Mac Engel: Former Cowboys coach embarrasses himself with assessment of the team

Mac Engel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Sep 15, 2026

Published in Football

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FORT WORTH, Texas — Jason Garrett is either such a fan of the Dallas Cowboys that he’s OK with blatant homerism, wants to set expectations for the team so high that there is no way it can reach them, or he’s plain stupid.

The former coach of the Cowboys is now an analyst for NBC Sports, and before the Cowboys’ season opener on Sunday night against the Giants in New Jersey, Garrett went all-in on the team.

Garrett said during NBC’s Sunday Night Football pregame show of the Cowboys, “They’re the most talented offense in the NFL.”

Garrett is not known for sarcasm, and he said this line with the straightest of faces. The idea that the Cowboys have the most talented offense in the NFL has become a widely accepted myth that is not true.

For a team that has spent heavily on offensive players in terms of contracts and draft picks, the Cowboys should have one of the top offenses in the NFL. As evidenced by their Week 1 performance, the Cowboys have talented offensive players, but this is not a great offense.

Picking on just the offense after the Cowboys’ 28-20 loss on Sunday night against the Giants is not fair. There’s so much blame to share.

This loss to the Giants is depressing for multiple reasons; tops among them is that it all looks the same.

The defense under first-year defensive coordinator Christian Parker was pushed around, didn’t have much of an answer for Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, or his running back Cam Skattebo, and made zero adjustments to basic swing passes out of the backfield.

What we saw from the Cowboys in Week 1 of the 2026 NFL regular season looked a lot like most weeks throughout the 2025 season. Penalties. Dropped passes. Bad defense. An offense playing catchup. The only real difference is that kicker Brandon Aubrey missed an extra point, albeit a long one.

Head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s sitting all of his regulars during the preseason for safety reasons is the gamble that blew up in his face. None of the Cowboys veterans have played at full speed since the end of the ‘25 season; against the Giants, they looked like a team that was off.

The Cowboys are now 2-5 in season openers when quarterback Dak Prescott doesn’t play a snap in the preseason.

With one game remaining in the NFL Week 1 schedule, the league has already set a record for combined points scored since the merger, in 1970. The Bengals, Saints, Lions, Bears, Ravens, Panthers, Jaguars, Bills, Texans and Vikings all scored 30 or more points this weekend.

The Cowboys, with the most talented offense in the NFL, scored 20 and generated 244 total yards. It didn’t help that the Cowboys’ offense had the ball a total of 23 minutes and 20 seconds.

If the Cowboys’ defense is good enough to be average, the offense has approximately 3.24 inches to be anything other than top five in the NFL for this team to have a good season.

Don’t just look at the numbers; look at when Prescott and his “most talented offense in the NFL” scores.

The Giants started the game with a touchdown on their first possession; it’s their first touchdown in a season opener since 2022.

After the Cowboys tied the game at seven, they had a chance to take the lead late in the half. With 1:18 remaining in the half, Prescott’s deep ball for receiver George Pickens was dropped; that would have put the Cowboys’ offense on the Giants’ side of the field, and put them in the position to take the lead.

Four plays later, Prescott threw an interception, a turnover that the Giants converted into a touchdown for a lead they would never lose.

After that, the Cowboys’ defense could not get off the field with a plane ticket or magic carpet, and the offense had the ball twice in the second half. They were both touchdowns, but when your defense isn’t average, your offense must score.

There are a lot of reasons to be disgusted with the Cowboys for their season-opening stink fest.

The new-and-improved defense looks the same, and the “most talented offense in the NFL” still doesn’t score enough points when it matters.

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