Blogging The Boys
Sunday night should be interesting.
Are the Dallas Cowboys bad at... being a bad football team? This will be a real point of discussion going into Sunday night as Dallas tries for a second straight upset win against a NFC South opponent. After beating the Carolina Panthers 30-14 as road underdogs in Week 15, the Cowboys will now set their sights higher on a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that leads the division at 8-6. It will be the first of the three remaining games the Cowboys have this season against a winning opponent currently in a playoff spot, with the other two being rematches against division rivals Philadelphia and Washington.
The Cowboys had something to hang their hat on in all three phases of the game against the Panthers, improving their record to 6-8. Although unlikely, the mere possibility that the same team that lost 44-19 to the Saints, 47-9 to the Lions, and 34-10 to the Texans all at home previously this season can finish with nine wins feels like a Christmas miracle. To do so, they would need to win twice at AT&T Stadium, something they have only managed to do once this season, on Thanksgiving against the lowly New York Giants.
It also may be a worst-case scenario depending on which Cowboys fan you ask. Those early season blowouts that seemingly had no end in sight, especially after Dak Prescott was lost for the season in week nine, at least provided hope that a wildly different offseason would be ahead in Dallas. Major coaching changes, approach to free agency and personnel, and front office positioning were all on the table for a team that seriously flirted with having one of the worst records in franchise history at one point.
Cooper Rush has come in and done what Cooper Rush does, find a way to win a few games, and now the Cowboys are slotted to pick in the middle of the first round while also seriously mulling over retaining both Mike McCarthy as head coach and Mike Zimmer as defensive coordinator. The saying that the NFL is a week to week league is on display at a nuclear level in Arlington right now, as the Cowboys prepare to play a mere spoiler role against the Buccaneers.
It wasn’t exactly breaking news when owner/GM Jerry Jones told 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday that he’s inspired by the resolve and fight his team has continued to show despite still being the longest of longshots to sneak into the postseason. The Cowboys most recent trips to the playoffs over the previous three seasons may have all been short, with none reaching the coveted NFC Championship Game that Dallas hasn’t appeared in since 1996, but that doesn’t mean they’ve been forgotten. This also means the fact the 2024 team going from one with the expectation of a better playoff outcome to one playing well enough to “run it back” despite really never looking like a playoff team at all can’t be...
