Marcus Spears Is OUT On the 3-5 Dallas Cowboys

Rich asked Marcus Spears a simple question about the Dallas Cowboys. Is he out? Officially? Over? Done?

"It's a wrap," Spears said.

At 3-5 in week 8, Spears' problem with Dallas isn't one bad loss. It's that nothing has changed. "Same issues," he said. "By this time you're supposed to be getting into kind of a flow or rhythm about who you are."

A Rhythm Nobody Wants

Spears laid out exactly what that rhythm looks like for this team. It's "leaving people out there hoping," he said, then ran through the list: not being able to stop the run, not being able to handle pressure when teams blitz them "a large majority of the time," and an offense that stalls when its top two receivers aren't producing.

"If CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens are not going for over 100, your offense is going to get stagnant at times," Spears said.

The frustrating part is that the Cowboys have shown what they can do. Spears pointed to the run game the week before in Philadelphia, which he called "phenomenal." Then came this.

Consistency Is the Whole Point

That swing is the heart of his verdict. "Can't be a championship football team," Spears said. "We can't talk about you being a playoff team or going forward if nothing about your team is consistent."

And for a guy who spends his week watching football and breaking down film, Spears offered the most damning line of all. He said he would be hard-pressed to tell you what the Cowboys are consistently good at.

He did come up with one answer. "Maybe Aubrey," Spears said. "The kicker."

That's where Dallas is through eight weeks, at least in the eyes of one analyst who watches a lot of football. The run defense leaks, the pass protection buckles against the blitz, and the offense goes as far as two receivers take it. The one thing he can count on is the kicker.

For Spears, that's enough. It's a wrap.