When the Cowboys front office reviews all of the numbers? "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times'' ... indeed.
FRISCO - It's the corniest and most cliché crutch in sportswriting, and it's all William Shakespeare's fault.
I'm taking the lazy liberty of using here, though, because Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones recently used it to describe one of the flaws of his 7-8-1 team.
"A Tale of Two Cities'' is the 1859 book title, and it's been stolen and borrowed and repurposed a zillion times to describe, among an endless assortment of other things, a football game and a football team.
"A Tale of Two ...'' applies here, trite as it may be, when we examine the numbers oozing from Dallas' bottom-basement defense and compare them to the dazzling numbers being produced by Dak Prescott and the offense.
Entering the Christmas Day win at Washington, a 30-23 decision in which Prescott threw for 307 yards and two TDs while admitting he wasn't his "sharpest'' ...
*Allowed 30.3 points per game (ranking 31st in the NFL)
*Allowed 2.9 points per drive (32nd)
*Allowed 380.1 total yards per game (31st)
*Allowed 257.8 passing yards per game (32nd)
*Allowed 33 passing TDs (32nd)
*Allowed 110.5 opponents' passer rating (32nd)
*Allowed 47.5 opponents' third-down percentage (32nd)
*Allowed 70.7 opponents' red-zone percentage (30th)
*Allowed 22.1 first downs per game (32nd)
*Recorded 11 takeaways (28th)
That is an astounding collection of numbers that serves as an indictment of coordinator Matt Eberflus, sure. But it's not exactly something Jerry and Stephen Jones, Will McClay and Brian Schottenheimer and a couple of dozen players want to put on their resume, either.
Meanwhile, consider Dak's rankings at QB ...
*4,175 passing yards (second in the NFL)
*28 passing TD (third)
*202 passing first downs (second)
*378 completions (first)
*Five games with 300+ pass yards (tied for first)
*169 completions of 10+ yards (first)
*26 completions of 25+ yards (third)
*4,329 total yards (second)
*214 total 1st downs (first)
*Four fourth-quarter comebacks (tied for third)
*68.5 completion percentage (sixth)
Dak's boost from Washington? He's now got 30 TD passes, six games over 300 passing yards and is in a duel with the Rams' Matthew Stafford for the NFL passing yards title.
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Coaches love to talk about "complementary football'' to the point it's almost as much a cliche as "A Tale of Two ...''
But I believe in it enough to not spend too much time dwelling on how "the Cowboys have wasted an MVP season from Dak.'' ... because it all folds together like hand-in-glove.
Still ...
Well, Jerry was asked on 105.3 The Fan on Friday if he is satisfied scheme-wise and with the coaching staff on the defensive side of the ball.
“No,'' Jones said. "No. Not at all. We have a lot of work to do over there. But we can do it.”
Ummm, do what?
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When the Dallas front office reviews all of these numbers, which creates another Dickensian thought as his opening line in the book is, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times''?
It becomes very clear where the Cowboys need to "do'' as they make their changes in personnel, asset spending, coaching and philosophy.