The Dallas Cowboys week 17 match up against the New York Giants tomorrow night presents the winner with an opportunity to win the NFC East division. A victory combined with a Philadelphia Eagles win or tie against the Washington football Team is the only way for either team to make the playoffs. This is familiar territory for Cowboys fans. As recently as last year, the Cowboys week 17 result combined with the Eagles result determined which team would win the division and go on to compete in the playoffs. Sadly, Dallas Cowboys fans were left disappointed in last year’s season finally.
Sadder still, 2019 was not the first time the Dallas Cowboys week 17 ended in heartbreak for Cowboys fans from several generations. Jason Garrett and Tony Romo were involved in 3 consecutive Dallas Cowboys week 17 failures from 2011-2013. In each of those seasons, the Cowboys lost the final regular season game to a division rival with the NFC East title up for grabs. During that stretch, every other NFC East rival took turns passing around the division title while Cowboys fans had to watch them celebrate. Prior to that, under Wade Phillips in 2008 in a winner take all, Philadelphia Eagles VS Dallas Cowboys week 17 classic, the Cowboys were embarrassed 44-6. To take it back even further. In 1990, in the inaugural Dallas Cowboys week 17 game against the Atlanta Falcons, the Cowboys were eliminated from the playoffs with a loss.
The Dallas Cowboys week 17 history does have a few bright moments in it. Such as, the legendary 1993 Emmitt Smith separated shoulder game, in which the Cowboys beat the Giants with the division title and a first round bye at stake. Then in 2009, the Cowboys beat the Eagles to win the division in the final regular season game before beating them again in the playoffs during the wild card round. The difference between those Cowboys week 17 victories compared to all their failures, is that in those victories the team had already made the playoffs.
Remarkably, the Dallas Cowboy have never actually earned a playoff berth in week 17 of the regular season. Every single playoff berth they have earned since the bye week was introduced in 1990, has been earned prior to week 17. Is it possible that the Cowboys are victims of some sort of curse? After all, the timeline coincides with Jerry Jones becoming owner of the team and the firing of legendary Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry. Luckily for me, I don’t believe in curses. I do believe in the law of averages though.
Could Sunday’s game against the Giants end up being another one in a long line of Dallas Cowboys week 17 heartbreaks? It absolutely could. The Cowboys have won 3 straight but they haven’t exactly beaten any good teams playing at full strength. Beating the Giants isn’t a foregone conclusion. Then, even if they do beat the Giants, they still have to depend on an Eagles team that has been eliminated from contention to rise up and take care of the Washington Football Team. Furthermore, even if the Eagles are motivated to win against Washington, they are still a very badly shorthanded team. None of that concerns me though. The Cowboys defense has started creating turnovers. Special teams play has been solid all the way around. Andy Dalton is looking much more capable the past few weeks and has helped revive the offense. As far as I’m concerned, the Dallas Cowboys are due for a week 17 miracle.
All data and statistics obtained and verified from https://www.pro-football-reference.com/
*Photo by Joe Glorioso;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode