Dallas Cowboys: One win away from an unexpected outcome

According to most NFL talking heads, the Dallas Cowboys had no chance to make the postseason. Yet, the Cowboys have a chance to prove most wrong.

CBS Sports writer John Breech predicted the Dallas Cowboys would finish the 2018 season with ten wins and six losses. He went even farther to predict that the Cowboys would win the NFC East. He may have been the only person besides owner Jerry Jones who felt this way back in August.

Fast forward fifteen weeks and the Cowboys are sitting with eight wins and six losses with a home game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and a road tilt against the New York Giants remaining. Win one and you guarantee January football in north Texas.

Yet, Cowboys fans are scratching their heads wondering who are the ‘Boys after an embarrassing loss to the Indianapolis Colts last weekend. Can this team regain their form shown during their season saving five game winning streak or will the eerily similar losses to the Colts and Tennessee Titans better define this team?

No one is happy when they lose in the NFL. Yet, many of the Cowboys players were spinning their loss to the Colts last week as a wake-up call.

Fortunately, head coach Jason Garrett was not buying into that thinking. In an article posted in the Star-Telegram, Garrett said that “the loss was about a lack of execution, not a lack of edge.”

The Dallas Cowboys find themselves in a place that very few predicted at the start of the season. A quick check of several 2018 season forecasts showed that John Breech was the only person out of the thirty preseason picks I reviewed that had America’s team making the playoffs.

USA Today, NFL.com, The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated and one prominent reporter at CBS Sports all figured the Cowboys season was over before it started. Not surprising, the collective wisdom of the crowd had the Super Bowl winners from 2017, the Philadelphia Eagles, atop the division.

In an interesting twist, the Cowboys were generally positioned third in the division behind the New York Football Giants. Yet here they are with two games to play and the ‘Boys are in complete control of their postseason aspirations.

After losing their first opportunity, Dallas has two remaining chances to lock in a home playoff date on wildcard weekend. The next opportunity is the one they need to win.

If the players are right and the loss to the Colts was a wake-up call, then they will take care of their business this Sunday with a definitive win over the Buccaneers. No one will be happy if they squander this chance and are left with a road game in New York where the division rivalry makes any game up for grabs.

Cowboys fans are hoping that the players are not sleeping anymore. No one wants Eagles linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill’s choking prophecy to come true.