FRISCO, Texas – And … now what?
The Cowboys are 5-8.
Third place in the NFC East.
Four games left to play.
They are three full games out of the seventh seed in the NFC with East division brethren Washington clinging to the third wild-card berth at 8-5. There are five other NFC non-division leaders or first two wild-card holders sitting there from 8-6 to 5-8 in contention for at least that third wild-card spot.
Then come the Cowboys, and two of those five teams ahead of them with better records already have beaten Dallas.
Mathematical logic tells us the Cowboys must win out to have even a sliver of a chance at a playoff berth in this 2024 season after going to the playoffs the past three seasons and four times in the past six years. But even at that, they require immense help, needing all these other teams ahead of them to do some losing. Like a lot.
Think about it this way. The best the Cowboys can do is finish 9-8. At that, if the Commanders simply play .500 ball the rest of the way, going 2-2, they'd eliminate the Cowboyswith 10 wins. After that, the same with the Rams, now 8-6 and winners of four of their last five, including the beating of San Francisco Thursday night, 12-6. Then there are the 6-7 Falcons and Cardinals, and remember the Falcons have the head-to-head advantage over the Cowboys in any potential ties. Then come the 6-8 Niners, having beaten Dallas too. And if that were not enough, basically the Cowboys also trail the equally 5-8 Saints after losing to them in Week 2.
Dire straits?
CeeDee Lamb sees it straight this way: "We've got to win out. And no matter what else needs to happen, we've got to do our part."
No kidding.
And that part starts Sunday, noon in Charlotte, N.C., when the Cowboys face the 3-10 Carolina Panthers, who over the past five games have won two straight and then suffered two three-point losses (Chiefs and Buccaneers, this one in OT) and a 22-16 loss on the road to the Eagles, who needed a fourth-quarter rally to win that game. Not only that, oddsmakers are making Carolina the favorites to win for the first time in 34 games.
No way, right? Not the Cowboys, underdogs on the road to a last place team? Well, face it, Dallas' record is not that much better.
Yep, it's come to that, and here is why.
Start with playing the Panthers on a short week. Add in the final two-minute implosion to the Bengals Monday night, sucking immense emotion out of their hearts. Add to that the loss oftwo more starters, linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, his severe knee injury breaking many heart out here at The Star, plus knowing starting center Cooper Beebe is unlikely to emerge from concussion protocol in time.
Then add in starting guard Zack Martin undergoing his season-ending ankle surgery on Thursday, and previous starting left tackle Tyler Guyton, not available this past game and appears nothing might change fast enough for the rookie by Sunday. But with Guyton's previous immediate backup Asim Richards having been placed on injured reserve, now veteran Chuma Edoga, who had been on injured reserve and missed the first 11 games of the season, is the starter.
That means three of the projected starting five on the offensive line are considered backups, and one of those is a backup to the backup.
Good gosh.
But hey, there's even more. Quarterback Dak Prescott, injured reserve. Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, still on IR and with the season shrinking, who knows if he'll ever return. And two backup corners who ended up starting some this season, Josh Butler and Caelen Carson, both on injured reserve. And that doesn't even factor in Sam Williams, training camp injured, long gone
But despite all this, the Cowboys did win two consecutive games during the five-day Thanksgiving span and played the pants off the Bengals and their high-powered offense, only losing on that special teams blunder.
Bottom line, and a credit to head coach Mike McCarthy, there has been no give-up out here. As he is quick to point out, his rookie head-coaching season at Green Bay in 2006, the Packers started off 1-4, found themselves 4-8 with four games to play and finished 8-8.
Something to be said for that, and maybe should be since the Packers then went 13-3 the next season, only to lose in the NFC title game.
Now the 2024 season has come down to this: With so few slivers of hope, logically, in what can be an illogical NFL, dictating the Cowboys having no chance at the playoffs, are these guys nevertheless playing hard down this stretch of games against the Panthers, Bucs, Eagles and Commanders? Or is give-up creeping in?
Well, listen up.
"You know me," says KaVontae Turpin, slated for restricted free agency next year, "I'm trying to win no matter who I'm competing against."
"Have pride to do your best for your teammates, do the best for yourself," says cornerback Trevon Diggs.
"You're competing for your team but also for yourself," says Cooper Rush, now with the keys to the offense. "Crazy things have happened in this league."
"At the end of the day, we've got another game to play," says rookie Marist Liufau, slated to take over Overshown's role at linebacker, understanding the opportunity-importance of starting in the NFL. "This means everything to me."
Hey, you think guard T.J. Bass is taking this game and the next three lightly? This is a guy coming into the NFL last year as an undrafted rookie getting a chance to start.
Think Brock Hoffman, in the same boat entering the NFL, isn't going to bow-up replacing Beebe at center?
Or Rush, an impending free agent in 2025, not doing all he can as a career backup quarterback with multiple chances to start to increase his market value?
Rico Dowdle, with back-to-back 100-yard performances for the first time in his career, also headed to free agency, isn't going to keep banging away with this rare opportunity given him in these games?
What about recently acquired wide receiver Jonathan Mingo, going back to play against the Panthers, the team trading him to the Cowboys midseason? You mean, as a second-year NFL player, he isn't going to bust his ass on Sunday, fired up knowing, as he says, he'll be playing with his mama, his daddy and brother in the stands watching?
Surely, you don't think there is any chance defensive end Chauncey Golston, but a three-game starter his first three seasons in the NFL now starting this 10th game in 2024, isn't taking this game seriously, knowing he's becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2025?
Look, absolutely guys are motivated by achieving team success. But just because you're behind or the odds are stacked against you doesn't mean, as a true competitor, you just throw your hands up in the air to give up. Never have understood why those outside the building think that way. A cliché thought, especially if they lose without facing the hard facts that they just might not be good enough.
Hey, the 1989 Cowboys should have lost all 16 games that year. They were that bad. Yet, they won one. Those 1-7 Cowboys in 2010 were circling the drain at the halfway point. They won five of their final eight.
These Cowboys only need look at their Sunday competitors. The Panthers began the season 1-7 coming off a 2-15 season that got a whole bunch of coaches fired. Yet they mustered up enough energy to at least beat the Saints by one and the Giants by three, and yet took three division leaders to the wired.
And in that Eagles game, and oddsmakers must have taken note, the Panthers took a 16-14 lead into the fourth quarter, holding the homestanding Eagles to less than 300 yards offense (292), having sacked Jalen Hurts four times, and nearly took the lead with 44 seconds left when on a second-and-4 from the Eagles 32, Xavier Legette couldn't hang on to Brice Young's perfect pass at the 3-yard line that would have given the Panthers the lead.
So as said about the Bengals last game, beware the Panthers. They aren't giving up.
Looking at the big picture might become overwhelmingly depressing for the Cowboys. Just concentrate on the weekly snapshots.
"The thing I continue to emphasize is each play, each series," says Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. "Let's go out there and play as well as we can. We're going to be playing a lot of our depth, we're going to be playing a lot of our future out there, so going out and playing as well as we can.
"That sounds trite, but it's certainly the case here, and we want everybody making the plays and having an opportunity to have success. Success is very important in terms of the evolving of any of us. And you build on success. … we want to go out there and win on every down."
Well, if that sounds like a pregame pep talk, so be it.
The ultimate answer to "What's now?"
