Yes, Dallas, we're saying there's a chance to make the playoffs
- - Yes, Dallas, we're saying there's a chance to make the playoffs
Jay Busbee December 18, 2025 at 2:06 AM
1
Back in 2016, Leicester City won the Premier League despite having preseason odds of 5000-1. Two years later, 16th-seeded UMBC knocked off No. 1 Virginia in the NCAA tournament, a feat estimated at worse than 1000-1 odds. And in 2019, the Avengers overcame 14 million-to-1 odds to beat Thanos.
Compared to all that, then, the Cowboys’ 1-in-64 chance to make the playoffs seems downright easy.
Yes, unbelievable as it seems, the 6-7-1 Cowboys are still technically alive in the playoffs. Dallas can’t claim the wild-card spot — the best the Cowboys could do is finish 9-7-1, and they’d lose a tiebreaker to Green Bay for that last spot. That means the only way for Dallas to get into the playoffs is via an NFC East title … and there’s only one way to an NFC East title.
There are now 64 scenarios left in the NFC East. And the Eagles win 63 of them.Hang on there, Cowboys. pic.twitter.com/FK158DAlxf
— Bryan Knowles (@BryKno) December 15, 2025
Yes, Dallas has to win out, and Philadelphia has to lose out. That’s it. That’s the only scenario out of 64 possible if-then options. (Note that this is different from actual odds; this assumes that every game is a 50-50 proposition, which is obviously not the case.)
So in the interests of science, game theory and making Cowboys fans squirm, let’s run through the schedules to close out the season:
Dallas faces the Chargers at home before going on the road against Washington and the Giants.
Philadelphia gets Washington at home and away, with a game in Buffalo in between.
Yeah, uh … no disrespect to the Washington Commanders and their fans, but that doesn’t look good for the Cowboys. At all. Buffalo is playing well enough to beat Philadelphia, but expecting Washington to take down the Birds twice in three weeks? Probably not happening.
There will be autopsies and postmortems aplenty for the Cowboys’ season, the way there always are. But it’s already obvious their problems run through an atrocious defense. Only three teams have surrendered more than the Cowboys’ 374.9 yards per game. Only five have intercepted fewer passes. Only the Bengals have allowed more than Dallas’ 30 points per game. No defense has committed more than Dallas’ 113 penalties, no team has allowed more drives to end in an offensive score (48.7 percent).
The defense’s impotence is all the more maddening — even without the obvious absence of Micah Parsons — when you consider that Dallas’ offense leads the league in total yardage and passing yardage, and ranks fourth in points per game. Dak Prescott leads the league in yardage, attempts and completions, and ranks second in Quarterback Rating and third in touchdowns. The offense finally came together right as the defense fell apart.
The on-field results have been pretty much what you’d expect. Only two of Dallas’ seven losses have been by fewer than eight points. And Jerry Jones has been less than glowing in his review of Matt Eberflus, the Cowboys’ third defensive coordinator in three seasons.
So yes, the Cowboys will almost surely miss the playoffs once again. It’s been an even 30 seasons since Dallas reached even the NFC conference championship. But hey, if they could pull it off this year, well, that might just warrant another eight-episode Netflix documentary.
Source: “AOL Sports”
