Amari Cooper says hot Dallas Cowboys have Super Bowl potential, and he’s not alone
When Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott brashly rolled up on seven-time champion Tom Brady following the 31-29 season opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and declared that he would see him again, it was considered a nice little post-game comment following a shockingly close loss to the defending Super Bowl Champions.
It was a cute, little confidence booster and a moral victory for a team coming off an injury-riddled 6-10 season in 2020.
But now that the Cowboys have reeled off four straight wins by a combined score of 121-69 following Sunday’s 44-20 blowout of the New York Giants, it might be time to revisit Prescott’s comments and up the ante.
A return engagement with Tampa Bay certainly seems much more possible now than it did a month ago. The Cowboys truly believe they should have beaten the Bucs in Week 1, and they probably would have if not for two missed field goals, a missed extra point and a missed block on a potential walk-in touchdown that forced them to settle for a field goal.
But the high-flying and confident Cowboys are not interested in settling for a rematch. They are already thinking of something much loftier, something super.
“When you’re on a roll like this, you start thinking about a Super Bowl,” wide receiver Amari Cooper said softly and matter-of-factly. “That’s just the reality of it. The only reason I’m talking like this is because I really think we could.”
For the first time since they made their last trip to the Super Bowl after the 1995 season, optimism is brewing that the Cowboys can break their 26-year drought. It’s not just based on their record or winning streak, but how they’re playing and what’s going on in the locker room.
The Cowboys have been good before. They finished 13-3 in 2007 and 2016 and had home-field advantage throughout the playoffs only to come up short in their first divisional playoff games at home.
They were 12-4 in 2014, but lost in the divisional playoff round contest on the infamous Dez Bryant-catch-but-no-catch at Green Bay.
And Bryant himself says this team is better than the two playoff squads that he was on in 2014 and 2016. Bryant proudly boasted on Twitter: “It is Week 5 but I’ve been on Cowboys teams… the vibe around the cowboys is a lot different from whenever I was there… it’s clear all of the guys are on the same page….cowboys flow is consistent…”
Bryant said the Cowboys have a better defense and a better receiving corps than they’ve had in the past.
Quarterback Dak Prescott is playing at prime Tony Romo-level, if not better, and the balance between the run and the pass is the best it’s ever been.
Since Prescott passed for 403 yards and the Cowboys rushed for just 60 yards in what proved to be perfect game plan in the loss to the Buccaneers, the Cowboys have rushed for at least 160 yards in each of the past four games, including three games with 198 yards rushing or more.
Prescott is second in the NFL in completion percentage, second in quarterback rating and third in touchdown passes.
The Giants game proved to be the coup de grace.
The Cowboys amassed 515 yards (314 passing, 201 rushing) of offense in the win. It was the first time since 1983 that the Cowboys surpassed 300 yards through the air and 200 yards on the ground.
And the defense is the most opportunistic unit in the NFL in terms of taking the ball away.
The Cowboys had two interceptions against the Giants including a 45-yard return for a touchdown by cornerback Anthony Brown in the fourth quarter.
The Dallas defense is currently riding a nine-game streak with multiple takeaways, the longest active streak in the NFL. It is the team’s longest string of such games since the 1983 squad had a nine-game streak.
It was the Cowboys ability to put the nail in the coffin against the Giants that impressed coach Mike McCarthy the most.
They allowed the Philadelphia Eagles and Carolina Panthers to score late touchdowns to make the final score of those games — 41-21 and 36-28, respectively — appear to be closer than they actually were.
“I like the way we played,” McCarthy said. “We improved as a team. I thought our productivity went up a notch, and we needed that. That’s something we emphasized all week — the ability to just keep playing, not have the lulls. We’ve had a couple of lulls these first four weeks. I don’t feel like that happened today.”
“We’ve competed five times now and I’ve felt like we’ve played winning football in all five contests. I felt we took a step in the right direction.”
Giving the Cowboys even more optimism is they have room to get even better with the returns of right tackle La’el Collins, defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and defensive tackle Neville Gallimore in the coming weeks.
Collins and Lawrence have been out since the season opener. Gallimore has been sidelined since training camp. Yet, the Cowboys haven’t missed a beat with young talent filling in and thriving.
“Certainly the guys [are] building each week on each win,” said team vice president Stephen Jones. “As we move forward there will be more challenges. We are missing some players but guys have stepped up for the guys who are injured and absent. That is one of the good things about this team. It feels good to think about where we are going.”
Prescott is not focused on where the Cowboys are going right now. He is taking it one game at a time and is only concerned about the next practice, the next game.
What the Cowboys haven’t done in a generation is not his immediate concern.
“The past is the past,” Prescott said. “I think it’s about living in the present, not getting too infatuated with the future either. Just living in the moment, enjoying this win here. We’ll turn the page tomorrow and focus on the New England Patriots. It’s about growth.”
That growth could turn into a runaway freight train soon. The Cowboys are 4-1 for the first time since 2016 when they reeled off 11 straight wins following a season opening loss and finished 13-3.
The only team in the NFL with a better record than the Cowboys are the undefeated Arizona Cardinals (5-0), who the Cowboys will host on Jan. 2.
According to FOX’s NFL analyst Troy Aikman, who won three Super Bowl titles as quarterback of the Cowboys in the 90s, the future is now for Prescott and this team.
He didn’t say Super Bowl, but he didn’t have to.
“I think [this offense] can be exceptional,” Aikman said on the broadcast Sunday. “I think they are a nightmare for any defense. And this defense, more importantly, is only gaining more and more confidence. I just think this is a team that has the makings of doing something really special.”
