Despite having three games to play, including Sunday’s game with the Chargers at AT&T Stadium, the Cowboys have now been officially eliminated from the playoffs.
That occurred on Saturday when the Eagles won the NFC East outright with a 29-18 win over Washington at FedEx Field. That improved Philadelphia to 10-5, pushing away from the Cowboys at 6-6-1. Even a three-game winning streak by Dallas would only net nine wins, falling short of the Eagles. Philly became the first team to win consecutive NFC East titles since 2003 & 2004, breaking a 21-year streak of a different NFC East team claiming the title.
Also, for the second straight year, the Cowboys have now missed the playoffs. That’s the first back-to-back seasons without the postseason since 2019 and 2020. Those years also the final year of one head coach (Jason Garrett) and the first season of the next (Mike McCarthy).
Now, it’s up to Brian Schottenheimer to make the jump as McCarthy did in Year 2. The Cowboys went 12-5 three straight years from 2021-23 under McCarthy, only to finish 7-10 last season.
Schottenheimer has a chance to lead the Cowboys to a better record, with three chances to get a win, starting Sunday against the Chargers, followed by road games in Washington and New York.
Schottenheimer, the 10th head coach in Cowboys history, becomes the sixth in franchise history to miss the playoffs in their first year, joining Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson, Dave Campo, Jason Garrett and McCarthy. Only Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, Bill Parcells and Wade Phillips led the Cowboys to a playoff berth in Year 1.
The big question facing the Cowboys now is how many of the veteran players, including star quarterback Dak Prescott, will play the rest of the season. Dak said earlier this week he plans to play the final three games, regardless if the team is fighting for a playoff spot or not.
“This is my job, this is what I love to do,” Prescott said. “Sitting out last year and the times before, you don’t take getting to play this game for granted. You play every game to win, you play every game to get a chance to go to the playoffs or play in the Super Bowl, and unfortunately that’s not always the case. If that’s not the case when we take the field or whatever it may be, I’m thankful for the opportunity to play this game and I’m not going to ever pass it up.”
