of the year, there won't be any sweeping changes coaching-wise or personnel-wise, so we aren't exactly sure what Jerry means by that.
But one thing we do know, the Cowboys were beaten in every facet of the game by the Lions.
Pickens’ body language was a big talking point coming out of the game. (As is his NSFW response to the criticism.) So too was the offensive line, which got mauled by the Lions' defensive front, giving up five sacks. And the penalties, all of which add up to a bad night at the office.
In truth, going 2-1 through the three-game gauntlet? Yes, most fans would've taken that at the start of the year. But Dallas had juice and true belief heading into Week 14, only to lay an egg when the season was on the line.
Jerry is at a loss to explain why the Cowboys were so bad in Detroit, and frankly, so are we, because you can't just point to one thing that was the catalyst for the loss.
It was everyone, and that might be the most damning thing of all.