Inside The Star
If the Dallas Cowboys survive the gauntlet of the previous six weeks and are still in the playoff hunt, at least the schedule maker threw them a bone.
Dallas will close out the season on the road, but against the New York Giants. While New York has improved over the offseason, they still have way too many issues to be considered a threat in 2025.
So if this game becomes a must-win, the Cowboys couldn’t have asked for much more.
Well, maybe have this game at AT&T Stadium instead of a windy, frigid Giants Stadium in New York, of course, but beggars can’t be choosers.
No matter who emerges the winner of this season’s Giants Quarterback Survivor, look for New York to be a running team.
Dallas is probably going to get a bellyful of rookie Cam Skattebo, who they passed on in the third round of the draft. Let’s hope Shavon Revel has healed up enough to tackle Skattebo in the defensive backfield by then.
The NFL didn’t pick up an 18-week schedule until the 2021 season.
Since then, Dallas has faced, and beaten, the TushPushers™ up in Philadelphia in 2021, lost to the Commanders in D.C. in 2022, beat Washington in D.C. in 2023, and then lost at home to the Commanders in 2024.
But all the way back in 1993, the NFL experimented with two bye weeks in a single season. That created an 18th week of the schedule for that year alone, until 2021.
That final game in Week 18 of 1993 was an instant classic.
The defending champion Cowboys hit the road for the Meadowlands to face the Giants.
At stake was not only the NFC East title, but the NFC’s number one seed and a bye in the playoffs. Everyone watching that game got their money’s worth.
Despite separating his shoulder in the game, Emmitt Smith ran for 168 yards on 32 carries, leading the Cowboys to a 16-13 win.
They went on to win their second straight title a few weeks later.
The Cowboys wouldn’t mind if they repeat history with a Week 18 win at New York that leads to a sixth Super Bowl trophy.
Dallas will start the year with a 77-47-2 record against New York. That number will increase by one in one of the three areas after the Week 2 meeting at AT&T Stadium.
The Cowboys are 35-26-1 against the Giants in New York and have won the last four meetings at the Giants’ home stadium.
