Did cushy 3-0 start conceal their identity?

Tougher schedule reveals America’s Team to be supremely flawed

ARLINGTON, Texas — What do you call a supposed Super Bowl contender who only have victories against the bad teams loses to the good teams? Fraudulent. Suspect. Fake. Such is the state of the Dallas Cowboys, who find themselves riding a two-game losing streak following losses to the Saints (4-1) and Packers (4-1) after opening the season 3-0 with wins over the Giants (2-3), Redskins (0-5) and Dolphins (0-4).

Owner Jerry Jones has allowed himself to dream of a trip to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995, the last of the franchise’s five titles, including three in the 1990s.

He is now facing the sobering reality that the Cowboys, who have only four playoff wins the past 24 years, are still a work in progress.

A 12-10 loss to the Saints was followed by a 34-24 setback to the Packers Sunday as the Cowboys couldn’t stop the run and lost the turnover battle for the second straight week.

“I think it tells you right where you are,” Jones said. “You do well against teams that

are getting it together. We played two that have it together better. They are 4-1 teams. I think what you see is what you get here. We got some work to do to be where we want to go this year. We can get it together and get better. We are going to have to get better to get a chance to be where we dream to be and expect to be. I think we got a team that can get better and that is the key. But this is not good enough … I accept that. We got to get better.”

Nobody typifies the Cowboys decline more than quarterback Dak Prescott, who was all the rage through the first three weeks of the season with nine touchdowns and two interceptions.

That was before the Cowboys scored just 10 points against the Saints, which included fumbles by running back Ezekiel Elliott and tight end Jason Witten, and a Prescott interception.

That was followed a three-interception effort from Prescott against the Packers, which offset set his career-high 463 yards passing.

Prescott blames arrogance and overconfidence for the team’s struggles. He called it a wake-up call that could pay dividends later in the season.

“All I could say is, sure, we might’ve sniffed ourselves a little bit too much,” Prescott said. “And that’s why I say we take the last two games and say, ‘hey, we probably needed that.’ We’re going to get better because of it and that’s why I said maybe we’ll look back at this in 4-5 games or however many later and say that was good for us because we became the team we are now. The men we have in the locker room, there’s no doubt in my mind that’s what we’ll do.”

Asked to elaborate on “sniffing themselves,” Prescott said: “I’d just say the early success we had, the way we were doing things on offense, the way the defense was shutting teams down, I think that was just that. We know we’re a good team and I’m not taking that away or saying we’re not. I know we’re a really, really good team. And we’re confident in the players we have and confident in what we can do, but sometimes you have to know that it’s the work that gets the wins. It’s not the talent. It’s not the camaraderie. It’s the work, how you come to work each and every day disciplined, detailed, and that turns into wins.”

The Cowboys averaged 32.3 points a game the first three games but just 17.0 in the two losses. The Cowboys scored just three points in the first half of the past two games combined.

“It’s humbling,” said receiver Amari Cooper, who had 11 catches for a careerhigh 226 yards and a touchdown but was left regretting a dropped pass in the first quarter turned into the first of Prescott’s three interceptions. “It’s a good thing that it’s still kind of early in the season and we can go back to the drawing board, go back to practice this week and really refocus and do the things we have to do.”

The Cowboys get credit for rallying from a 24-0 and 31-3 deficits against the Packers. But close doesn’t count.

“I think it is a reality check,” Elliott said. “I think we’ve just got to take these last two losses, and use them as fuel.”