Dallas Cowboys are not good, but, once again, they will be relevant in Week 17
The coach who was supposed to be different has, in his first season, done exactly as his predecessor.
Mike McCarthy has at least achieved Jason Garrett-like status.
After starting the season 2-7, the Dallas Cowboys will enter Week 17 of Mike McCarthy’s first season as the head coach with a chance to make the playoffs by winning the NFC East, which would mean they would host a playoff game.
That is your standard Jason Garrett season.
The Cowboys defeated the Eagles, 37-17, on Sunday as quarterback Andy Dalton turned Philadelphia’s defense into just another MWC opponent from his TCU days.
The Washington Team Football (WTF) lost at home to the Carolina Panthers, which keeps the Cowboys relevant for yet another week.
For the Cowboys to make the playoffs they will need to win against the Giants in New Jersey in Week 17, and hope a terrible Eagles team defeats a bad WTF.
This can happen, however, the Eagles may be playing for a coach who is going to be fired against a team that has no quarterback.
Of the NFL’s eight divisions, only the NFC East’s winner will fail to reach double-digit wins. And, even better, the NFC East champs’ will be no better than 7-9. The winner could even be 6-10.
Once again, there are no good teams in the NFC East, and the biggest beneficiary is the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
In Jason Garrett’s nine full seasons as the head coach, the Cowboys entered Week 17 with a chance to make the playoffs seven times.
That’s why Garrett was always clapping.
From 2011 to 2013, the Cowboys entered the final game of the regular season needing one more win to make the playoffs. And in those games they lost to New York in ’11, Washington in ‘12, Philadelphia in ’13 — and missed the postseason every year.
Even in Garrett’s final season, 2019, the Cowboys had an outside chance to make the playoffs in the final game of the season.
In all four of those aforementioned seasons, the Cowboys finished 8-8.
McCarthy’s first Cowboys team won’t have the honor of finishing 8-8, but they are playing meaningful games despite losing so many major players to injury, and their own ineptitude.
That is Dallas Cowboys football.
They’re never that good, meanwhile they also aren’t quite the Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, Cincinnati Bengals or the New York Jets.
So we all continue to follow them like some sad Pavlovian dog, only unlike those poor pups we know when the metronome rings it won’t mean a Super Bowl.
It’s just a chance to eat some dog food.
To McCarthy’s credit, and his maligned staff, the team did not quit on them and just play out this mess of a 2020. Their job is to win, and other than their PortaPotty performance in Washington, they tried to achieve that goal every game.
None of this means they are a good team, but they have made some improvements after starting 2-7.
The re-return of defensive end Randy Gregory to the defensive line has made a noticeable difference, especially on Sunday against Eagles rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts.
“We looked totally different today than we did two months ago,” McCarthy said after the game to reporters. “That’s a credit to our players.”
It’s also a credit to the caliber of opponent. This current three-game winning streak are against opponents with losing records. Of the Cowboys’ six wins this season, none of those opponents currently has a winning record.
These are your Dallas Cowboys, who enter Week 17 of the NFL season with a chance to make the playoffs.
Jason Garrett would be proud.
This story was originally published December 27, 2020 at 7:18 PM.
