GREEN BAY, Wis. -- If you think things can't get worse for the Dallas Cowboys, just wait a week.
The most disgraceful season in a proud franchise's history gets more horrendous by the game.
The Cowboys were magnificently miserable a few weeks ago, when the New York Giants scored 31 consecutive points to dominate Dallas in its $1.2 billion football palace. They were even worse the next game, getting blown out by the Jacksonville Jaguars and causing Jerry Jones to say he's never been more embarrassed by his team.
Well, the Cowboys managed to top that Sunday night, no-showing on national television in a 45-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
How low can they go? We might find out when they visit the NFC East-leading Giants in the new Meadowlands next week. They're already the worst team in the NFL.
At least, that's what Cowboys fan LeBron James tweeted at some point in the second half. While the Buffalo Bills are winless, it'd be tough to argue with King James' contention.
"We're fresh off of getting whipped in every aspect that we're about right here in front of a national audience, in front of our fans and the people that just are interested in sports and football," owner Jerry Jones said. "That deserves my addressing in as complete a way as I can."
It will probably start with firing coach Wade Phillips, who isn't likely to still be employed for his scheduled 4 p.m. press conference Monday. It'd be a mercy canning at this point, as Phillips clearly has no clue how to even begin fixing this mess of misery.
The Cowboys have become an unintentional comedy act. It's hilarious how they keep coming up with creative ways to lose football games.
"It does affect your confidence when we're playing the way we're playing right now," linebacker Keith Brooking said. "Losing becomes contagious sometimes."
The Cowboys can't even sustain success for more than a few seconds. For example, Terence Newman manage to screw up a blocked field goal on the Packers' first possession, inexplicably kicking the ball and costing the Cowboys 26 yards of field position.
It was all downhill from there. No need to rehash the details of this debacle. The Packers scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams and pretty much punked the Cowboys in every facet of the game.
"I thought this was a great opportunity to come out here and show everybody nationally that we can still play," linebacker Bradie James said. "We did the total opposite."
It took Phillips six losses to figure out that fundamentals were kind of a problem for the Cowboys. They made the basics a priority at practice this week. Boy, did that work wonders.
The Cowboys should feel fortunate that Packers coach Mike McCarthy seemed to be in a merciful mood. He opted to give his starters a jump on Green Bay's bye week instead of running up the score on the sad Cowboys.
"I had felt that there were parts of our team that had fundamental soundness," Jones said. "We didn't have any soundness out there tonight."
Several players swear the Cowboys continue to play hard despite evidence to the contrary. (Exhibit A: The secondary's tackling, or lack thereof.)
If the effort is there, the Cowboys must really be this epically inept.
"We talk about all the talent and yada, yada, yada," receiver Roy Williams said. "At what point do you say 'Maybe we aren't this talented'? We are a 1-7 football team. At what point do you just give in?"
It certainly looks like that point came a few weeks ago for the Cowboys. And the stench just keeps getting stronger.
Tim MacMahon covers the Cowboys for ESPNDallas.com You can follow him on Twitter or leave a question for his weekly mailbag.