It certainly feels better to be celebrating a Cowboys win this week, but the time for that is over.
As was discussed extensively going into Monday night, it was already something of a make-or-break game for both teams. While Dallas kept hope alive to overtake the New York Giants for the division, it was absolutely against a badly wounded Eagles squad. And it will only mean something if the Cowboys continue their winning ways.
So how to do that? Tom Ryle and Sean Martin have thoughts.
Tom – I confess
to having more a sense of relief than a feeling of triumph. Dallas finally put together a strong, balanced offensive showing with a defensive effort that was not totally incompetent. If you recall, that has pretty much always been seen as the formula for success this season.
The challenge now is to duplicate it. They need to stack wins and build confidence to still have a shot at the playoffs. It would be ideal if they could face multiple teams having similar struggles to the Eagles. Win like four out of dive to set up for the stretch run.
Well, the opportunity is there, as four of their next five opponents are 2-5 or worse.
Sean – I agree with you Tom, beating the Eagles is always sweet no matter the circumstance, but I wouldn’t call this one triumphant. I’m actually weirdly proud of the fanbase as a whole, at least the sections of it I spend time with, for not doing the old “buy all the way back in as if nothing bad ever happened” after this win.
The stage is now as clearly set as it could possibly be. For this team to prove that anything is different from year one to year two under Brian Schottenheimer, they must go to Seattle in the first week of December with seven wins. Anything short of this and there will be simply no place left to hide when this 2026 team gets compared back to the last one before it that also missed the playoffs.
Injured opponent or not, I’m hopeful the Eagles film is one they can use in the building this week to really build off of. They put some great coverage reps on tape defensively, steamrolled the game with their offensive line and run game, saw Dak Prescott lead the league for week seven in average depth of target, and hopefully proved to themselves how good they can be. Now, we wait to see if they really are that good, with mild expectations still being wise.
Tom – In order to get to seven wins, they have to string together victories for the first time this season. And of those next five games, the middle one is against the 6-1 San Francisco 49ers, one of the best and arguably the most resilient teams in the league.
Which puts a lot of pressure on the other four games, starting with the Arizona Cardinals this week at AT&T Stadium. While the Cardinals are 2-5, they also have played one of the hardest schedules in the league, including losses to the Seahawks, Niners, Giants, Lions, and Broncos.
Yes, QB Jacoby Brissett doesn’t exactly strike terror into your heart, and first-round pick RB Jeremiyah Love is listed as questionable, and has not been as impactful as they had hoped. TE Trey McBride is their best offensive weapon. They are not scoring much and have allowed more points per game than anyone else.
Some would interpret all that as a very likely win for the Cowboys. I prefer to spin around in my admiral’s chair and scream “IT’S A TRAP!”
OK, maybe that’s a bit extreme. But this is another game that could reveal a lot about Dallas, and it potentially could be very negative. If they struggle or, heaven forbid, lose, we can pretty much expect this year to be a failure. A win would at least show some character, and like against Philly, it really needs to be a double digit margin.
Sean – Sometimes it feels like there aren’t many “firsts” for me left to write about as something of a seasoned Cowboys writer at this point, but yet here we are. I’m confident I’ve never called a Cowboys game against the Arizona Cardinals a prove-it game, but this really is. The Cowboys have lost four straight to these pesky red birds, going back to 2020. That season, the Cardinals loss was the first of four straight that doomed the season.
The following season, it was a four-game winning streak the Cardinals snapped at JerryWorld in week 17, and even a 51-26 win at Philadelphia to conclude the regular season couldn’t bring back enough momentum for the Cowboys to avoid being one and done to the 49ers in the playoffs. The 2023 team that lost to the Cardinals in week three had plenty of time to recover from the loss, but missed out on a 3-0 start and also didn’t win a playoff game.
Throw last year’s loss in primetime to the Cardinals in the “defense never gave us a chance” bucket, and we really are at a point where the fate of the season might rest on what happens in the early kickoff window this Sunday.
Strange times.
Tom – Thanks for reminding me of the curse of the desert birds. That just reinforces how important this game is. Not only are they trying to show some consistency on offense and shore up their defense, they are fighting this odd intangible.
And if it isn’t clear already, this just needs to be the next win in a mini streak. Assuming they manage to get a victory against the Cardinals, they then travel to Indianapolis to face the Colts, another struggling team. And one thing their next two opponents have in common is a quarterback issue.
I’ve already mentioned Brissett and his 53.6 QBR. Indy has Daniel Jones taking snaps, and he has almost twice as many interceptions as touchdowns. It is rather important for any future hopes that they reel off three wins in a row, and they certainly have the offensive weapons to do so. Maybe we are finally seeing the defense gel as well. If so, this season could be more fun than we thought a couple of weeks ago.
Sean – Again can’t believe I’m saying this, but hopefully this isn’t getting greedy against the Cardinals – it would be nice to mark this as a game the Cowboys find out they can win a little more with both sides of the ball. If the offense lights it up, great. If the defense can get sacks and takeaways, great. If the return game can make a difference without being penalized, great.
The Cardinals have pounced on opponents that didn’t capitalize in one phase or the other, and the Cowboys need to be complementary to make any of the pending wins we think they have ahead of them really count for something bigger.
Enjoy Halloween weekend Tom, we have a Halloween home game here in Bozeman for the Bobcats, and personally I must say I’m looking forward to covering an early kickoff for the Cowboys as a nice changeup.
