The Dallas Cowboys were knocked out of playoff contention months ago, but that doesn’t mean the divisional round doesn’t still have an impact on things for their organization.

On Saturday, the NFC bracket saw the Washington Commanders crush the No. 1 seed Detroit Lions, taking control with a furious 28-point second quarter, flipping the script on what had been the best second-stanza team in recent memory. The Lions had been +128 in the period all season, but Washington was +14 on this day, the final margin in their 45-31 win to advance to the NFC championship game.

The victory marked the first time in 33 years the Washington franchise has made it this far. Aside from the rivalry aspect of things, this is significant to Dallas fans as Washington’s drought was slightly longer than the Cowboys. The Redskins (at the time) won the Super Bowl the year before Dallas’ dynasty began, winning three in four years.

Those were part of a 13-year stretch of dominance for the conference, but that’s not really the biggest takeaway here.

1. The Dan Quinn Experience

The Commanders coach is Dan Quinn, the former Cowboys defensive coordinator who spurned head coach job offers after his first two seasons leading the Dallas defense to great heights after being fired as head coach of Atlanta. Quinn had taken the Falcons to the Super Bowl LI, but the team collapsed after having a 28-3 lead over the New England Patriots and slowly eroded the next few years to the point Quinn was let go.

As far as public information goes, the Cowboys didn’t consider letting head coach Mike McCarthy go in favor or promoting Quinn last January. It’s always a risk going of publicly available knowledge, even for an organization as loose-lipped as the Cowboys are, and there’s no indication that Quinn would’ve taken the job if his supervisor had been fired, but it’s still a pretty damning indictment of the Cowboys luck that there was a coach in their building who is capable of ending their drought and not only did they let him leave, he went to their oldest rival and did it immediately after leaving.

One has to wonder what kind of impact watching Quinn’s success will have on the front office, as they try to regroup after McCarthy said enough is enough and walked away from negotiations after they let his contract expire to end the season.

2. Detroit assistants are now available

One of the biggest issues with the Cowboys drawing out the McCarthy separation is that they missed the window to interview the Lions assistants for an opening. Teams are allowed to talk to the coordinators of the No. 1 seeds during the week leading up to the wild-card round, but because the Cowboys were misstepping with McCarthy, they didn’t get initial talks with OC Ben Johnson or DC Aaron Glenn.

Johnson has been one of the hottest names since last year after the way the Lions’ offense has been a juggernaut of creativity, and Glenn’s stock went way up with the way the Lions started the season. Make no mistake, a mind-numbing amount of injuries derailed what was one of the best defenses in the league in 2024.

Glenn moved the Lions from 32nd in DVOA before he got there up to 13th in 2023. They were 3rd entering Week 15, but the injuries caught up to them. Still, Glenn has a great chance to become a head coach this cycle.

With the Lions elimination, the Cowboys can now interview both candidates instead of potentially having to wait until after the Super Bowl in mid-Februrary.