The Dallas Cowboys were not to be deterred. With their opponent throwing up the white flag before the game even began, Dallas was only focused on what they needed in their Week 18 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles. Already champions of the NFC East, assured of a home game in the wild-card round, Dallas was not satisfied with how they had been performing. Although they won four of their previous five games, the Week 17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals left a bad taste in their mouths.
So despite the Eagles putting a dozen players on COVID and resting almost every starting player, the Cowboys trotted out their starting offense and their non-injured starting defense. The result? A second straight drubbing of a division opponent. Dallas scored over 50 points for the second time in three weeks, dog-walking the Eagles by a final score of 51-26.
The Cowboys completed a season sweep of the entire division by a combined score of 240-107.
The Cowboys completed a season sweep of the NFC East by a combined score of 240-107.
That point differential is better than everyone in the NFC except for Dallas' total (172) and Tampa Bay (134) entering Sunday's final games.
— KD Drummond (@KDDrummondNFL) January 9, 2022
The win was Dallas’ 12th of the season and keeps them in contention to rise as high as the No. 2 seed pending Sunday’s games results. Quarterback Dak Prescott finished with five touchdown passes for 37 on the season, surpassing Tony Romo’s team record. Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 86 yards, allowing him to surpass 1,000 yards for the fourth time in his career. Cedrick Wilson caught two touchdown passes to become the fourth player with at least six receiving scores, another team record.
The biggest record though came in the fourth quarter, when Corey Clement, Ito Smith and finally Jaquan Hardy each scored to become the 20th, 21st and 22nd different player this season to score, setting a new NFL record.
When it was all said and done, the Cowboys had found the rhythm they were looking for, that they can hopefully use to be at the top of their game when they play an elimination game next week.
Dallas will not know their opponent until after the late games on Sunday. They will watch as New Orleans and San Francisco battle for the final playoff berth in the conference, with the 49ers eligible to be either the sixth or the seventh seed.
They will watch as the Los Angeles Rams try to hold off those 49ers so they can win the NFC West and keep Dallas from climbing ahead of them with a conference tiebreaker. They will watch as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers try to escape a crazy Antonio Brown week without losing to the Carolina Panthers, holding a head-to-head tiebreaker over Dallas but behind in a three-way tie scenario should they lose.
The only thing known is the Green Bay Packers have the No. 1 seed locked up and the Cowboys did what they could on Saturday night to keep their possibilities alive.
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