The soft part of the Cowboys’ schedule concluded Thanksgiving night with a 45-10 win over the Commanders.
Now the season starts.
Over the next six weeks, the Cowboys’ upcoming opponents are 42-25. Two of those games are in December at Buffalo and Miami. The only opponent with a below .500 mark is Washington and that game occurs in the regular season finale.
If the Cowboys want to win the NFC East and prove to the league and their critics they are title contenders, it’s time to take care of business in the hardest part of the schedule.
It starts Thursday when the Cowboys host Seattle at AT&T Stadium, a place that’s become a safe haven.
Dallas is the first team in league history to win its first five home games by an average of 20-plus points. And since 2022, the Cowboys have won 13 consecutive home games, the longest active streak in the NFL.
Guess what?
It means nothing if the Cowboys lose to Philadelphia on Dec. 10. Lose to the Eagles, and the doubt about the Cowboys’ abilities to win the division and even make a serious playoff run becomes a story they want nothing to do with.
The Cowboys have reached this portion of their season with eight wins against teams with a combined mark of 25-55. Two of their three losses are against teams with winning records.
“There’s a difference between a requirement and an accomplishment,” wide receiver Brandin Cooks said. “Just being real, we were required to win these types of games. Obviously we will take it one week at a time, but the great ones, teams that know what they want to accomplish, the ultimate goal [is winning a Super Bowl]. At the end of the day, you have to win those games. Not to make much pressure of it, [but] take one week at a time and we should be hitting our stride playing our best football.”
Coach Mike McCarthy breaks the season into chunks. The Seattle game is the final contest of the second trimester and then comes December.
It’s a month where McCarthy has produced success as a head coach. He’s won more games in December (46-19) than any month of his career.
During a Friday conference call with reporters, McCarthy mentioned the one-game-at-a-time theory. But he acknowledged the importance of winning games late in the season against opponents playing for the same stakes as the Cowboys.
“It’s just like anything,” he said. “You talk about [late season] football, everybody remembers [the late season] because the games, the intensity of the games. The importance of where you are in your quest to get to the tournament no doubt and obviously the way ours lines up just the positioning already with these teams in front of us. That’s why we got to keep it really clean and simple and focus on the next one.”
This Cowboys’ team is playing its best football, especially quarterback Dak Prescott. He set a season-high with a 142.1 quarterback rating against the Commanders on Thanksgiving. Over the last six games, Prescott has thrown 18 touchdowns with two interceptions as he’s completed 70.4% of his passes with a 122.6 quarterback rating.
The real portion of the schedule is upcoming.
“I think we have prepared to play the toughest part of the year,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “We’re preparing and have prepared to go into the playoffs and that was always going to be tough part. So it will be tough. We’ve to play [Washington] again. They’ll be tough. They beat Philadelphia. They’ll be tough.”
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