The Cowboys might be able to do damage in the playoffs, after all

The Dallas Cowboys’ entire year rests on a Week 16 meeting with the Philadelphia Eagles.

A Dallas win would complete the season sweep and clinch the NFC East. A loss would back the Cowboys into a corner and leave them praying for the Eagles to lose in their finale.

For a while, whoever won the NFC East battle looked liked they’d get punted into orbit on Wild Card Weekend. But now the division race doesn’t look so pointless. That’s mostly because the Cowboys finally showed they can beat a competent opponent with their 44-21 demolition of the Rams.

Dallas has played games against six opponents currently over .500. The Cowboys lost to the first five of those teams and then got a win over the Rams. Those results look like this:

That list doesn’t include a Week 14 loss to the Bears or a Week 7 win against the Eagles. Both teams are now 7-7.

Most of those losses were winnable games that slipped through the Cowboys’ fingers. New Orleans couldn’t score a touchdown against the Dallas defense, and still managed to win. The Cowboys had several opportunities to steal a game from the Vikings, but repeatedly made costly mistakes in the final minutes. The Patriots’ only touchdown against Dallas came because a blocked punt set them up in the red zone, yet the Cowboys couldn’t overcome self-inflicted wounds again.

All those spoiled chances are the reason head coach Jason Garrett is dangerously close to losing his job. It’s also why it was easy to think the Cowboys were doomed when they couldn’t even get the coin toss right in Week 15. Dak Prescott telling the official that the Cowboys want to kick off nearly caused the Rams to receive the ball at the beginning of both halves. It looked like another case of a dumb team doing dumb things.

Ultimately, it didn’t matter — and not just because the officials reversed their initial decision. It was also because the Rams never threatened the Cowboys.

Los Angeles hasn’t exactly been the elite team it was in 2018. That version of the Rams booted the Cowboys from the playoffs en route to an appearance in Super Bowl 53.

The 2019 Rams did bulldoze through the Cardinals and Seahawks in the two weeks prior to its road trip to Dallas, though. Then the Cowboys shut down that momentum by jumping on the Rams early and keeping their foot on the pedal until the game was out of reach.

It was the kind of performance the Cowboys have always been capable of, but haven’t put together often this season. No team has more offensive yardage in 2019 than the Cowboys. Their seventh-ranked defense isn’t too shabby either. The win against the Rams is what this team can look like when both of those units play well at the same time.

In another year, Dak Prescott would probably be an MVP frontrunner.

His 4,334 passing yards are second-most in the NFL behind only Jameis Winston, and he’s in range of becoming the first Cowboys quarterback to ever top 5,000 yards in a season. He also has 26 touchdowns with 11 interceptions and a 99.3 passer rating.

That’s not nearly enough to keep up with the spectacular season that Lamar Jackson has had in Baltimore. But Prescott’s play is the main reason why the Cowboys average 27 points per game — fifth-most in the NFL.

He’s been sacked just 18 times, the fewest for any player who’s started 14 games so far in 2019. While that reflects well on the Dallas offensive line, it’s also a product of Prescott’s escapability. That was on display Sunday on a 59-yard touchdown pass to Tavon Austin. It was a blown coverage by the Rams, but the throw was made possible by Prescott avoiding unblocked blitzer Dante Fowler Jr.

According to Pro Football Focus, Prescott has been pressured on just over a third of his dropbacks. That’s 18th out of 27 qualifying passers. Prescott is the only one in the league getting sacked on less than 10 percent of his dropbacks, though.

Combine that with Ezekiel Elliott‘s power on the ground and the Cowboys are a nightmare to try to stop when they’re firing on all cylinders. Even though Elliott’s 84.9 rushing yards per game are a career low, he’s still fifth in the NFL in both yards and rushing touchdowns.

The defense has been good for most of the year, too. It gave up 470 yards in the season opener against the Giants and hasn’t allowed more than 400 in a game since. The Patriots and their top-rated defense are the only other team that hasn’t allowed a 400-yard game in its last 13 games.

It still had has rough days, however. The Bills and Bears found far too much success through the air in wins against the Cowboys. But only three teams have been better on third down than Dallas, and the Cowboys are top 10 in the league at preventing red zone touchdowns.

Unfortunately for Dallas, many of those stats were tallied against bottom-feeder teams like the Giants and Dolphins. That’s why it’s so important that the Cowboys proved they can put everything together against a team like the Rams.

The offense racked up 475 yards of total offense with a season-high 263 yards on the ground. Los Angeles, on the other hand, was held to just 22 rushing yards. Dallas helped itself getting an interception, sacking Jared Goff twice, and allowing the Rams to convert just four of their 12 third-down attempts.

The Cowboys’ 7-7 record makes it hard to consider them a legitimate Super Bowl contender. The team’s three-game losing streak in the last month doesn’t inspire much faith.

But Dallas has an explosive offense and a usually stringent defense. It can beat anybody when it plays like it did against the Rams in Week 15.

Oddsmakers probably won’t be on the Cowboys’ side if they make the playoffs. Their only shot to make it to the postseason is to win the division, and that likely means getting pitted against the 49ers or Seahawks. Both of those teams are 11-3 and whichever doesn’t win the NFC West will probably travel to face the NFC East champion in the Wild Card Round.

For most of 2019, the Cowboys have looked like a team destined to get run over in January. Their win against the Rams showed it’s possible that won’t be the case.