Dallas Cowboys exorcised 4 demons – San Francisco is next

Dallas Cowboys Demon No. 2: Tom Brady

The Cowboys entered the Wild Card Round having never beaten Tom Brady. Ever. It was a demon the size of Aaron Rodgers that haunted the dreams of many in Cowboys Nation. It didn’t seem to matter if Dallas had the better team, healthier team, built a sizeable lead, etc… Something was almost destined to happen to hand the ball over to Tom Brady before that final whistle.

Monday’s 31-14 win over Tom Brady was never in question. Brady’s haunting history of success against the Cowboys never stepped out of the shadows. Dan Quinn’s defense kept him under thumb all night and Kellen Moore’s offense never stopped putting points on the board.

The Cowboys are now 1-7 against Brady which doesn’t exactly grant them bragging rights but certainly exorcises a demon.

Demon No. 3: Grass!!!!

A hot topic over the past week has been the Cowboys inability to win on real grass. Part correlation and part causation, grass has been awarded official “demon status” throughout the media.

The concern was/is partially legitimate since grass offers considerably different footing than artificial surfaces. Players plant and cut differently on grass than they do turf. If they don’t make the adjustment, they’ll likely lose footing regardless of their footwear.

Yet, grass isn’t a clear causation because to play on grass, requires the Cowboys to play on the road. And Demon No. 1 addressed the already-present issue with winning games on the road.

Since playing on grass means they are also playing with crowd noise and traveling, grass probably isn’t the demon people wanted to make it out to be. Which is good news because San Francisco and Philadelphia both play on grass so if the Cowboys want to continue to advance through the playoffs, they’ll need to be able to play on a natural surface.