Disastrous Cowboys season: From jury duty to blinding sun - ESPN

FRISCO, Texas — Maybe the first sign of trouble for the Dallas Cowboys came in training camp.

On a beautiful, cloudless late-August day in Oxnard, California, a fire started in a player's hotel room as the team got ready for an afternoon walk-through. The room and the player's belongings were destroyed.

«It's the beauty of the National Football League. When you think you've seen it all, sometimes things like this happen,» coach Mike McCarthy said a day later. «It's a very unfortunate situation. Thankful no one was hurt.»

In the three months since, as the Cowboys' season has deteriorated into a 3-6 record going into Monday's game against the Houston Texans (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC), there have been a series of when-you-think-you've-seen-it-all moments.

Individually, maybe they don't mean much. Collectively, they help paint a picture of a season gone awry. At the start of the season, the Cowboys had the fourth-best chance to make the Super Bowl in the NFC, according to ESPN Analytics.

With eight games remaining, they have a 0.2% chance.

«There's opportunities that come in front of you,» tight end Jake Ferguson said, «and while you still may have lost some games, it's not 'burn the tape.' It's 'watch and learn from it and then move on to the next.'»

Where outsiders might see chaos and misery, McCarthy sees consistency in the message.

«I would say this: The reality of what goes on inside the locker room and coaching operation has been very consistent,» McCarthy said. «I think like all of this — it's been like this my whole career — when things don't go the way you want them to go, you knuckle down and go a little harder.

»That's the only thing I've seen. We've put a lot of time and energy in this. Not only on a daily basis