The Dallas Cowboys won on Sunday night and it is okay to be happy about that!
Sunday afternoon was interesting for the Dallas Cowboys. On one hand, the team was eliminated from playoff contention in a formal sense. While that was just about inevitable, it is still never fun for it to be finalized.
Across the spectrum, the Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins all won. These specific victories set the Cowboys up to improve their draft position by a handful of spots.
But then the Dallas Cowboys had the gall to go out and win their game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Let me say that I understand if you have folded up shop and want the Cowboys to tank and improve their draft position so that we do not have to endure seasons like this one ever again. There is logic to that idea.
But let me also say that the other side of the coin is equally fine if that is where someone wants to live. We can have different opinions!
Here are three specific opinions after a full sleep following Sunday night’s victory.
It is totally fine to enjoy the recent Dallas Cowboys wins
Imagine if you knew in July that the Dallas Cowboys would enter Christmas week having won four of their last five and that at that point the San Francisco 49ers would already be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. We would have been levitating.
Obviously the Cowboys were eliminated at the same time that San Francisco was, and the recent winning has done nothing to hep that. The recent winning also hasn’t undone the bad that preceded it, conversations that we already had and will certainly continue to have, but the thing about the recent winning is that it is recent winning.
If someone wants the Cowboys to have a higher draft pick and feels as if these four wins have damaged that cause, it is understandable. But on the other side, we have learned so much about players like Marist Liufau and Brock Hoffman in this little run. We have even learned a whole heck of a lot about leaders/cornerstones like CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons. Winning has been the catalyst for all of that and the opinion here is it was totally worth the drop in draft position.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions. But the Cowboys have ensured that they have been winners 80% of the time through the winter holidays and in the process proven that they are not the exact frauds that we may have thought them to be. That is commendable and it is more than fine to be happy, or even proud of that.
Mike Zimmer has proven that he still has it
In the interest of transparency, I have been extremely critical of the Mike Zimmer hire. It seemed lazy and like the team just called an old friend in lieu of actually doing their job and turning every stone in the name of finding the best possible solution.
Now to be clear, it is possible that on some level the team did not exactly stretch themselves thin after Dan Quinn left in January, but however we got here, the truest of true things is that Mike Zimmer has clearly not lost his fastball.
Zimmer has reignited this defense as the season has gone along and has done so with so many important players missing time. He has settled into the rhythm of today’s game and seems to have a great feel for when to dial certain things up to create opportunities for chaos.
If we are going to have conversations (and we should) about whether or not Mike McCarthy should return then Mike Zimmer absolutely has to be a part of them in the same way. He has earned his keep and proven that he can help this team in some serious ways.
The most important thing now is to learn from 2024
Over the last two months or so the prevailing theme that has circled the Dallas Cowboys from a national conversation perspective has been that injuries have plagued their season. This isn’t untrue, but we all know that the team was behind the eight ball way before they ever set foot on any field.
It is tiring to bring up the front office’s inactivity and reluctance to do things over and over again, but the results are what they are. This season was set up poorly under their watch and everyone who works and plays for them has done all of they could to make a proper batch of lemonade.
At this point the water is well under the bridge, but it must serve as a cautionary tale for the future. If the Cowboys do not learn from the chaos that was this calendar year then it will have all been for nothing. They must be willing to do things and operate in ways that for whatever reason they have refused in the past. Extensions for players before the eleventh hour, participating in free agency, not leaving important people (coaches or players) relative to your franchise subject to national scrutiny because of the positions you put them in. We are way past time for them to shuck the ways of the past.
This winning streak has been nice as we discussed a moment ago, but the true harm it can cause won’t be by dropping five spots in the draft. The worst possible result from the recent turn in fortune is the front office feeling like what they are doing is working and that status quo as is should be how they operate all of the time. Please don’t let us have gone through all of this for nothing.
