Playoffs or not, Dallas Cowboys plan to feel good about how they finish 2020 season
Forgive the Dallas Cowboys for feeling good about themselves.
After all they have been through and what they have endured, forgive them for making Sunday’s game against the New York Giants (5-10) about themselves
The 2020 season will never be what the Cowboys hoped and intended because of the injuries and losses, but they never gave up and now they have an opportunity to extend to their season.
Most importantly, they have a chance to walk away with their heads held high.
A win against the Giants combined with a loss or a tie by the Washington Football Team to the host Philadelphia Eagles puts the Cowboys in the playoffs as NFC East champs.
Washington and Dallas are tied with 6-9 records, but the Cowboys lose the tie breaker if they both win because of two head-to-head losses earlier in the season.
However, those losses to Washington came before the Cowboys began playing their best football of the season, as they are riding a three-game winning streak and they’re coming off their finest performance in a 37-17 win over the Eagles.
But they can only control what they can control and that’s beating the Giants to finish the season on a four-game winning streak to put themselves in position to take advantage of a possible Washington loss.
“Everything we do in this game is about how you finish, whether it’s a play, a practice,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “The fact that we have the opportunity to finish the right way, finish playing the best football we’ve played all year, four wins would give us that. That’s really where my mindset is, that we want to finish this season, this regular season, and hopefully we have the opportunity to continue. But this is all about finishing the guaranteed opportunities. Gives us a chance to finish with some momentum.”
That momentum and good feeling around the team’s complex this week was palpable for a team that was once seemingly feeling apart and left for dead at 2-7 and then 3-9.
There were no shortage of setbacks. Beyond the obvious effects that coronavirus pandemic placed on an incoming coach trying to put a new system in place, the Cowboys had to battle through other issues. There were a litany of injuries to key players. There was the sloppy and inconsistent play. They had to start four different quarterbacks for only the third time in the 60-year history of the franchise.There was some internal finger pointing. The death of a beloved assistant coach the day before their Thanksgiving game.
There were reasons to give up hope, but the team never did.
It’s not lost on running back Ezekiel Elliot that the fans are back too, busting at the seams watching practice from the private Cowboys club at the team headquarters at The Star in Frisco.
“I would say probably over the last month, there’s been no one watching our practice from the Cowboys club,” Elliott earlier this week. “Today, we have a chance to make the playoffs, and the Cowboys club had plenty of viewers up there.”
“It’s definitely a lot easier to go to practice on a win streak,” Elliott continued. “It’s hard to stay in it when things aren’t going good. It’s easy when things are going well. We’ve been through a lot this season. We had to grind when things weren’t going well and now we’re reaping the benefit.”
Or as quarterback Andy Dalton said, they are riding the wave of momentum. They spent all season trying to get back-to-back wins, and now they’ve got three. Now it’s about finishing with four and seeing what happens.
“Everybody talks about momentum. The feeling is around the building,” he said. “Hopefully we can do everything we can to win and get a little help and get a chance to play in the playoffs and go from there.”
No matter what happens with Washington, the Cowboys plan to feel good about how they finish.
Here are five things to watch in Sunday’s games:
Win, and then become an Eagles fans
First things first, the Cowboys must beat the Giants.
Then the focus will be to get on the plane and check the wifi so they can keep up with the Philadelphia-Washington game on Sunday Night Football.
“The wifi usually works pretty well,” Dalton said. “So we’ll try to follow it as much as we can on the plane ride and then we’ll be able to catch the end of it once we’re able to get home.”
The team has no organized plan to watch the game. “The game will start while we are in fight,” McCarthy said. “We will get back somewhere at halftime or in the third quarter. I am sure everyone has their individual plan. I am sure I will get home in time to watch the end of the game.”
Eagles opt outs not helping Cowboys
Of the two outcomes that need to break the Cowboys’ way, the general belief is that the second part — the one about Philadelphia beatng Washington — is going to be more of a longshot.
With Philadelphia officially eliminated from playoff contention with their loss to the Cowboys last week, they have little incentive or motivation to beat Washington.
Certainly, Philadelphia’s rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts wants to end his season on a high note, but he will not have much help on Sunday.
The Eagles have ruled nine players out for the game, including running back Miles Sanders, defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, receiver DeSean Jackson, defensive end Derek Barnett, tight end Dallas Goedert, linebacker Shaun Bradley, tackle Jordan Mailata, linebacker Duke Riley and tight end Richard Rodgers.
Offensive line continuity
One unheralded reason for the Cowboys’ late-season surge is the continuity and consistency the team has gained on the offensive line.
They will start the same group up front for a season-high fifth week in a row against the Giants Sunday. That includes left tackle Brandon Knight, left guard Connor Williams, center Joe Looney, right guard Connor McGovern and right tackle Terrence Steele.
The team still misses veteran tackles Tyron Smith and La’el Collins, who are both out for the season. And while Pro Bowl guard Zack Martin (calf) has been activated from injured reserve and could play in a possible playoff game, he is unlikely to go against the Giants.
“We’re getting to practice the same way together each week,” McCarthy said. “It’s been four or five weeks now. So, you can see the continuity and consistency and from that is the most important of it, and that’s confidence.
“I think we talked about this all the way back at the beginning of the season, the success rate of the football team tied to the consistency of starting the same five offensive linemen in the history of the league speaks for itself. Those are huge components of having a successful football season.”
Weather conditions, Dalton experience
The Cowboys used the longest practice of the week on Thursday to try to get a taste of the weather conditions they expect to get in Sunday’s game against the Giants
The team practiced indoors at the Ford Center but coach Mike McCarthy had the doors open as temperatures were in the 30s. It was also raining that day, but McCarthy said he preferred to have a good practice and will let the players get a true test of the weather in pregame warm ups.
The forecast Sunday in East Rutherford, New Jersey, calls for a high of 41 degrees, and there’s currently a 100% chance of rain.
One person who is not concerned is Dalton, who played the first nine years of his career in Cincinnati, which meant several games in Cleveland, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. And the Bengals didn’t have an indoor practice facility, so they practiced outdoors no matter the weather.
“I spent nine years in the AFC North, so I’ve been used to that kind of weather,” Dalton said. “For us, we’ve just got to be ready to go. If it’s cold and wet outside, just got to handle the conditions and not focus on it but be prepared for it.”
Cowboys getting late season rookie help
The impact of the team’s top two picks — receiver CeeDee Lamb and cornerback Trevon Diggs — is well documented.
The team has relied upon both players heavily this season. Lamb has set a new rookie record for catches in a season wth 69 and Diggs leads the Cowboys with three interceptions.
Defensive tackle Neville Gallimore, picked third, will get his eighth straight start against the Giants.
Add in undrafted free agent right tackle Terrence Knight, who has started since the beginning of the season due to injuries to others, and a host of other first-year players contributing in backup roles and on special teams could be what puts the Cowboys over the top in the biggest game of the season.
And it’s just how McCarthy planned it.
“You can see the impact our young players have made on our season,” he said. “That’s really a reflection of the coaching and veteran influence. Really from Day 1, we always speak on having the young players ready for November and December because that’s usually when they play and that’s definitely been the case, probably more so this year than we would’ve anticipated because of our injuries. That’s always been the case. We’ve had a lot of people step up and grow.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2021 at 1:27 PM.
