The Morning After Wk 18 - They Left No Doubt
Dallas encountered early stumbles, react appropriately and drill Washington.
The Dallas Cowboys fan experience is a topic that I follow with great interest and have since 1998.
Heck, I might not just follow it, I might actually run a newsletter for those who experience it to provide a community where shared experiences assist in navigating these waters.
Regardless, through this enterprise as well as my actual day job, I hear from hundreds of Cowboys fans every week. Hundreds. And I know how you feel, because many of you tell me. So, by extension, I get it.
I realize you have been in the desert a long time and because of that time wandering around with no destination, I get that many of you believe that this is where you will always be.
But, there have been a lot of signs during the 2023 season that tell us they are much closer to exiting the wilderness than they have been in a long time. They do things as a football team and as an organization that are not “typical Cowboys.”
These guys are much better positioned and much better equipped than previous iterations of Cowboys football that I remember.
So much so that whoever claimed to me that honoring Jimmy Johnson in the Ring of Honor on Dec. 30, might have been the successful unlocking of the Cowboys Curse (the alleged mysterious force that has sabotaged them for over 25 years or so) needs to be properly recognized.
They might actually be on to something.
Think about it, Jimmy stood at midfield on Saturday Night and yelled “How ‘Bout Them Cowboys!” at the top of his lungs (perhaps to undo the mystic spell) while surrounded by all the living Cowboys legends. That happened 9 days ago. Since then, we have had:
The end of the Detroit game that seemed to be the Cowboys extracting victory from the jaws of defeat as they were somehow aided by incompetent league officials.
The entire Arizona pounding of Philadelphia in Philadelphia to put the second seed back in Dallas’ fortuitous hands.
The Eagles taking huge pressure off Dallas by being down 24-0 at halftime to the New York Giants in Week 18’s simultaneous divisional games to decide the crown.
Dallas weathering a blocked field goal, tipped interception, and many trick plays from Washington and never looking even slightly rattled. They just steamrolled a bad team with so much ease that the fourth quarter was merely to allow Fox to play all of their mandatory commercials.
Given I never really believed there was a Jimmy Johnson curse, I am not here to push any sort of witch-craft-based agenda. But, you have to admit as a battered Cowboys fan, this is a very odd posture to assume for this fanbase. They don’t often enter the playoffs with a feeling that everything is going your way and that your players have a steely mentality to deal with whatever they encounter along the way.
On Sunday, things had a chance to go in the wrong direction and at just the wrong time. They effectively handed Washington a lead thanks to two short fields off some errors that felt pretty self-inflicted.