Bills and Pats-vs-Dallas

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by 12thMan

GM, I hate to beat a dead horse, but let's say the Cowboys beat the crap out of the Pats, and turn around the next week and lose to Minnesota. What good is that stat at that point?

If by beat the crap out of the Pats, we are talking like a solid two TD victory, then I would say losing to Minnesota would be a total fluke.

Dallas has been the second or third best team in football to this point, but I think based on last night, its safe to predict that their offense is about to go through some adversity.

The NFC is going to have about 10 playoff contenders: Dallas, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Chicago, Green Bay, Seattle, and Arizona. Only 6 can make it and one must come from every division. Coming from the best division in football, at 5-0 the Cowboys are not a lock to make the playoffs. They are 1-0 in the division and that is not something I would label an impressive victory.

Lets say they go 1-4 in the division the rest of the way, and for the sake of non-homerism, that victory comes against us on 11/18. They lose to New England next week, and either to GB or Carolina or the Jets (just one of those games). Then they are 10-6 and hold virtually no tiebreakers. If we get just 11 wins and then either New York or Philadelphia comes back to win 10 games (and the chances that one of them does is pretty high), Dallas finishes third in their own division. They can only make the playoffs if none of the other divisions produces two 10 win teams. I think Arizona, Seattle, Green Bay, and Chicago all have a good shot at ten wins.

Here's the point: they haven't done crap within the division yet. Even giving them the benefit of a single win in the remaining division games, they still are a longshot to make the playoffs. 2 of their 5 victories have come against crappy out of conference opponents which are useless for tiebreaker purposes. Don't crown them just yet. What they have done is impressive, but also meaningless if, by chance, they do what every team in history has done: gone through adversity.