Dallas Cowboys ‘turnover’ their playoff chances down to this minuscule number
It won’t be much of a T-shirt, but the theme of the 2025 Dallas Cowboys is, “We Waited Too Long.”
Waited too long to trade their best player.
Waited too long to upgrade their awful defense.
Waited too long to get back into the season.
On Thursday night in Detroit, the Cowboys played out their entire season in one 60-minute game against the Lions. Once again, they waited too long. And their defense was barf-tacular.
The Cowboys fell behind 27-9 against the Lions before deciding they wanted to try to win the game. They lost. Giving up six plays of 25 yards, and losing the turnover margin 3-0, is an effective scheme to lose a game on the road against a pretty good team.
“We played hard; gave up too many explosives,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said.
The Cowboys’ 44-30 loss was interesting, and in present form they do look like a team that could possibly win a wild-card game. The small hitch in this grand plan is actually qualifying for one.
The chances of the Cowboys reaching said playoffs are now just about as good as owner/GM/president Jerry Jones admitting he screwed up the Micah Parsons trade, or selling the team by Christmas.
Dallas Cowboys’ playoff chances take big hit
Entering the game Thursday, per a playoff calculator, the Cowboys’ chances of making the postseason with a win against the Lions increased to 41 percent. A win on Thursday and, with the remaining schedule the way it is, the Cowboys potentially could have won every game remaining to make the postseason after a horrid start.
With this loss, their chances to make the playoffs now drop to 9 percent. Nine percent feels about nine percent generous.
The Cowboys are 6-6-1, and now basically need to win their remaining four games to have a prayer. And they need a lot of help.
The three-game winning streak since the acquisitions of defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and linebacker Logan Wilson, plus the return of linebacker DeMarvion Overshown from injury, was not fraudulent.
The wins against the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs were not an accident, or luck; Williams has made a big boy impact.
Before he joined the team, the Cowboys had one of the worst defenses in football. With Williams, it was good enough to be decent.
With a top-five offense, all the Cowboys needed from their defense was decent. Not dominant.
Against the top-five Lions offense, the defense wasn’t decent. It looked too much like the defense that was repeatedly gashed before Williams and Wilson arrived. FWIW: Wilson is barely getting on the field ahead of Kenneth Murray. And Kenneth Murray is not good.
A defense that allows 44 points is awful. Against the Lions, every time the Cowboys needed a stop, they instead gave up a big play.
Not enough from George Pickens; too much Brandon Aubrey
Against Detroit, receiver George Pickens vanished too often after CeeDee Lamb suffered a second-half concussion. The offensive tackles were terrible, and allowed too much pressure on quarterback Dak Prescott.
The Cowboys’ offense moved the ball, but five field goals from kicker Brandon Aubrey is too many points left off the scoreboard.
The Cowboys are at heart a .500 club. One of a dozen or so in the NFL. They’re a few plays, and some favorable bounces, away from being a legit playoff team.
Every year a few of those teams beat the odds by not beating themselves to win 10 or 11 games, and make the playoffs.
The Cowboys waited too long to get into this season, and now must win out, and pray for help, to reach a playoffs where their ceiling is a wild-card win.
This story was originally published December 4, 2025 at 11:56 PM.
