Ian S. Hoover

OIP

I always focus on business online, however most of the people who know me also know that I am about as die hard of a Cowboys fan as you can be.

The last 15-20 years has not been anywhere near as fun as the first 10 years of my life, I am now 33 years old (Born in 1987) .

For some self deprecating humor I thought I would talk about the top ten worst Cowboys games of my life, I hope you will enjoy this more than I will.

#10 2003 Playoffs VS Panthers

The team showed promise going 9-7 with Quincy Carter finally showing why he was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2001 draft, with Bill Parcels leading the team they had confidence and were getting better as the year progressed. They had beaten the Panthers earlier in the year so it seemed like they were poised to get to the divisional round for the first time since 1996. Unfortunately Carter played horrible only throwing 154 yards and throwing 1 interception and zero TD’s. The Cowboys lost 29-10 and watched the Panthers go to the Superbowl.

#9 The McNabb game November 15th 2004

The Cowboys had showed promise under Parcels in year one, year two they lost Carter due to releasing him because of a constant drug issue (some of me wonders if this had anything to do with the 2003 horrible playoff loss). Parcels did what he likes to do and signed a “Parcels guy” to take his spot signing 40 year old Vinny Testaverde, Vinny did not have a great year but rumor has it was a huge part of the growth of future Hall of fame QB undrafted Tony Romo. Anyways prior to Tony being the starting QB Donovan McNabb owned the Dallas Cowboys and this was by far his best game VS the Cowboys. He threw for 345 yards and 4 TD’s in route of a 49-21 Eagles victory. That isn’t even the worst part. He had one play where he danced around Cowboys defenders like they were in slow motion, for 14 seconds and completed a 60 yard bomb..

#8 December 22 2019 VS Eagles

This one makes the list probably because it is recent, the Eagles were riddled with injury the Cowboys win this game and they are in the playoffs. That equals disaster in recent Cowboys history, as normal the team quit on “the clapper” Jason Garret, Dak Prescott had an excuse of his “injured” thumb and he played horrible. The coaching was bad, the QB was bad and we had no running attack, leave it to the Cowboys to not show up when they need to.

#7 Thanksgiving 2015 – It broke again?

The Cowboys rushed their star QB Tony Romo back from injury to “save” the season because without this one man in our lineup they are nothing more than a 3-13 pathetic team, he broke it in week two and they rushed him back. In a game that was already out of hand, Romo trying everything he can to do what he did so many times and pull a rabbit out of his hat broke his collar bone. As soon as the game got out of hand they should have pulled him right? But thing of all the other times he had brought them back form huge deficits to put a W on the schedule. Overall one of the worst memories of my favorite holiday.

#6 – 2019 Thanksgiving – It was personal VS Buffalo Bills

When your team is the favorite by a touchdown, on your favorite holiday, oh did I mention my best friend who is a Bills fan came to my house to watch it with me? It was a beautiful thing, the Cowboys marched right down on the opening drive and took a 7-0 lead and I was feeling great. Then the wheels fell off, everything was working for the Bills and nothing worked for the Cowboys, the clapper proved that he could never adjust his game plan when things are not working. The Cowboys did not score again until the final few minutes of the game and lost 26-15, my best friend will now have bragging rights until 2023.

#5 December 30, 2013 – The Kyle Orton game

As many Cowboys seasons seam to do, this one came down to the final game of the season. If the Cowboys win they are in! Romo hurt his back in the previous week but you know what? For once the Cowboys had a good backup, Kyle Orton had a pretty good NFL career to this point and would probably be a starter on 5-10 NFL teams and we had him as a backup. He played pretty good, the game was close and here we go again, Kyle had over 300 yards passing but with just under 2 minutes left and down by 2 with the ball he threw one of the worst interceptions on a routine slant route where Miles Austin had a step or two.

#4 January 2008 – The Cabo game

The Cowboys are back and prime to make another Dynasty like they had in the 90’s, after a 13-3 season they are the #1 seed in the NFC and have Eli Manning and the Giants coming to town. Leading up to this game I could not remember the last time a Cowboys team had gotten me so pumped, Wade Phillips was a breath of fresh air from the hard to please Parcels. What Parcels would have never let happen was his star QB, franchise TE and a role playing linebacker go “party” in Cabo during the bye week. The Cowboys were rusty to say the least, lead in scoring by Nick Folk with 5 of 5 FG’s the Cowboys found themselves in position to win what should have been an easy game. Romo still fighting to win the game takes the team down the field with no timeouts left :21 on the clock, he throws what would have been a perfect TD to Patrick Crayton but Crayton stopped at one point in his route so it ended up being just out of the reach of his hands. Next play with :16 seconds left 4th & 11 Romo has time but nobody open so he forces the ball into double coverage. While I understand what Romo was going for I would have rather seen him take off and run, back in his early days Romo had some wheels.

#3 December 10 2000 – The end of an era

I am sure most Cowboys fans have the moment they knew the Dynasty was over, smart ones probably knew the minute Michael Irvin was gone that it was time. I however was 11 when Irvin took that hit that ended his career and an 11 year old thinks that an aging future hall of fame QB and a undersized future hall of fame RB with way too much wear and tear can still win I guess? I knew it was over when Troy Aikman retired and it was the hit I will never forget, LaVar Arrington was shot out of a rocket and Aikman never had a chance. It was a sad day in my life for sure, I wish Aikman could have road out like Elway or Manning but instead he ended his career laying on the turf after a very hard hit.

#2 – What should have been the number one spot, unfortunately the refs gave us #1

The hold..

With just over a minute left in Romo’s first ever playoff game, lined up for what should have been a chip shot FG to take the lead…..

The ball slipped out of Romo’s hands

Some conspiracy folks said the ball was greased by the Seattle bench, there could be some truth to this considering the NFL changed their ball rules in the off season following this game so each team has their own balls (Enter deflate gate?)

I for some reason watched this play over and over and over again, trying to figure out what just happened?

Some fans wanted to blame Parcels because we were the only team in recent history who had their starting QB holding.

Honestly the only person I am mad at is Martin Gramatica, it sounds crazy but if you watch this play, Romo picks up the ball and bolts to the end-zone. He does not need to get in the end-zone, he only needs to get to the 1 yard line for a first down. Gramatica I am assuming in shock throws the weakest block I have ever seen on the person who catches Romo from behind.

#1 The catch January 11 2015

The NFL does ruin it for fans sometimes, ask saints fans.

Cowboys where 12-4 (12-3 with Romo starting)

Romo played the entire year with a bad back and had one of his best seasons, leading the NFL with 113 QB rating. Finished 2nd in MVP voting (should have won).

He had a great game in this one, 143 rating, 2TD (should have been 3).

In the video below you will hear a Romo, years later, talking about the best throw of his career.

Clearly a catch

On 4th and 2 Romo threw a 31 yard TD to Dez Bryant who makes a great catch, takes three steps, dives for the end-zone.

100% the worst loss in my life time

The Cowboys would have gone on to play the Seahawks in the NFC championship, who they beat earlier in the year 30-23 in Seattle.

The Cowboys give me something to look forward to, I love football it is my favorite sport and on Sundays you betcha I am sitting in front of the TV watching my team the Dallas Cowboys play.

Some of me wonders in some weird, dark, twisted episode of the twilight zone if Jerry Jones sold his soul to the devil for 3 super bowls in the 90’s, not knowing he was agreeing to 25+ years of pain and misery for him and his fans. Or maybe he did know and he just thought “Well I am in my 60’s, how long will I really live for?”.

The Dallas Cowboys are the new Boston Redsox.

Dak Prescott could be our curse of the bambino, I truly think that we had a championship caliber team in the 2016 season and if they would have put Romo back in when healthy he could have won it all.

Now we are stuck with a QB who is good but probably not good enough and has a greedy mindset, if the Cowboys sign Dak long term to near Mahomes money, I honestly think we will be signing up for another 10+ years of games like the ones above.

And yes I skipped the 2017 Packers divisional round game on this list, honestly I could have made a top 25 list with what I have been through since 1996 but I had to limit the list somewhere.

But you know what? For some reason I can’t wait for football.

Hope you enjoyed this.

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