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Even in a season finale in which an expected loss was just fine- since it would bring an improved draft pick- the Cowboys managed to find a way to break their fans’ hearts by doing just enough to notch a feel-good win… and then falling flat anyway in the final moments. The 23-19 Washington win cemented Dallas’s record at 7-10 and helped the team lock in the 12th overall pick in the 2025 draft, but it ultimately left more of a bad aftertaste to linger through the offseason than anything.
There were scant bright spots- Micah Parsons came out of the box hot to secure a place in the NFL history books- but most of the rest of Sunday’s season-ending loss fell into the category of things that Cowboys fans are ready to leave behind as the new year begins in earnest.
From the team’s infuriating red-zone ineptitude to Trey Lance’s total lack of accuracy, Malik Hooker’s premature celebration to Brandon Aubrey taking out a cheerleader from distance, a phantom face mask call that proved costly to letting a lowly backup be the hero, here’s a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from the last chapter of a 2024 season that- appropriately enough- was mostly the latter two things.