The Dallas Cowboys finally broke their losing streak, emerging as the victor over the Minnesota Vikings. The Week 11 win was their first since October 11 against the New York Giants, in the game where hope of a Super Bowl win were vanquished with the season-ending injury to quarterback Dak Prescott.
The offense had fallen flat, and those a league-worst defense started showing signs of only being really bad instead of historically so and Dallas began their freefall to the bottom of the NFL. The lone bright spot? A lost season likely resulted in a very high draft pick. While those on Team Tank might be sulking (how weird is that) the club won and impacted their draft positioning, there’s a silver lining. At least for a week, Dallas had their cake and ate it too. Dallas’ win didn’t shift their draft slot one bit, they remain in the No. 4 slot heading into Week 12.
Now, the win puts the Cowboys in a funny position. At 3-7, they can actually move into first place in the NFC East with a win on Thanksgiving. They face the equally bad Washington Football Team (3-7). The winner of the game will take a half-game lead over the abysmal Philadelphia Eagles (3-6-1). The Giants (3-7) are clearly still in the mix as well.
So there Dallas sits, currently the fourth-worst team in football. Five days away from being in playoff positioning. That’s about as 2020 as one can get.
But as for the silver lining for Team Tank, here’s the deal. Anyone smart enough to read our weekly Rooting Guide knows that Week 11 was a tremendous week for the Cowboys’ draft possibilities.
There were eight games on the schedule that had an impact on the race for the better slots. Of those games, four worked out for the Cowboys and they all worked in a way they remained in the No. 4 slot. Washington, who had been ahead of Dallas based on strength of schedule, also won, but their SOS actually rose above the Cowboys by virtue of all of the team’s on each’s schedule.
Basically, Washington’s group of 13 opponents had a better week than Dallas’ group of opponents.
The team Washington defeated, Cincinnati, moved ahead of the Cowboys, but the Los Angeles Chargers, Houston Texans (Miami’s pick) and Carolina Panthers all won. Losses would’ve moved them ahead of Dallas in the order.
Now, things look like this with the remaining pieces of the Week 11 schedule having quality teams with playoff hopes matched up against each other.
Here’s who is currently where, according to Tankathon.
| Pick | Team | Record | SOS |
| 1 | New York Jets | 0-10 | ..583 |
| 2 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 1-9 | .551 |
| 3 | Cincinnati Bengals | 2-6-1 | .531 |
| 4 | Dallas Cowboys | 3-7 | .469 |
| 5 | Washington Football Team | 3-7 | .472 |
| 6 | Los Angeles Chargers | 3-7 | .500 |
| 7 | New York Giants | 3-7 | ..500 |
| 8 | Houston Texans (MIA) | 3-7 | .548 |
| 9 | Atlanta Falcons | 3-7 | .560 |
| 10 | Carolina Panthers | 4-7 | .548 |
| 11 | New England Patriots | 4-6 | .503 |
| 12 | Detroit Lions | 4-6 | .506 |
| 13 | Minnesota Vikings | 4-6 | .513 |
| 14 | San Francisco 49ers | 4-5 | .525 |
| 15 | Denver Broncos | 4-5 | .573 |
Should the Cowboys make the playoffs, they likely will be pitiful wild-card round entrants that will be escorted out. Making the playoffs will trash their draft slot, so in the bigger picture winning the game does by extension run the chance their pick could plummet all the way down to 19th. The NFL expanded the playoffs to 14 teams this season, so the worst record eliminated in the wild-card round would pick 19th instead of the usual No. 21.
Team Tank fans will certainly look back at the win over Minnesota with the how-do-you-like-that-four-month-old-win-now vitriol should that happen.
Still, for now, the loss didn’t impact the order.
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