The adage holds that “there’s no place like home.”
The Dallas Cowboys might have a bone to pick with that adage.
The 2024 season has been less than kind to the Cowboys, who fell to 3-7 in a 34-10 loss to the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football. With the loss, the Cowboys slipped to five games behind the division-leading Philadelphia Eagles in the loss column, and face a monumental task just to get back into relevancy, let alone the playoff hunt.
Monday’s loss also saw Dallas reach some new lows at home.
No, we are not talking about the fact that the stadium saw a piece of loose metal crash to the turf in the hours before kickoff.
Rather, the loss to the Texans was the team’s fifth-straight loss at AT&T Stadium to open the year, matching the mark set by the 1989 Cowboys, who also lost their first five home games of the season. That was the first year that Jerry Jones owned the team.
That team finished the year 1-15.
However, the situation goes far beyond just the win-loss record.
In their five home losses during the 2024 NFL season, the Cowboys have been outscored by a combined 187 to 69. Over those five games, the Cowboys have held the lead for just 2:15 of game time, and that came in a Week 6 blowout loss to the Detroit Lions, by the final score of 47-9.
That must have been a bitter birthday present for Jones.
But wait, because there is even more bad news.
When you consider the home games the Dallas Cowboys have played at AT&T Stadium in calendar year 2024, which dates back to last season’s playoffs, the picture gets even bleaker. The Cowboys played their final regular season game of the 2023 campaign in Week 17, on December 30. That was a dramatic 20-19 win over the Lions. They went on the road for the season finale and beat Washington by a final score of 38-10, on January 7, 2024.
Then they hosted the Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card Round and lost by the final score of 48-32. They never held a lead in that game.
That means that over their last six home games — dating back to last season — they have lost all six by a combined score of 235 to 101, for an average score of 39-17.
And again, they have held a lead in those six games for just over two minutes of game time.
After the Cowboys’ loss to the Eagles two weeks ago, Jones pushed back on the discussion over the sun glare by jokingly suggesting that the team should build a new stadium.
There might be some merit in that.
