The offensive line, touted as a strength, has proven to be just okay. They’re not great. They seem to be struggling to pick up the blitz, and they can’t run block to save their lives.

Everybody’s talked about the defense, and the defense deserves it. The defense’s display against the Arizona Cardinals was deliciously bad. The fact that the Cowboys allowed Gardner Minshew and the Arizona Cardinals, with no No. 1 wide receiver, to score four consecutive touchdowns in the fourth quarter is laughable. Earlier this season, people were talking about how the Dallas Cowboys got the best of the Micah Parsons trade. As we sit back and watch our defense struggle to generate pressure on a second-string quarterback like Gardner Minshew, you have to think Micah Parsons would have helped.

Historical Context: The Worst Defensive Troughs (Last 20 Years)

To understand how modern struggles stack up, it helps to look at the statistical nadirs of the past two decades:

• The 2025 Collapse (32nd in Points Allowed): Statistically, last season’s defense cratered to historic lows for the franchise, surrendering a staggering 511 total points (30.1 points per game), ranking dead last (32nd) in the NFL. They struggled immensely against the run, giving up 24 rushing touchdowns, and lacked any foundational strength to lean on, triggering a massive defensive overhaul.
• The 2020 Mike Nolan Era (Historic Yardage & Scoring): Before 2025, the 2020 defense was widely considered the most unwatchable unit in modern Cowboys history. Plagued by blown coverages and an inability to stop the run early in the year, they gave up 473 points (then a franchise record for a 16-game season) and finished near the bottom of almost every major metric, yielding over 380 yards per game before stabilizing slightly down the stretch. I had high hopes that Mike Nolan would give us the reincarnation of the doomsday defense. That didn’t happen.
• The 2013 Rob Ryan / Monte Kiffin Transition (32nd in Yards): The 2013 defense gave up a then-franchise record 6,645 total yards (an abysmal 415.3 yards per game), ranking 32nd in the NFL in total defense. The unit was constantly hammered by injuries and a lack of personnel depth.

How Past Lows Compare to Typical Cowboys Baselines

For perspective, a good Dallas defense during this 20-year span usually looks very different:

• The Peak Years (e.g., 2009 & the Dan Quinn Era): In 2009, the defense held opponents to just 15.6 points per game. Under Dan Quinn in the early 2020s, the unit relied heavily on splash plays, high turnover margins, and Micah Parsons’ pass-rush disruption to finish near the top of the league in takeaways, masking other structural flaws.
• The Middle Ground: Most average-to-mediocre Cowboys defenses over the last 20 years (such as various Jason Garrett-era squads) usually hovered around the 15th to 22nd marks in total yards, occasionally bending heavily in the red zone but avoiding the complete statistical free-falls seen in 2020 and 2025.

Jerry Jones continues to make terrible decisions for the Cowboys. The personnel on the field just simply aren’t that good. Sooner or later, you have to say the coaches aren’t doing what is necessary to put players in position to make plays. Should Brian Schottenheimer be an NFL head coach? I don’t know. All I can tell you is that he doesn’t seem to be doing the job.

The only reason we know about this case is that the young woman, known as Jane Doe, has filed a civil lawsuit against Cornell University and the seven men who allegedly assaulted her.

In my opinion, this case is about failure. There are several guardrails in place to prevent something like this from happening; yet, in violation of Cornell’s rules and regulations, this young woman was allowed to leave her dorm intoxicated. There are state laws preventing underage alcohol consumption, and yet this woman was not carded. Even if you assume she was of age, she was clearly intoxicated and probably should not have been served any more alcohol. She went to the bar with her “friends,” yet they let her walk alone to the Chi Phi fraternity house, even though she’d been drinking all day. This woman went to the Chi Phi fraternity house to see a “friend.” If this was truly a friend, that friend failed her, failed her spectacularly. The Chi Phi fraternity house seemed to have a group Snapchat in which members of the house were invited to have free sex with this inebriated, incapacitated woman.

After her assault, she petitioned Cornell University to drop out of the semester, and she wanted a refund on her tuition. Cornell University refused. Let that sink in for just a minute. Basically, Cornell was telling her that she had to stay in the same environment as her accused rapists for the next several months, pretending that nothing had happened.

The Cornell University Police Department turned over whatever evidence it had obtained to Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten. Unfortunately, it does not appear that anyone in the district attorney’s office reviewed all the evidence. Instead, it appears they reviewed a six-page summary that left out many key details. The district attorney decided not to file charges. Now, two years later, he has decided to reopen the case and see whether it has any merit. Again, let me reiterate, this is failure. This poor woman looked to our justice system to get some sort of remedy for this heinous act that was committed against her. It appears the district attorney did not take the time or effort to review all the evidence. This kind of egregious failure should lead to disbarment, don’t you think?

I think this points to a bigger failure of our society: that for years, we have failed women. We have told women that they should not walk alone, that they need to take defense classes, that they should carry mace or pepper spray. We have told them not to dress provocatively. Yet when you think about it, isn’t all of this backward? Shouldn’t we be telling men that we should not assault women? Shouldn’t we tell men that if we see an intoxicated, inebriated female, we shouldn’t think of her as free sex? Instead, we should think about ways to help this woman get home safely. I’m looking at those 50 men in that Snapchat, and not one of them said, “This is wrong. We should stop this. What are we doing?” I understand that sometimes doing the right thing requires some bravery. I’m not sure how brave you have to be to tell your fellow frat brothers that they really should not rape or drug women. That seems pretty basic, doesn’t it?

I hope and pray that this woman gets justice. As most of you know, this case has blown up and is now being discussed all throughout the internet and on social media. Governor Kathy Hochul has gotten involved. She says she has lost confidence in the Tompkins County District Attorney and has appointed Letitia James, the State Attorney General, to investigate. This is the part of the story I find a little ironic, if that is the right word. Now, in New York State, you have a female governor and a female state attorney general. Probably for the first time in the state’s history, a woman doesn’t have to answer to men. Hopefully, this will help her get justice.

In 2024, a young woman left her dorm at Cornell, went out drinking with some of her friends, then left them and went to the Chi Phi frat house to meet a friend. She was already intoxicated when she got to the Chi Phi frat house. She was given more to drink. She was also given some ketamine, and then it appears that she was sexually assaulted for hours. Some reports say that she was sexually assaulted for over 7 hours.

This case seems to have been mishandled by the Cornell Police Department, the Tompkins County District Attorney, and everyone Jane Doe turned to for help getting justice.

This case has exploded onto the internet, as topics seem to do from time to time. I didn’t want to jump into the fray right away because I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight and my thoughts clear.

I have a few questions. What happened to the dorm mother who was not supposed to let intoxicated women leave the dorm? What happened to the bar that served an underage woman alcohol? What happened to the men who received that group chat text message for “free pu$$y” and did nothing? The Tompkins County District Attorney said that the woman in her original statement did not accuse the men of sexual assault/rape or drugging her. Then what did she say in her statement? I don’t understand what they were investigating if she didn’t accuse them of a crime, or is he lying? Why were 2 men expelled and the other 5 not? What was the difference? If 2 men were expelled for sexual misconduct/rape, why weren’t there any formal charges? Jane Doe asked for her money back because she wanted to drop out of school that semester, but Cornell would not give it back. Why not? Why would Cornell force her to stay in that environment?

It seems to me that if women were valued in our society, allegations of rape and sexual assault would be promptly and seriously investigated. Women would be encouraged, not discouraged, to report misconduct or assault. They would be treated with dignity and respect when they did report something, but that’s not what happens in our society. Instead, women are treated like outcasts. They are treated as if they are the problem. This has to change. This must change if we are going to get anywhere near an equal society.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has entered the picture. She has appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James to investigate this whole ordeal. I don’t know what will happen, but I promise you that this case will not be swept under the rug. It will now get full law enforcement attention.

Update: NYT has more details on the punishment for the Cornell 7. This is worth a read. It specifically names the seven men who were accused of sexual assault/rape.

Ummm, the more I find out, the more it seems Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten did the absolute least he could have done to close this case two years ago. It appears he didn’t review all the files the Cornell Police handed over. It actually appears that he may have lied when he released a public statement describing Jane Doe’s participation as “voluntary, conscious, and consensual.” I think that he should be fired. The NY Bar needs to review at this license very carefully.

She left her hometown in Tennessee at 18 and moved to Nashville the day after she graduated from high school. There are probably ten thousand similar stories of youngsters who dream of stardom, move to Nashville, and then fail. Dolly Parton did not fail.

She had a string of country music hits, then crossed over to the pop charts in the early 1980s. She became a movie actor. She made television appearances. She built Dollywood, a country-western-themed park, to give back to her community. She didn’t build it in the big cities of Nashville or Memphis; instead, she built it in Pigeon Fork.

Her generosity seemed to know no bounds. She seemed to have a genuine love for humanity. Her Imagination Library has donated over 300 million books to underprivileged children. I am not a country music fan, but I am a big fan of Dolly Parton. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all acted a little bit more like Dolly Parton and a lot less like Donald Trump?

Rebuilding Our Democracy
I’m going to assume that we want to keep our Constitution; if so, it is time to stand up and support it.

The Constitution needs teeth. To start with, are we really going to embrace the idea that all men and women are created equal? This is our foundation. This means no more gerrymandering. This means that everyone’s vote counts. This means it needs to be easier to vote than it is to buy a gun or to buy a beer throughout the United States. We need federal legislation that specifically mandates how we draw voting districts throughout the United States. We cannot leave this to the states. They have proven that they should not have that responsibility. This will likely require a constitutional amendment.

There should be 7 to 14 days of early voting. Election days should be on weekends, or Election Day should be a national holiday so most Americans can get the day off. This should make voting easier. No one should have to stand in line for more than 15 minutes to vote. Right?

We can figure out how many voting machines a district needs and make that happen. (Tarrant County has just decreased the number of voting machines, therefore making it harder to vote, and completely removed all polling places at the University of Texas in Arlington, which has tens of thousands of students. This is wrong and should never be allowed to happen!)

There should be criminal penalties for making Americans stand in line for hours in order to vote. That’s nuts! Every state and every district should have easy mail-in voting.

We need to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. All women should have bodily autonomy. This is a basic right.

We, as voters, have an obligation and a responsibility to do better. We have newspapers, magazines, and the Internet to educate ourselves, yet too often we walk into a voting booth with no idea whom we’re voting for. We don’t know who’s on the ballot. We tell ourselves everybody they are all the same, then close our eyes, make a wish, and hope we voted for the right person.

This is how people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Marsha Blackburn, and Sarah Palin got elected. And no, incompetence isn’t limited to just women. Donald Trump should have never been elected. He was completely unqualified by whatever metric you want to use. George Santos, a Representative from New York, should never have been elected to Congress. He was nothing but a con man. They kicked him out of Congress and sent him to jail.

Oh, and by the way, where is Mitch McConnell? He hasn’t been seen in public in over three months.

As voters, we need to educate ourselves about the issues and the people running for office. We should not look for the perfect candidate; instead, we should look for the candidate who most closely matches our values. Then we need to walk into the voting booth and vote for someone with compassion, someone with understanding, and someone who can learn on the job. We must reject everyone who thinks they have all the answers (Donald Trump), because no one does.

We need to rebuild our institutions. This starts with the Supreme Court. We need to add seats to the Supreme Court to dilute the nonsense that the six conservative Supreme Court members continue to support.

The current Supreme Court seems to be playing a game with the American people. They are delaying decisions and allowing Donald Trump to continue to plow through his agenda, and then later they will tell us whether it’s unconstitutional or not. This is ridiculous. The best example is that they allowed him to tear down the East Wing, and now they’re allowing him to build the ballroom, telling the plaintiffs they don’t have standing because the ballroom hasn’t been built yet.

This is absolute nonsense! We need a Supreme Court that will stand up for the Constitution and the American people. This Supreme Court is doing neither. In addition to the Supreme Court, we need to fix the Centers for Disease Control. Vaccines are safe and very effective. We need to eliminate measles again.

We need to rebuild public trust in our institutions. This means that we MUST hold wrongdoers accountable. Americans who intentionally lie and deceive the American public need to be held accountable. We should start with RFK, Jr.

We have to get social media under control. Hate speech must be outlawed.

We need to rebuild our military. We have broken a proud institution with terrible leadership. Hell, the USS Abraham Lincoln, with its terrible conditions, should be a lesson to all of us. The ship had no safe harbor to resupply. Why? Because Iran had bombed our resupply base in the region. This was completely predictable. We are now trying to use a base in Singapore to resupply our ships in the Persian Gulf. That is a 4,000-mile supply line. Four thousand miles!

Secretary of Defense Hegseth has decimated our military leadership. It will take years to rebuild our military. I’m not talking about restocking weapons. I’m talking about getting 3- and 4-star generals who understand the world and our military.

ICE needs to be dismantled. Currently, they are acting as the lawless branch of the Trump administration, like Brownshirts in Nazi Germany. ICE agents who shot and killed Americans need to be put on trial, and if convicted, they should spend a long time in jail. The leaders of ICE, those who told the agents to break the law, to bend the law, also need to be put on trial. If convicted, they should also spend decades behind bars. This is about breaking up the cult and reinforcing the rule of law.

We need to roll up our sleeves and fix our education system. We need to increase teachers’ pay. We need to rebuild our schools. We need to teach social studies. We need to teach civics. We need to introduce music and art back into the schools. We need to teach American history. This means teaching the good and the bad. From the American Revolution to the Civil Rights Movement, from the Trail of Tears to the American Expansion in the West, American history needs to be more comprehensive.

We need to fund our schools. Teachers shouldn’t have to pass the hat to get basic classroom supplies. As a matter of fact, why are we just doing the basics? Shouldn’t our kids have a first-class education? This means we shouldn’t try to save money on supplies and books for our kids. We need to give our children the textbooks that they need. Those books should be theirs so they can use them as references later.

We need to make state universities $500 to $1,000 a semester, or less. In fact, under the Constitution of the State of North Carolina, Article IX, Section 9, Benefits of public institutions of higher education, “The General Assembly shall provide that the benefits of The University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense.”

The federal government needs to subsidize tuition at all colleges and universities: benefits must go to students, not institutions or million-dollar administrator salaries. This places higher education within everyone’s grasp. We need to eliminate these for-profit schools that do little more than empty hardworking Americans’ bank accounts.

We have to fix the American press. We want a free press. We want a press not beholden to any one party or, more importantly, any one class. We need to pass legislation so that no major media outlet is owned by a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate or some billionaire. News outlets need to be independent. They should be not-for-profit. Any media outlet that intentionally lies (proven in a court of law) to the American people should lose its FCC license as well as its right to appear on cable or the Internet.

This is about rebuilding our society. We all have a shared responsibility. This is about living up to our Declaration of Independence and what we said we wanted: a more perfect union.

I don’t want to recreate something from the 1950s and 1960s. Instead, I want to create something new. I want to create a society that works for all Americans. I want to make life better for the rich and the poor. This means standing up for the poor. This means that no American goes hungry. This means universal healthcare so everybody’s covered and nobody goes bankrupt from a medical bill.

We need to love each other. This single act will point us in the right direction. We need to follow Dolly’s example.

I’m a huge Dallas Cowboys fan. I grew up in Dallas during the 1970s. This was back when the Cowboys seemed to win almost everything. I lived through the drought of the 1980s, then embraced Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Michael Irvin, and the early-1990s Dallas Cowboys. I scratched my head and wondered when Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson decided to part ways. I thought it was a mistake then, and I still do.

Since those days in the mid-1990s, I have seen the hype machine tell us how great the Dallas Cowboys are in September and October. Then the excuses begin to mount in late October and early November, and by December, despair has set in. I refuse to go through the cycle. Let’s see how the season unfolds. Let’s see how the Dallas Cowboys are playing in late December. Making the playoffs is not enough. We need to make the playoffs and look good. We need to win a playoff game and look like we belong; then I’ll say the Dallas Cowboys are back.