By Allan Jamail
Monday, January 8, 2024 ~ The Houston Texans and the Dallas Cowboys both won their divisions this weekend. (See Texans article.)
The Dallas Cowboys fans, myself included, should be in a jubilation mode since “America’s Team” had another great season (12-5) and finally put together a great performance on the road. They won the NFC East title with their 38-10 win over the Washington Commanders (4- 13) in the final week of the NFL regular season.
The win earned them home-field advantage at AT&T Stadium in the first two rounds of the playoffs. This is their second winning game in a row heading into the playoffs.
The Cowboys were in a pressure-to-win position, they had everything to gain, and the Washington Commanders who were out of playoff contention had nothing to lose in their season’s final game.
Dallas now has at least 12 wins for three seasons in a row under head coach Mike McCarthy after going 12-5 every year since 2021. This stretch marks the second time* in franchise history for that to occur, joining the Cowboys’ 1990s dynasty run from 1992-1995 in which they won three Super Bowls in four seasons.
McCarthy is the first Cowboys head coach to accomplish this feat. *Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson was Dallas’ head coach for the first two of those seasons in the 1990s from 1992-1993, but Barry Switzer was the Cowboys coach for the 1994 and 1995 seasons.
Dallas outperformed the Commanders by a wide margin in every aspect of the game. Comparison: first downs (31-12), total yards (440-180), turnover margin (three takeaways to one) and time of possession (33:55- 26:05).
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott led the offense with four red-zone TD’s. He got whatever he wanted when throwing to his favorite receiver CeeDee Lamb, completing all 13 passes thrown his way for 2 TD’s and one TD each to Jalen Tolbert and Brandin Cooks. He competed 86 percent of his passes (31-36) for 279 yards and 4 TD’s. Prescott became the first Dallas quarterback to ever lead the NFL in touchdown passes, tossing 36 in 17 games.
The Cowboys and Prescott will next play a ragged Green Bay Packer secondary at home next Sunday (1-14-24) at 3:30 PM on TV – Channel Fox.
The Cowboys have played in 8 Super Bowls and won 5 of them. They have not played in a Super Bowl since 1996.
Worth mentioning: the Cowboys kicker named Brandon “The Automatic” Aubrey missed a field goal Sunday for the first time in his NFL career, and then missed another, before making one of 50 yards on his last attempt. Aubrey entered Sunday having made the first 35 field goals to begin his NFL career, nearly doubling the previous league record of 18.
The Commanders are in dire need of a reset. Washington has lost eight consecutive games, the longest active losing streak in the league.