For the Cowboys, the playoffs started weeks ago: ‘We’ll play anybody anywhere’
When the Dallas Cowboys came out of their bye week sporting a 3-5-1 record and sitting multiple games out of the playoff hunt, they knew they needed to find something special.
“It was ultimate urgency,” quarterback Dak Prescott said.
That urgency has translated to three consecutive wins out of the break, including a five-day stretch that has seen the Cowboys take down each of last season’s Super Bowl participants. In Thursday’s annual Thanksgiving clash, it was the Kansas City Chiefs that were the latest victims on this spirited Cowboys run.
“You’re talking about two organizations that obviously know how to win, and we just beat them both in two great games,” Prescott said. “[It’s] showing the resiliency of this unit, of this brotherhood on top of everything that we’ve been through.”
After Thursday’s 31-28 victory, the Cowboys still sit 1.5 games outside the final playoff spot in the NFC, but the momentum generated over the past three weeks has the entire locker room believing in a continued run in December that can get them into the postseason.
“It’s been a win mentality,” linebacker DeMarvion Overshown said. “Whoever is next on the schedule, let’s beat them and then see who’s next. The playoffs, they’re not going to matter if we’re not winning the game. Our mentality is to be the best.”
“We just have to take it one game at a time,” Prescott said. “We can’t get overwhelmed. Be the men that we are and trust the process, focus on getting better each day, and we’ll be able to put together wins like we have these past three games. All these wins do is give us more confidence. It reminds guys to stick to the process, that this is just a result of what we do during the week and the brotherhood that we have.”
Not lost on the locker room is the desire to win games not only for themselves, but for their late teammate Marshawn Kneeland. Since the team dedicated the rest of the season to Kneeland and his high-effort playing style, the team is 3-0.
“The energy of the team, everyone just wants to win,” Overshown said. “We don’t care how many we got left, we just want to win the next one. We’re carrying the light of Marshawn. His mindset was to always win. We don’t care what our record is, what we’re down by or what the score is in the fourth quarter, let’s win. Everything else will take care of itself.”
Are these the two most impressive consecutive wins in the Dak Prescott era? Prescott thinks there’s a case, but he also knows that he and his team can’t get lost in the emotions of having these two wins under its belt. Next week, a massive game that will have heavy playoff implications for the Cowboys looms with a trip to Detroit to take on the Lions.
“I don’t know if there’s been two more impressive wins,” Prescott said. “But I can tell you right now that we’re not going to just sit on some high because of that. We know we’ve got a big one coming again next week. And all this really does for us is just give us more confidence knowing that we can go play with whoever.”
Playing with whoever — it was a theme from everyone in the locker room after Thursday’s win.
“To me, it’s more of who’s next,” head coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “We will line up and play. ... We’ll play anybody anywhere.”
“I know what type of team we got,” rookie cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. said. “I know what type of brothers we have. If we stay connected with the type of chemistry of being together, we have the talent to win it all.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2025 at 10:35 PM.
