How the Dallas Cowboys win the NFC East in just two weeks

The Dallas Cowboys may lock up this once-muddled division in just two more games. Here’s how that happens…

Winners of the last 10 games, the New Orleans Saints, came to town the hottest team in the NFL and planning to extend the streak. But the Dallas Cowboys had other plans, beating the Saints and shocking the football world as they took sole ownership of the NFC East.

As if “Victory Friday” isn’t sweet enough for Cowboys Nation there’s even better news on the horizon: The Dallas Cowboys  can lock up the NFC East in just two more weeks. Here’s how:

Washington Redskins (6-5) remaining schedule: Eagles, Giants, Jags, Titans, Eagles

New York Giants (3-8) remaining schedule: Bears, Redskins, Titans, Colts, Cowboys

Philadelphia Eagles (5-6) remaining schedule: Redskins, Cowboys, Rams, Texans, Redskins

Dallas Cowboys (7-5) Eagles, Colts, Buccaneers, Giants

As you can see, there are only four more regular season games for the Dallas Cowboys. And it may only take two of those games to close this thing out.

First we have to eliminate the Giants from the conversation. No one is going to argue they have a chance at this thing. Assuming the Eagles beat the Colt McCoy led ‘Skins, the Eagles and the Redskins will stand 6-6 on Monday.

Week No. 1

Dallas plays the Eagles and Dallas wins going to 8-5 and pushing the Eagles down to 6-7. Washington plays the Giants and for the sake of this scenario, we’ll say NY wins, bumping Washington down to 6-7 as well.

Week No. 2

The Dallas Cowboys beat the Indianapolis Colts and moves to 9-5. Washington moves to 6-8 after losing to the Jags and Philly loses to the Rams falling to 6-8 as well. Bingo – that’s all it takes for the Dallas Cowboys to claim the NFC East in just two more games.

Sure, the chips need to fall a certain way, but this is far from an unbelievable scenario here. What once seemed like an impossibility (winning the division) is now a statistical likelihood. The Dallas Cowboys are in the driver’s seat and may lock this division up in just two more weeks of football.

Cowboys and Saints Game Observations

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• For the third week in a row the Dallas Cowboys got well inside the opponents 10 in a first and goal situation and for the third week in a row, Dallas couldn’t advance the ball and had to settle for three. It’s easy to question the play-calling on these failed situations and say the Cowboys should have run the ball more, but in all of these cases the defense over-committed to stop the run and provided prime opportunity to throw against. The last two weeks we saw errors as the problem (Beasley dropped an easy TD and Dak Prescott under-threw a wide open Noah Brown last week. This week it was simple execution all around that could have used a little more creativity from the coaching staff to spread out the New Orleans defense.
• I can’t wait to watch the All-22 and follow DeMarcus Lawrence. In the first half tank made the fourth down goal line stop from the backside and then we saw him strip Drew Brees in his own territory. Again in the second half Tank got another strip of Brees – ultimately negated by another Randy Gregory penalty. Tank’s not only a top-5 pass rusher but he’s arguably the best run and screen defending edge player in the NFL. Pay the man.
• It’s noteworthy that the Saints waited until Tank went off the field for a breather (doesn’t happen very often) to hand the ball off to Alvin Kamara on a jet sweep. Hoping to take advantage of rookie Dorance Armstrong, they ran the ball to his side – Armstrong played it well and the combo of LVE and Jaylon Smith made the stop for little gain.
• Jourdan Lewis has not had the season many of expected from him. It’s not that it’s been poor it’s that all the other cornerbacks have been so good it’s kept him off the field. On Thursday night, the Dallas Cowboys had him matched up against Alvin Kamara and Lewis stuck to him like glue even coming up with the game clinching interception. Brilliant strategy.

Play Call of the Game

Everyone loves to bag on the Dallas Cowboys play-calling (with the unfair benefit of hindsight, of course) so I’m going to take the opportunity to point out a great play call each week.

At the end of the game Sean Payton used his final time out with 2:03 remaining (basically saving himself 3 seconds). So with the 2-minute warning approaching, the Dallas Cowboys had exactly zero obligation to run the football since bleeding the clock wasn’t an option. Any play call would take more than 3 seconds so Dallas called a pass to the endzone against man coverage – basically ensuring them the cornerback will have his back to the ball.

As we are all aware,  when thrown outside of the numbers these kinds of situations rarely result in INTs and they often yield pass-interference calls since the CB doesn’t have time to turn his head. At the very least it would take the maximum amount of time possible off the clock for the Dallas Cowboys, and still give them a third down opportunity well within chip-shot field goal range. Dallas got the flag in this situation and that’s all she wrote.

• Published on 11/30/2018 at 13:01 PM
• Last updated at 11/30/2018 at 10:48 AM