A Rematch with Arizona is in the “Cards” for the Dallas Cowboys

Depending on how you viewed yesterday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals, a rematch between the current No. 4 seed (Dallas) and the No. 5 seed (Arizona) may sound like great news.

Obviously the Cardinals see this as a pretty nice match-up. Playing a team you just beat two weeks ago has that effect. But Kellen Moore and the Cowboys may also see this as a pretty ideal match-up. Kellen barely got out of Chapter 1 of his playbook and he likely held back for this very reason. Kellen Moore didn’t want to show his “cards” against a team he may face in the postseason.

The odds are the Dallas Cowboys will face the Arizona Cardinals in the Wild Card round of the playoffs

This may sound a little tin-hatty but Kellen has made comments before that he’s holding back in preparation for the playoffs. Many of the fun things we saw earlier in the year (and then inexplicably last week against WFT) have vanished from the playbook. Once the Cowboys became destined for the playoffs, Kellen’s play-calling has visibly changed. Wide-zone, complementary route concepts, shell-busters, etc… have all gone missing. Perhaps he’s waiting until the sudden-death tournament starts before he opens the book fully.

Think back to what you just saw on Sunday. The Cowboys offense didn’t show Arizona much. The Cowboys defense stayed pretty vanilla too for that matter. While the Dallas Cowboys have a pretty good idea what to exact from Arizona in the playoffs, no one has a clue what the Cowboys will be doing. That’s not a bad thing.

There’s a 94% chance the Cowboys are the No. 4 seed this postseason and a 77% chance the Cards are the No. 5 seed. A rematch seems imminent.

But the good news may extend beyond the rematch and even aid in the path to the Super Bowl. With the No. 1 seed off the table (GB has secured it), why not shorten the distance between Green Bay and ourselves?

Since the Super Bowl goes through Lambeau Field, I’d much rather play them sooner rather than later since Green Bay has a tendency to hit peak awfulness closer to February.  If Dallas wins the Wild Card round against AZ, they would likely go to GB the next week in the Divisional Round.

If Dallas entered the postseason as the No. 2 seed they wouldn’t go to GB until the week after that in the Conference Championship. It’s too soon to know the exact forecast but it seems reasonable to expect worse weather the deeper you get into winter, right? So let’s pull that Band-Aid off right away, shall we?

So there we go. A rematch with the Cardinals in Round 1 seems most likely. And if the Cowboys win (which I fully expect) then a date in Green Bay will follow. Thems the odds so let’s sit back, mail in Week 18 (seriously, we better rest everyone next week) and open the playbook against the Cards.