Inside The Star
The good news is that the Dallas Cowboys have a bye week and won’t be playing today, or Monday, this week and cannot lose a third straight game today.
They will get that chance a week from Monday in Las Vegas.
The bad news is, of course, they won’t get a chance to snap their two-game slide until next week.
The even worse news is that they could drop down into third place in the NFC East without even playing. That unlikely scenario happens should Washington upset the Detroit Lions this afternoon.
The game will be played in Washington.
However, given that Jaylen Daniels is out, and the Lions are still steamed that the Commanders thumped them out of the playoffs last year, don’t expect a repeat upset today.
The Cowboys will probably still be in second place. They just have to hope the Eagles lose to Green Bay tomorrow night so they can pick up a half-game on Philadelphia.
This will be the fourth bye week that falls on Week 10 of the schedule for Dallas. The first came in 2002, followed by 2008, and the last time was in 2020.
Oddly enough, all four years they have had a Week 10 bye, the Cowboys hit the road to play in Week 11. Dallas is 2-1 in Week 11 games in those three previous seasons.
Dallas lost to the Colts in 2002 and then defeated the Redskins in 2008.
They beat the Vikings in 2020.
If you are a believer in bad omens, as well as a Cowboys fan, you might want to skip to the next sub-heading now.
In the three previous seasons that the Cowboys have had a Week 10 bye, they all have one bad thing in common. Dallas has never made the playoffs in a season with a Week 10 bye.
They are already 3-5-1 this year and have a 93% chance of missing the playoffs in 2025.
The Cowboys combined record for those three seasons is 20-28.
Dallas was 5-11 in 2002 and 9-7 in 2008. They finished 6-10 in 2020 in Jason Garrett’s final year as head coach.
I warned you to jump ahead.
The Cowboys are 24-12 all-time in the week following a bye. Since 2021, they’ve been alternating between wins and losses.
Dallas beat Minnesota after the 2021 bye, lost at Green Bay in 2022, beat the Rams in 2023, then lost at San Francisco last year.
Dallas faces the Raiders this year after the bye, but in Las Vegas.
Dallas will only have a slight advantage over the Raiders in time between games. Las Vegas played on Thursday night, losing to the Broncos, 10-7, and will have 11 days of rest before hosting Dallas.
