Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy told his players immediately following the regular-season finale, “We’ve been talking about this since April. It starts right now. ”
Dak’s rehab. Minicamp. Oxnard. Preseason. Dak’s shoulder. Hard Knocks. Opening night. Zuerlein’s misses. Trevon’s assault on quarterbacks. Dak’s rust. Injuries. The suspension of La’el Collins. Undefeated October. Dak’s calf. Cooper Rush on Halloween night. The Hulk package. Dan Quinn’s dominant defense. November struggles. COVID. Bad refs. The rise of Micah. Dak’s slump. Undefeated December. More Zuerlein misses. Comebacks. Redemption. Grit. Twelve wins. NFC East championship.
It was all just a prelude to the tournament that’s about to begin. The Cowboys’ 34th postseason appearance will mark the second-most among all NFL teams. But history and past success don’t carry over into the playoffs. As McCarthy has been saying since his players throttled the Eagles just a few days ago, “This is the start line.”
And although the team as a collective understands the do-or-die nature of every game from here on, each man wearing the star comes to Sunday’s start line with a slightly different perspective of what it all means to him.
“It means a lot. Just dreaming as a kid, watching all the games from I don’t know how long I’ve been watching football,” said wideout CeeDee Lamb, about to play in his first postseason game. “I try to put myself or envision myself in the position that those guys have played before me. It’s huge. For me to have this opportunity before me on Sunday is kind of unimaginable. Honestly, just because I can’t really believe it right now. It’s a surreal moment.”
For running back Ezekiel Elliott, Sunday’s tilt with the 49ers will mark his fourth playoff outing. He’s averaged 22 carries and 103 rushing yards per game across three previous postseason contests in 2016 and 2018.
“These big moments, this is where you’ve got to have your best performances,” Elliott shared. “These moments like this are what your career is remembered as. It’s where you leave your legacy. Just got to go out there and take advantage of the opportunity.”
Prescott has the same 1-2 postseason record as Elliott in a Cowboys uniform. He, too, grasps how rarely this opportunity presents itself to an NFL team.
“Being older now, being six years into this,” Prescott explained, “really just going back to not making the playoffs the years that we didn’t, and being hurt last year, that alone is enough that I don’t take any moment for granted. All the hard work and everything that you do is for these times and for these moments and for these games. I think, more than anything, it’s about sharing it with the young guys and the other guys that may not have been through the things that I’ve been through or been in the league as long, make sure they understand it’s a ‘now’ mentality.”
For a rookie like Parsons, who has taken the league by storm in his first pro seasons, he says he’s had that mentality for the entire 2021 campaign.
“To be honest, it’s just another game,” the 22-year-old linebacker said. “Another game where you’ve go to hone in on detail. Every game counted, ’til we got to this point. We’re the 3-seed going into this playoff game, and nothing’s new. Going to do the same preparation we’ve been doing all season. The only difference is, this will dictate if we’re going home or not. And I hope we’re not going home. This is going to be a good little stretch we’ve got, and I’m excited for it.
After a (mostly) successful 18-week grind, the Cowboys must walk that fine line between trying to maintain the businesslike approach that netted them a division title and a home playoff game and turning up the intensity this week with exponentially higher stakes on the line.
“I think you have to turn your excitement into mental excitement,” offered defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence. “Being excited to learn more, being excited to learn the opposite player you’re going against, learn the team that you’re going against, and also learn more about yourself and your team and how y’all can get better through those moments. Being quiet before the storm and waiting on Sunday and really unleashing the excitement.”
“I think you’ve got to stay in your routine,” said Elliott. “Definitely do a little bit more because it’s the playoffs, and every play is going to count. You never know when that opportunity is going to be when your number is called, so you’ve just got to stay within your routine, but do a little bit more just to make sure mentally that you’re ready.”
Being just a 3-point favorite in what is expected to be the closest game of the weekend, these Cowboys are under increasing pressure to go on a deep playoff run. The franchise has won just four postseason games in the last quarter-century. All of them have been first-round wild-card games at home.
But Prescott is among those still trying to keep an even keel leading up to kickoff.
“I do what I normally do,” Prescott said. “I don’t know necessarily why people have labeled the word pressure as such a bad thing, honestly. I think it creates high expectations and high standards, and it usually creates high results. For me, it’s just about being who I am, staying true to that, knowing who I am, preparing the same way that I have and that I do. Trust in the people around me, trust in the play callers and my preparation. Then just going out there and playing the game that I love without any hesitation.”
The opponent drawn for wild card weekend has only added to the week’s hype. Dallas and San Francisco have paired up for some of the greatest postseason games ever played, dating back to the 1970s. But some of that history is understandably lost on this current crop of Cowboys, most of whom weren’t even alive for the teams’ last playoff clash, at the end of the 1994 season.
“I’m learning, as of right now. It’s not hard to catch onto,” Lamb said of the Cowboys’ and 49ers’ storied past. “Obviously, we saw them my rookie year, kind of got an opener into that. And again this year has kind of been a reminder. This is a big game, man, that’s all it is. It’s a rivalry game, it goes all the way back. For this to be in Dallas and a playoff game, it don’t get no better than this.”
While Sunday’s game will conjure up plenty of ghosts for longtime Cowboys fans, this edition of the rivalry will have nothing, really, to do with Aikman and Smith, Irvin and Young, Sanders and Haley, Rice and Norton, Montana and Clark, Staubach and Brodie.
For each of the Cowboys players, it will be about the other 47 men standing next to them on the sideline.
“Man, I’m just truly blessed,” Lawrence said, speaking of being able to return from a 10-week absence with a foot injury. “The Lord sat me down earlier in the season and told me, ‘That wasn’t my time.’ Being able to bring me back with the team that made the playoffs, and now we can go on this playoff run and potentially a Super Bowl, it means a lot to me, man. This is what a young kid always dreams of.”
“You’ve got to cherish these moments,” Elliott added. “In this league, it’s very hard to make it to the postseason. You’re only going to get so many opportunities, so we’ve definitely got to do our best to go make this one count.”
“You don’t come around great teams like we have very often, ” Prescott explained. “So just make sure we don’t take a play for granted, either. Not only in our preparation, but when we get out there as well in the game time, just leave it all out there. … Playoff football: one play can be the difference if you keep playing or not. I’m just excited for this, excited for this game, excited for the playoffs, and excited to be going into it with this team.”
“It really is a blessing to be here playing football,” edge rusher Randy Gregory offered, “playing on a team that drafted me and being a part of this great organization, a part of this team. I feel like we’re a very special unit. I’m talking like our season’s over, but it’s really just beginning.”
This Sunday is, as the Cowboys keep hearing and telling themselves, just the starting line.
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