The Dallas Cowboys fairy tale season came to an unceremonious end at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams this weekend. The Rams advanced to the NFC championship game by giving the Cowboys a taste of their own medicine and running the ball down Dallas’ throat. Meanwhile, for the Dallas Cowboys, yet another season goes by without an appearance in the NFC championship game. The finality of that final blow might make the loss to the Rams the lowest point of a season full of highs and lows for the Cowboys. Looking back, here is the best and worst of the Dallas Cowboys 2018 season.
Biggest Victory: Week 13: Dallas Cowboys 13 New Orleans Saints 10
This was a statement win for the young Dallas Cowboys defense. The Saints came into the game with the best overall record in the league and had won 10 consecutive games. New Orleans boasted the #1 offense in the league, the best run defense in the league, and were widely considered the best overall team in the NFL at that time. Nobody had given the Dallas Cowboys a chance to win this game and yet the Cowboys not only won the game but held Drew Brees and the Saints offense to only 10 points. That was the game that prompted Jerry Jones to declare that his Dallas Cowboys “are different cats now!”
Worst Loss: Week 9: Tennessee Titans 28 Dallas Cowboys 14
The Dallas Cowboys were coming off of a bye week, had acquired Amari Cooper via trade and had replaced offensive line coach Paul Alexander with Marc Colombo. Tennessee on the other hand had lost 3 consecutive games and were playing as poorly offensively as any team in the league. The game started out well for the Cowboys with the defense creating turnovers, Ezekiel Elliott running the ball well and Amari Cooper scoring a touchdown in his debut but then things went south in a hurry. Marcus Mariota picked apart the Cowboys defense, Dak Prescott started turning the ball over himself and some of the Cowboys players, such as Ezekiel Elliott and La’el Collins started giving up on plays. When Titans safety Kevin Byard recreated the Terrell Owens midfield celebration on the Cowboys Star logo following a brutal red zone interception by Prescott, I knew right then and there that the game was lost. After that brutal loss to Tennessee, it appeared that the season too was lost but little did we know the Cowboys would go on to win 7 of their final 8 games
Biggest Blowout: Week 6: Dallas Cowboys 40 Jacksonville Jaguars 7
This game turned out to be an anomaly but many Dallas Cowboy fans (myself included) believed that the Cowboys had turned a corner and the offense had hit its stride after this game. The Jaguars after all were considered the best defensive unit in the entire league and the Dallas Cowboys offense had just put up 40 points against them. It turns out that the Jaguars were a dysfunctional group that lost their confidence and basically quit on themselves. They quit against the Cowboys and they pretty much mailed it in the rest of the season as well. The Dallas Cowboys offense did not turn a corner at all. In fact it would continue to struggle for most of the season and would not come close to scoring 40 points again until the final game of the season, a meaningless game against the New York Giants.
Worst Blowout: Week 15: Indianapolis Colts 23 Dallas Cowboys 0
I was among several thousand Dallas Cowboys fans in attendance in Indianapolis but you wouldn’t notice that there were any Cowboy fans in the stands that day. That was because after the blocked field goal on Dallas’ first offensive possession there was not much for Cowboys fans to cheer about. The Colts dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and broke the Cowboys will on both offense and defense. The final score line did not do justice to how badly the Colts outplayed the Cowboys that Sunday in December. The game might has well have finished 100-0 in favour of the Colts as that would have been no less humiliating. To make matters worse I had to endure trash talk from fans who cheer for a team that was obtained from Baltimore by means of a convoy of moving vans sneaking off in the dead of a winter’s night. In addition to that, being that I am Canadian and not originally from the Dallas area, I was subjected to taunts and disdain over why I chose to be a Dallas Cowboy fan in the first place. As if geography is the only determining factor of fandom. “This is America’s team” was my natural response and I could not refrain from adding “Why, are you from Baltimore?” The ultimate humiliation though was seeing the Colts stud rookie linebacker Darius Leonard in person and watching him mimic our very own Leighton Vander Esch with the “wolf hunter” call after getting the better of him on that occasion.
Most Emotional victory: NFC Wildcard: Dallas Cowboys 24 Seattle Seahawks 22
The overtime win against the Eagles to all but secure the division and Dak Prescott’s heroics in the meaningless season finale against the Giants deserve mentioning here but the playoff victory takes the cake. The pure magnitude of this game, being a playoff game and against an extremely well coached Seattle Seahawks team led by one of the elite quarterbacks in the league Russell Wilson, give it the overall edge. This was such a significant win because it was the first playoff win for Dak Prescott and he was instrumental to leading the Cowboys to a 4th quarter comeback. In addition, it was the first playoff victory for Ezekiel Elliott, Amari Cooper, Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch and each of them played crucial roles in the win. Despite what transpired the following game against the Rams it was huge achievement for all of these guys to get that valuable playoff experience and earn their first playoff win. These players make up the young core for the Dallas Cowboys future and they will be looked upon as leaders in the years to come. For them to get that 1st playoff win under their belts gives them confidence and belief in themselves which could help propel the Cowboys to the next level going forward. It is difficult to consistently win in the National Football League but I would have far less optimism for next season had the Cowboys been one and done this postseason.
Most Heartbreaking Loss: Week 7: Washington Redskins 20 Dallas Cowboys 17
The overtime loss against the Texans was in consideration but ultimately that was a game the Dallas Cowboys had an opportunity to win but had no business doing so. The Texans had thoroughly outplayed the Cowboys all night and when Jason Garrett decided to punt on 4th and 1 in Texans territory I knew that Houston would march down the field in win the game, The loss against the hated rival Redskins though, left a more sour taste in my mouth. This game was a division game so it carried more weight. Washington got the benefit of some fortuitous calls (or no calls) including a missed block in the back on Kapri Bibbs screen pass that went for a touchdown but to their credit, they outplayed the Cowboys. The Redskins defensive line was a handful and the Cowboys could not contain Adrian Peterson but the Cowboys hung on and had a legitimate chance to win this game. After a late fumble by Dak Prescott resulted in a Washington touchdown to extend their lead to 10 points, Dak and the Cowboys marched down the field and score to cut the lead down to 3 with 1:37 remaining. Amazingly, the Dallas Cowboys defense gets the stop and the Cowboys got the ball back and proceeded to drive down the field to set up a game tying FG with seconds remaining despite some questionable clock management. I can still remember the sequence vividly:
The 47 yard kick by Brett Maher is up…and IT’S GOOD! The game is headed for OT but wait…there is a flag on the play. The long snapper L.P Ladouceur is flagged for a snap infraction? What a ridiculous call, but no worries we still have another shot to tie it with a 52 yard attempt. The second attempt is up… and….it hits the upright….no good….Cowboys lose.
Those handful of games sum up the highs and lows and the best and worst of the Dallas Cowboys 2018 season. It was a successful season albeit disappointing in the end. Most Cowboy fans would not have expected their team to win the NFC East and a win a playoff game this season but with success comes expectations. Next year the Dallas Cowboys hope to accomplish a feat they have not been able to duplicate since 1999: Make the playoffs in back to back seasons.
*Photo by Kieth Allison https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
All data and statistic obtained and verified from https://www.pro-football-reference.com/