The Dallas Cowboys haven’t been in the running for the playoffs for some time now. But they’d still hope for a little dignity in defeat, rather than the continuous drubbing they’ve faced. There was a brief moment of hope when they inflicted a surprise defeat against the Steelers in Week 5. Of course, they promptly followed that with a 5 game losing streak, as yet unbroken. With Dak Prescott injured and the Cowboys at 3-7, with no hope of even putting up a fight anymore, not only has the crowd at AT&T Stadium thinned out, some fans showed up with paper bags on their heads.

Jerry Jones, the owner and GM of the Cowboys, has copped a lot of the blame for the team’s decline. There’s no way an outspoken figure like him (whether fans like it or not) wouldn’t weigh in. For a man famously averse to taking the blame, it’s surprising that he said, “I’m disappointed that we’re bringing the team that we are to the field. We got to improve on that. That’s not acceptable.” Of course, it’s a couple steps shy of completely taking responsibility, but you’d think it was a sign he was open to change, right?

Well, that line comes from an interview he gave on 105.3 The Fan, and pretty much right afterwards, we see him fall back into an old and familiar pattern of speech. “(Over the last 25 years), we’ve been the sixth-winningest team in the NFL. In the last 15 years, we’re the fifth-winningest team in the NFL,” we’ve heard it all before. Jones has always had this tendency to call back to past glories. He does not focus on the here and now, and on present day shortcomings.

When the question is one of addressing what specific improvements are coming, Jones remains predictably vague. “Rest assured, we’ll be figuring out ways to look for what we’re doing wrong and improve on that. … The bottom line is that we’ve got to get better. We will get better. There are better days ahead,” is all that could be got out of him on that front. With unclear promises like that, all while the Cowboys stick with Mike McCarthy, improvement looks like a distant hope. Maybe it’s for the best that the stadium was empty, for more reason that one.

What happened at Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium before the Texans game?

There’s already been controversy around Jerry Jones’ billion dollar AT&T Stadium this season. During the Cowboys’ game against the Eagles, the sun coming in through the stadium blinded CeeDee Lamb and made him miss a touchdown throw. Heartbreaking, right? Well, to add insult to injury, when that very stadium hosted the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight, there were curtains fitted to keep the light out. Jones made concessions for an exhibition fight where he wouldn’t for his own team.

On top of all that, the stadium saw another incident before the game against the Houston Texans. A massive chunk of the roof came crashing down onto the field, though thankfully it didn’t injure anybody. Apparently, the roof (which is retractable) hadn’t been opened for two years, which is why when the mechanism was activated, various bits and pieces of it started falling off. Of course, Jerry Jones chimed in on that too. But is there any more blatant symbolism for a team literally falling apart than their stadium falling down around their ears? Jerry Jones pretending everything’s okay is like Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burned.