Blame it on the money chase.
The only team Daryl Johnston ever played for is 1-7 and the joke of the NFL, and the former Cowboys fullback has identified the root of Dallas’ dizzying descent — owner Jerry Jones’ insatiable quest for the dollar.
That pursuit explains why Jones turned the Cowboys’ training camp this year into a traveling circus that had them jetting between Ohio, Southern California and two cities in Texas, distracting his players during the most important time for focus and preparation on any team’s calendar.
Johnston visited his old club during camp in August, and he told The Post this week that what he saw left the Fox Sports NFL analyst anything but surprised that America’s Team turned into the worst team Jones’ money could buy.
“I went to their training camp, and it’s not an environment that’s conducive to preparing for a season,” Johnston said. “They didn’t work hard enough, and there’s too many distractions. There’s too much outside stuff with them.
“How can you be effective in training camp with over 20,000 people at the majority of your practices? How can you be a tough, physical team when you only [practice] full-padded three times the entire training camp? They really didn’t put themselves in the best position to have success this year.”
Johnston is one of the few who isn’t shocked by the depths of the Cowboys’ disaster as they limp into New Meadowlands Stadium on Sunday for a matchup against the Giants with a new coach (Jason Garrett) and a hapless replacement quarterback (Jon Kitna).
That complete disintegration, which began two months ago with the Cowboys being hailed as possibly the first team ever to host a Super Bowl, included Tony Romo being lost possibly for the season with a broken collarbone and, just this week, Wade Phillips losing his job.
Phillips became the first Cowboys coach ever fired in the middle of a season, and Johnston told The Post that the move needed to be made after last weekend’s 45-7 embarrassment at Green Bay on national TV.
“Wade’s a great guy, but he needed to push his guys harder, he needed to challenge them more and he needed to create a more competitive environment,” Johnston said. “I’ve heard that didn’t exist.”
As a result, the Cowboys are next-to-last in scoring defense, next-to-last in rushing offense and until two weeks ago were the most-penalized team in the NFL — all this despite boasting the league’s second-highest payroll this season at a reported $166.7 million.
About the only perplexing aspect to Dallas’ downfall has been the horrid play of a defense filled with Pro Bowl picks that had no reason to fall apart so dramatically after the Giants knocked out Romo last month.
Despite the presence of DeMarcus Ware, Keith Brooking and Terence Newman, all veterans with big reputations, the Cowboys have been outscored a whopping 232-161 while forcing just 10 turnovers combined in eight games.
Those three Super Bowl wins in the 1990s now seem as ancient of a memory to Cowboys fans as Tom Landry.
“I mean, they look confused just getting lined up,” Johnston said, the exasperation clear in his voice. “You can’t have that in Week 8! You just can’t have that.”
The Cowboys were so bad in back-to-back blowouts by the Jaguars and Packers the past two games that they were all but accused of quitting by Jacksonville quarterback David Garrard and others, despite much proud rhetoric from their locker room during the week.
“Our actions have to speak louder than our words, and that’s the mentality that we have to have,” Cowboys tight end Jason Witten said this week. “We haven’t gone and done those things in the last few weeks, and so none of that is going to be acceptable.”
Garrett, a New Jersey native and former Giants backup, tried to change the culture immediately this week by having the Cowboys practice in pads Wednesday and hinting at several lineup changes as part of his eight-week audition for the permanent job.
“I don’t think anyone would have predicted this type of a scenario,” Garrett told New York reporters this week. “The fact is that this is what’s happened, and we need to go forward and accept the challenges ahead.”
Those challenges are many, with Jones seemingly being at the top of the list.
Not only has Jones steadfastly refused to replace himself as GM with an experienced football man since Bill Parcells walked away three years ago, but money — despite the Cowboys’ huge 2010 payroll — appears to be an issue, too.
Jones has more than $200 million in stadium debut after building palatial, $1 billion Cowboys Stadium mostly on his own dime. Even though the Cowboys were the league’s most valuable and most profitable team last year, the looming NFL lockout — combined with fan apathy when it comes to buying tickets, PSLs and suites — could cause Jones serious problems.
That might explain why Jones signed no veteran free agents and did little in the offseason to address the team’s biggest problem — a porous offensive line. It also might explain why the unproven Garrett, who is not popular with the fans in Dallas, might get the job full-time despite the availability of Super Bowl winners Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher.
Above all, that tightening of the pursestrings by Jones as he crisscrosses his team around the country in search of more revenue means the Cowboys likely are stuck with their current collection of underachievers and an alleged “franchise” quarterback in Romo, who has just one career playoff victory to his credit.
If Jones can’t get the Cowboys turned around, Johnston doesn’t think one of the NFL’s most powerful owners will have to look far to apply the fault.
“From time to time, Jerry’s made decisions based on winning now or winning too quickly,” Johnston said. “Nobody wants to win more than Jerry does, and at times, that gets him into trouble.”
Now, perhaps more than ever in the Cowboys’ storied history, is one of those times.