Sitting at 3-5-1 heading into their Week 10 bye after taking an ugly 27-17 defeat at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals to close out Week 9, the Dallas Cowboys bounced back upon returning to action with a dominant 33-16 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 11.
Week 12 brought a far more challenging test in the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, and it looked early on that a rout was in the works, as America's Team fell behind 21-0. But the Dallas defense buckled down, the offense woke up, and the Cowboys ended up taking a 24-21 win to get back to .500.
And, of course, in the second matchup of the Week 13 slate on Thanksgiving Day, Brian Schottenheimer's squad earned a hard-fought 31-28 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, thus getting over the .500 mark for the first time all season at 6-5-1.
Up next for the Cowboys in Week 14 is another Thursday matchup, this one in primetime and on the road, as they'll head to the Motor City for a date with the Detroit Lions, who just happen to be directly in front of Dallas in the NFC standings.
Cowboys can pass the Lions in the NFC standings with a win on Thursday night
Here's a look at the updated NFC playoff picture.
You'll notice that we only included the top 10 teams, as the Atlanta Falcons (4-8), Minnesota Vikings (4-8), and Washington Commanders (3-9) have no real shot, while the Arizona Cardinals (3-9), New Orleans Saints (2-10), and New York Giants, who are also 2-10 heading into their Monday night matchup with the New England Patriots, have all been officially eliminated from postseason contention.
Updated NFC playoff picture
- Chicago Bears (9-3, 1st NFC North)
- Los Angeles Rams (9-3, 1st NFC West)
- Philadelphia Eagles (8-4, 1st NFC East)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-5, 1st NFC South)
- Seattle Seahawks (9-3, 2nd NFC West)
- Green Bay Packers (8-3-1, 2nd NFC North)
- San Francisco 49ers (9-4, 3rd NFC West)
- Detroit Lions (7-5, 3rd NFC North)
- Dallas Cowboys (6-5-1, 2nd NFC East)
- Carolina Panthers (7-6, 2nd NFC South)
As you can see, a win over the Lions, who fell to 7-5 with a Thanksgiving loss to the Green Bay Packers, would vault the ninth-place Cowboys past Detroit into the No. 8 slot and inch them closer to the seventh-seeded San Francisco 49ers, who improved to 9-4 with a win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday and will now sit back and watch Week 14 play out on their long-awaited bye.
With the Niners having nine victories and almost certain to get a 10th when they return to the field in Week 15 against the one-win Tennessee Titans, it's obviously crucial for Dallas to pick up its seventh win this Thursday to keep itself in the wild-card race.
What's wild, however, is that the Cowboys are actually closer to the No. 3 seed than they are the No. 7 seed, as they now only trail the NFC East-leading Eagles by only two games in the win column after Philly dropped to 8-4 with a 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears on Black Friday.
If the Cowboys can get past the Lions and the Eagles drop their Monday night matchup to the Los Angeles Chargers, things could get very interesting over the final four weeks of the season.