It’s been hard to pin down who the 2021 Dallas Cowboys are for much of the season. Taking the defending Super Bowl champs down to the wire in Week 1 and then rolling to five wins by 20 points or more was maddeningly evened out by getting embarrassed at home by Denver, giving away a sloppy game to Las Vegas, and looking pitifully flat just last week against Arizona.
But in the regular season finale, they came out firing on all cylinders. A 51-26 trouncing of Philadelphia was exactly what the Cowboys were trying to do as they head into the playoffs.
“We needed that game,” tight end Dalton Schultz said after the game. “We knew we needed that game, just for momentum, just for where we’re at as an offense and to build on what we’ve done, we needed to put a game together like that.”
Momentum was the word of the night, as several Cowboys spoke of using the impressive road win as a springboard for the postseason that begins next weekend.
“Just to be able to build on a win headed into the playoffs, I feel like we’re carrying the team and the momentum in the right direction,” defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence said.
“That’s what I was looking for going into this game,” running back Ezekiel Elliott said after his 87-yard night pushed him over 1,000 for the year, “to kind of get back on the horse and get things ready for the playoffs.”
“It’s about momentum,” quarterback Dak Prescott told reporters in his postgame press conference, “giving us something to carry over into this new season.”
Saturday night’s game was, in some ways, meaningless, with a playoff berth locked up for both teams and with each hampered by injuries, illness, and COVID absences. And while the Eagles lined up mostly second-stringers on the night, Dallas used the Week 18 match as a tune-up for whoever could go.
“We definitely accomplished what we came here to accomplish. We came out pretty healthy,” head coach Mike McCarthy commented from the podium. “We got a lot of production on offense, everybody got to play. It was good to see some of our young guys get some action and be productive.”
It could have easily been a sloppy affair, with nothing of consequence for the Cowboys to play for. But a 51-point outpouring with just under 500 offensive yards certainly leaves a better taste as each game now instantly becomes a do-or-die scenario.
Prescott heads into the tournament riding high, having broken Tony Romo’s Cowboys franchise record for most touchdown throws in a season. The fact that he did it spreading the ball around and getting so many teammates involved makes it even more impressive, as Saturday proved to be a night for the Cowboys’ lesser-known stars. Wide receiver Cedrick Wilson hauled in a pair of touchdown throws, and running backs Corey Clement, Ito Smith, and JaQuan Hardy all scored as well.
Dallas set a new league mark for the most players to find the end zone in a single year, with 22.
“To get that record is cool,” Prescott admitted. “I think it says a lot about a team. Just to have that many guys score touchdowns is impressive. But honestly, none of it matters now as we look forward and we move forward to what’s to come.”
What’s to come, though, has yet to be fully determined. The Cowboys know they’ll be no worse than the No. 4 seed in the NFC. Depending on the outcome of a handful of other games to be played Sunday, they could finish as high as No. 2.
“It’s not my job to sit here and wonder if other teams are going to win,” Lawrence said. “It’s really on us as the Cowboys to go out, whoever we play, put ourselves in a position to win the game.”
If they perform the way they did Saturday night, the Cowboys- who should get most of their absent players back this week- could pose a significant problem for anyone in the conference.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Schultz when asked about potential opponents. “Line ’em up.”
While no one within the organization will state a preference for who they host in Wild Card Weekend, McCarthy subtly hinted that the Cowboys’ path to Super Bowl LVI could very well go through the frozen tundra of his old Green Bay stomping grounds.
“I’ll say this,” McCarthy told media members. “With the potential of the teams we have to potentially play in the playoffs, I thought the fact that we got to play in 22-degree weather and four-mile-an-hour wind [in Philadelphia] was awesome. So this is great experience for us.”
But that’s looking way too far ahead for a team that’s had to deal with the never-ending adversity of the 2021 season, just like the old cliche goes, one game at a time.
“When this plane touches down in Dallas, that’s the starting line,” McCarthy explained. “This is what we’ve been talking about since April. We’ve had goals.”
And Saturday’s Week 18 performance came awfully close to what those goals have looked like in the mind’s eye of the Cowboys and their fans.
“I just feel like we’ve got to keep coming out every night and doing what we do best,” Wilson shared after his team-leading outing of five catches for 119 yards. “Obviously, we displayed it tonight, but we’ve got a couple big ones coming up, and that’s when we need to display it.”
“Everyone’s hungry, everyone’s playing a one-game season every week,” Elliott previewed. “You’ve just got to go out there and get the job done. You don’t want to go home.”
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