If you're the , this part of the season is where your Michelins have to meet the asphalt. Having narrowly lost to and
Tyson Barrie Jersey the defending champion to start the 2021 regular season, the Cowboys rode an offensive surge led by and his smrgsbord of weapons to a six-game win streak that was complemented mightily by the emergence of rookie first-round pick as the and a blistering interception tally from former second-round pick that is now just one step away from making history.The good times came to a screeching halt, however, when they consumed their own Velveeta before facing the in Week 9, and that led to a November to forget -- floundering to a 1-3 record in that month. Because of those midseason failings, a December many thought would see the Cowboys operating on autopilot as they flew toward the NFC East crown became anything but, with each of their final six regular season games instantly becoming must-wins, be it to clinch the division crown, a playoff berth and/or keep them in striking distance for the top seed in the NFC.It's the final stretch of what still has the chance to for Dallas, but only if they finish their food going forward, and that also means not allowing le ser teams to have hope in games when there shouldn't be any left for them, along with squaring off against another NFC heavyweight before the regular season concludes.Let's take a look at how they can scrape the plate clean en route to SoFi Stadium for LVI. Can clinch NFC East with win in rematch vs. WFTTwo division battles in final three contestsTwo-game homestand in final three contestsBelieve it or not, the Cowboys are still top-2 in points scored per game, racking up an average of 28.6 points per game, but that's been fueled largely by an electric defense that scores points as well as take the ball away, while Dak Prescott and the offense have struggled mightily to consistently contribute to the scoring efforts on a weekly basis.If that doesn't give you an idea of just how Goliathan (new word, go with it) the Cowboys can/will be when/if they finally begin delivering complete games, nothing will. What the defense has been able to do in 2021 -- even before becoming whole in December -- is a hearty salute to what Dan Quinn has been able to do in only his first year with the club, flipping them from the worst in franchise history to one of the best to ever suit up in Dallas, but offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has seen the luster wear off of his usually prolific play calling in the second half of the season, and players failing to execute only exacerbate the i sue (e.g., CeeDee Lamb's drops, Prescott's late-game turnovers, etc.).Hope is far from lost on that side of the ball, though. For while their Week 12 effort against the ended up being a "too little, too late
Rene Bourque Jersey " type of deal, you saw Prescott go on a tear in the
Calvin Pickard Jersey fourth quarter to force overtime and nearly a win after being down as much as 11 points in the third quarter. The offense mostly sputtered again in New Orleans the following week, but the touchdown drive that featured a surgical di section by Prescott with big plays from Lamb, Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup served as a reminder there's still a V12 under that hood. In their rematch against the Giants, their rushing attack leaped out of the grave behind a healthier Ezekiel Elliott, the return of Tony Pollard and Connor Williams being reinstalled as starting left guard, and Dalton Schultz again emerged as a primary target for Prescott who can relieve defensive pre sure on the other weapons.The sooner they can get back to lighting up scoreboards, the better, because building momentum and chemistry for the playoffs is paramount, for while this is most certainly a defense that can carry an average offense to and through the Super Bowl (it's been done many times in history), the Cowboys know they'd be a much tougher out in the postseason if while the offense can fix their red zone woes (the biggest Achilles heel at the moment) and match serve with a defense that keeps finding ways to give them extra po se sions.10-4 overall, 4-0 division, 8-1 conferenceNo. 1 in NFC EastNo. 2 in NFCThe Cowboys sit at 10-4 on the season after righting the ship in a big way in December -- at least defensively -- against the in New Orleans, then walking into FedEx Field and handing the Washington Football Team a lo s (as promised by head coach Mike McCarthy), before thumping the New York Giants in the series rematch at MetLife Stadium. It starts the month of December the right way after a brutal November that saw them drop three of four games to abruptly halt a six-game win streak. It also keeps them dug in atop the NFC East and within striking distance of the No. 1 seed in the NFC, owned at the moment by the Green Bay Packers (11-3), who was the only top-5 team other than the Cowboys (10-4) and Los Angeles Rams (10-4) to not stumble in Week 15. The Cowboys jumped from No. 4 to No. 2 last week, thanks to a three-way tie in overall record with the Cardinals and the Bucs, which negates the head-to-head tiebreaker the latter holds over Dallas.The Arizona Cardinals fell from No. 1 to No. 4 after being boat raced by the Detroit Lions, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered their fourth lo s after the Saints marched into Raymond James Stadium and not only swept them, but completely shut out their
Peter Forsberg Jersey offense. Things got much worse for those two teams after the game, when the Cardinals found out they'd be without All-Pro wideout DeAndre Hopkins for the remainder of the regular season, and the Bucs discovering they'd lost Chris Godwin (a 1,000-yard receiver in 2021) to a and starting running back Leonard Fournette, who could finish the regular season on injured reserve.Having their full complement of weapons on both offense and defense -- the status of -- the Cowboys can clinch the NFC East crown by defeating Washington in the Week 16
Adam Foote Jersey rematch, and they're in a great spot to make a run at the top seed in the NFC. Hell, they're such a virtual lock for the division crown at the moment (>99%) that they could lose to WFT on Sunday and still win the division, if either the Eagles lose to the Giants (again) or the Cowboys clinch a strength-of-victory tiebreaker over the Eagles (something they were unable to do in Week 15). For clarity, strength of schedule and strength of victory are two different items. For while strength of schedule involves the entire win-lo s record of every single opponent on a team's schedule, strength of victory is just that: the entire win-lo s record of opponents on a team's schedule that were defeated by that team (i.e., it deletes the win-lo s record of opponents the team lost to). That means that with a full plate of games set to take place before the Cowboys host Washington in primetime, there's a chance Dallas could clinch the division before they even take the field on Sunday, because SoV will fluctuate in one direction or the other between them and the Eagles.Take a look
