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Ralph Vacchiano
NFC East Reporter
Of course, Mike McCarthy was watching the Philadelphia Eagles play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday afternoon, just like he assumed everyone else in the Dallas Cowboys organization was doing. And as soon as the game ended, his phone lit up with text messages.
Then he took a breath of that new fresh air.
Because just like that, his Cowboys were no longer the outsiders in the NFC East race staring at a postseason filled with games on the road where they’ve struggled all season. As soon as the Cardinals shocked the Eagles 35-31, the Cowboys were just one win away from the division title, the No. 2 seed, and home games in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
And for the Cowboys, who went 8-0 at home this regular season and have won 16 straight games at AT&T Stadium over a two-year span, it changed everything about their outlook in the new year.
“I’m laughing because I think you’re trying to get me to say ‘I told you so’ — ‘just get to 11 wins and it’ll work out,'” McCarthy joked. “But I don’t want to be that guy.”
What McCarthy actually said two weeks ago, when the Cowboys were 10-4, was “I just think it’s important to keep focus on getting to the 11th win and then I think there’ll be some clarity on what we need to do.” But he’s right: There is plenty of clarity now that the Cowboys are 11-5.
All they need to do is beat the Washington Commanders — a 4-12 team that hasn’t won since Nov. 5 — in Landover, Md., on Sunday and they’ll win their second division title in the last three years and ensure that their wild-card and divisional-round games will be played in Arlington, Tex. And it is impossible to overstate what a huge advantage that will be in the chase for the Super Bowl, because the Cowboys have been a completely different team at home all year long.
It’s not just that they’re undefeated there. It’s that they’ve outscored opponents 299-127. That’s a point differential of…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/super-bowl-path-for-cowboys-runs-mostly-through-dallas
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Publish date : 2024-01-02 00:53:16
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