It's Christmas Morning and my gift was a revelation. The Dallas Cowboys blew their playoff plan B and didn't even know it. They openly admitted their idiocy following a home loss to "the dream is dead" Eagles. Only they didn't realize their enormous mistake. And for some reason, neither did the ever growing pool of sports scrutinizers.
Tony Romo injured his hand during the game. At around the same time, it had become clear that Dallas could not win the NFC East by defeating Philadelphia thanks to the Giants win over the Jets. So the division would come down to a winner takes all in week 17 regardless of how the Cowboys fared. Thus it appeared the decisions from there forward were easy to make. Don't bother asking what the Romo X-Rays revealed, he's not coming back in no matter what. Felix Jones had been nursing a sore hamstring. Sit him so he can saddle up for the one that matters most.
Jason Garrett revealed that the team had a plan set in motion through the week largely dependent on what happened between the Jets and Giants. The message rang loud and clear: if the Giants lost, Dallas would go all in against Philly. If the Giants won, they'd treat the game like the pre-season. It made sense. Except for one huge oversight. If the goal is to get into the playoffs any way possible, the Cowboys blew an opportunity they didn't realize they still had.
Garrett and the Cowboys miscalculated their own postseason possibilities. Once the Giants won, the only thing that was certain was the Eagles were eliminated from postseason contention. Had the Cowboys known that winning the game was still relevant to them, would they have done something different? Is it possible that the Cowboys organizationally didn't know that regardless of the Jets-Giants result, Dallas's wild card hopes hinged on a win? The answer clearly is Yes.
With Detroit beating San Diego, only one wild card spot remained in play being that the Cowboys lost to the Lions earlier in the season. But the Cowboys didn't play the Falcons. And being that Atlanta had two games left, conceivably if the Cowboys had beaten Philadelphia and the Falcons lost their last two in the regular season, even a Dallas loss to the Giants would not have eliminated them from postseason contention. In fact, with a win over the Eagles, Dallas would have ended up with a better conference record then Atlanta should that entire scenario play out (Falcons lose 2, Dallas goes 1-1 with a loss to the Giants). Conference record is what determines the wild card tiebreak between teams who did not play one another in the regular season. Dallas's, under that scenario would have ended up being better then Atlanta's..
I can only guess that because so much attention was placed on the scenarios by which the NFC East were to be determined, that Dallas didn't bother to find out every scenario by which they could qualify for the playoffs. With New Orleans still fighting for a bye, it's not the least bit far fetched for the Cowboys to believe Atlanta would lose on Monday Night. Now of course the Falcons would have to lose twice and their finale is against the coldest team in football Tampa Bay, but the game is going to be played and to suggest anything in the NFL is out of the realm of possibility is being ignorant to the parity of this league. Thanks to Dallas inexplicably having no knowledge of this, now Atlanta can lose their final 2 games and back in to the postseason anyway.
What amazes me most about this revelation is (and I'm not trying to brag here but...) it appeared when I showed up to work Christmas morning even we at ESPN didn't know it. It wasn't publicized very well. And when I brought it up during our meetings, it didn't seem to dawn on everyone that the Cowboys had just made one of the most miscalculated moves in NFL history. They eliminated themselves from wild card contention. Now Romo may not have been able to return regardless of prognosis and the Eagles may have won even if he did. And of course if Dallas beats the Giants, they're in anyway. But who throws away any opportunity to make the postseason and then somehow avoids the criticism that goes along with that asinine decision?
Dallas media, I'm looking at you..
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Yeah, I swore this was the case, but during the Cowboys-Eagles network game telecast, at one point Joe Buck stated that the Cowboys no longer had any chance to be a wildcard.
ReplyDeleteWhen he said it I thought it was odd, because I knew we could finish with the same record as ATL, and I was pretty sure we at least had a chance to win the tiebreaker, but I just assumed I must have miscalculated something when I heard Buck say that, and just assumed Fox and Buck were correct and we had no chance of a wild card.
It is indeed very strange nobody has mentioned this that I noticed. And rather poor journalism by the DFW media, really.
That said, I did know in any case our wild card hopes hinged on Atlanta losing to Tampa Bay, in Atlanta, on the final week of the season. We all know there are no sure wins in the NFL, but as bad as Tampa has looked lately they come close. So, it would have likely been a moot point anyway.
That's really interesting. But could the Cowboys have asked the league to let them know about the playoff scenarios? Or do they have to rely on media outlets like ESPN?
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