Dallas Cowboys focused on winning, making progress; division race will take of itself
The Dallas Cowboys are no longer in last place in NFC East.
They no longer have the worst record in NFC.
Following Sunday’s 41-33 victory over the San Francisco 49ers, the Cowboys are riding a two-game winning for the first time since the middle of last season.
They are now tied with the New York Giants for second place in the division at 5-9, one game behind the 6-8 Washington Football Team. In order to make the playoffs, the Cowboys must go 2-0 while Washington must go 0-2.
The Cowboys must first help themselves by beating the Philadelphia Eagles (3-9-1) at home and then have the Carolina Panthers (4-10) defeat Washington next Sunday. Then, if those two things happen, Washington would need to lose at Philadelphia and the Cowboys would need to defeat the Giants on the road on Jan. 3.
That exact scenario would give the Cowboys their first NFC East title since 2018 and vault them into the playoffs as a No. 4 seed, and hosting a playoff game no less. (That might explain why the DFW area figures to have more Panthers fans this weekend than anywhere outside of Charlotte.)
But the conventional wisdom is that that once seemingly improbable set of circumstances will remain a seemingly improbable set of circumstances. The team, for its part, is focused on just continuing the progress they have shown the last couple of weeks. They would like to take a winning streak into the offseason. The division race, they said, will take care of itself.
“Albeit a long shot, we’re still in the mix,” vice president Stephen Jones said. “And one of the dynamics for us is to get better every week. We got a new coaching staff this year. We had unprecedented times. We had some challenges with our injuries, and we just think with our team and for the long haul, it’s so important for us to get better every week and battle to win each and every game.”
That’s also coach Mike McCarthy’s message and mantra as the Cowboys try to end his first season with some momentum following a dismal start due to injuries that has more than $70 million of the team’s salary cap out of action, the COVID-19 pandemic that prevented them from putting in new schemes in the offseason.
Earlier in the season, the Cowboys were a turnover machine, chalking up at least one per game over an 11-game stretch. But over the last two games the Cowboys have been a +7 in that department, and they have not turned the ball over themselves.
And the Cowboys are converting those turnovers into points. They have scored 41 points off of those seven turnovers in their last two games, which is much better rate than the 28 points they produced off of turnovers during their first 12 games of the season.
That is example of the growth being shown on defense, according to Jones.
“Our players are just playing faster and they’re more confident in what they’re doing, and they’re flying around to the ball,” he said. “So, as we all know, ... we were turning the ball over, and we weren’t getting turnovers. Now, we’re protecting the ball and we’re getting the turnovers. And that’s the difference. If you win the turnover battle, you have a great chance to win the game.”
But they can only focus on what they can control.
“What I allow myself to think is getting better each and every day, no matter the circumstances,” said defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence. “When you’re a man, you have to look yourself in the mirror and face yourself, and I feel like every guy on this team [is] looking themselves in the mirror and they’re going to work against their self. They’re not worrying about the next man, or their opponent, and that’s how I feel like we’re getting better.”
