Morning After Wk 16 - Spoiling Christmas
Cowboys have been officially eliminated, yet put out one of their best games of year.
It is fair to admit we have no idea when the compelling games will come along. And, if you are like me, you fear that the final two months of a very lost season will reveal almost nothing that is even borderline interesting. I cannot create interest and intrigue, but I am looking for it. I am looking for signs of life amidst a season that absolutely encourages some to be cynical and negative about plenty—and for good reason.
But, on Sunday night, dare I say it, we were given a wonderfully intriguing football game where the Dallas Cowboys served the role of spoiler. Now, this is never a desired role, and it is one that should be avoided when you have a choice. A team can only spoil someone else’s hopes and dreams because yours are already dead and gone. It does not hold much long-term value that can be proven.
Yet, there they were on Sunday night. They had nothing to play for but pride and each other. And the "each others" in question were the remainder of the roster, which gets lighter every week. The numbers continue to be tested and depleted, and more were lost for this game. And still, they seem to be playing with more emotion and inspiration than they even had in September. Granted, it is certainly difficult and probably impossible to measure emotional engagement from an entire football team, but the flatness and 1,000-yard stares we saw in Weeks 2 and 3 have been replaced with something much more like it. This current Cowboys team seems charged up and willing to take some pain to compete.
A game like this—one where you are merely playing out your obligation as a football team to satisfy the contracted 17 games against an opponent that has every reason to capture a victory—starts without a whole lot of belief. But, slowly, as a few things start to go correctly, you can feel the team grow into a mood of defiance. They don’t seem to care about the big picture anymore. They care about the game right in front of them. Maybe even the play in front of them. Sometimes you don’t need the 30,000-foot view; rather, you need to focus on what is right here. This can occupy your time, and on this night, it was the NFC South-leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Buccaneers knew their very important mission. They had to win this game to stay in the driver’s seat against the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta has already swept them, so losing their one-game lead might also lose them a chance to play in the postseason. In a moment, they could go from the No. 3 seed to out of the playoffs entirely as the No. 8 slot. So, Tampa had every reason to take this game—one in which Cooper Rush was their opposition—and make it an easy night at the office. If they did, two home games against Carolina and New Orleans should be free wins, and they could secure an 11-6 season.
We know how this league works most every time. If a team that really needs a game is playing a team that is just trying to get this over with, football is not a sport where “disinterested” can beat “motivated” very often. Tampa Bay should cruise.
Well, it didn’t quite work out that way, did it? Their season was spoiled inexplicably by Cooper and the Cowboys in what might have been Dallas’s best win of the season.