Slow your roll. The Dallas Cowboys aren’t out on the No. 1 seed in the NFC. It certainly feels like it, as the team has lost three out of their last four and two in a row. The latest defeat, Thursday evening at home to the Las Vegas Raiders for their third straight Thanksgiving Day game L, stung a bit, pun intended.
Old nemesis DeSean Jackson opened the scoring Thursday with a deep pass touchdown and it felt like deja vu all over again. Dallas’ back seven was an absolute mess and they may have been the healthiest and most complete unit on the team, only missing Donovan Wilson.
Still all hope is not lost, but they have made things more difficult on themselves. They are now two games in the loss column behind the NFC pace setter, and a game behind three other teams, one of which they’ve lost to already. They certainly can make up ground. The Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots are the hottest teams in the league after miserable starts (and Dallas has split road games against) and are on the precipice of the No. 1seed in the AFC.
Dallas’ road to redemption will be hard, but not impossible, with all NFC games remaining in their final six weeks. Dallas has just one NFC loss so far, setting themselves up to win many tiebreaker scenarios should they win out and finish as the hottest team in the NFC.
That journey is taken one game at a time however, and they will sit back on Sunday and watch many of their competitors take the field in an effort to make the Cowboys’ journey more difficult. The Cowboys no longer control their own destiny as they did earlier in the week, so it’s legit time to start rooting for some teams to lose. Here’s a look at the slate on Week 12 action that impacts Dallas’ playoff seeding.