Cowboys: Why Dak Prescott must perfect the silent count

It’s still early in the season but the numbers say the Dallas Cowboys will miss home field advantage in the playoffs and will need to win on the road this postseason

It’s not often we can confidently predict playoff seeding this early in the season but the way things are unfolding it’s become clear – if the Dallas Cowboys make the playoffs they will do so without home field advantage in the playoffs.

With San Francisco off to a 8-0 start and Both Green Bay and New Orleans holding vital tie breakers over the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas faces long odds at overtaking one of them, let alone two or all three. That means even if Dallas wins the NFC East and hosts the Wild Card game, all other postseason success must be found on the road.

Now, this is all extremely premature at this point. Dallas is only a hair above .500 with a slim division lead and over half of their regular season games remain. For a team that lost to the otherwise winless, New York Jets, the playoffs are far from a sure thing.

But planning for the future is always wise and since they’re so far behind the conference leaders in the standings, the best case future means the need to be a team that can win on the road.

According to FPI, the Dallas Cowboys have a 0.2 percent chance of claiming the top seed and a 1.7 percent chance of getting the second seed. So they have a less than 2% chance of earning that all important playoff bye and top-2 home field advantage. Now seems like a great time to perfect the art of playing on the road.

Change in strategy

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Normally home teams operate verbally quite a bit on offense. Being able to hear the signal caller is a huge advantage most home teams cherish. But it may be wise to start perfecting that silent count even when they’re at home this season. Since we know the road through the playoffs will go through other cities, we might as well practice the game we’ll be playing this winter – and that’s winning on the road in noisy situations.

The Dallas Cowboys need to focus on winning more than anything. The Philadelphia Eagles are still a very good team closely positioned to the Cowboys in the NFC East. Given the records across the conference, it’s safe to say the NFC East will NOT be sending any Wild Card teams to the playoffs this season. It’s division winner or bust.

But that doesn’t mean the Dallas Cowboys should only worry about their playoff challenges when they finally arrive. We know what the challenges are now. It’s time to prepare. If the Dallas Cowboys can prove they don’t need sound in order to communicate on offense, the opposition loses their biggest advantage.

Even if the Dallas Cowboys make the playoffs as the NFC East division winner, they have a less than 2% chance of getting a top-2 seed. Chances are they’ll be playing all but one of their playoff games on the road. Feverishly practicing for that hostile environment now would go a long way in preparing them for that best-case-scenario.

• Published on 11/03/2019 at 12:30 PM
• Last updated at 11/01/2019 at 08:30 AM