It’d be hard to overstate the significance of the Cowboys’ 29-24 loss to the Giants last Sunday at Cowboys Stadium, in terms of the team’s playoff hopes.
Had Dallas been able to complete the comeback and steal a win from the reigning Super Bowl champions, they would have been just a half game back of the Giants for the NFC East lead going into the week nine matchup with the Falcons and, having swept the season series, owners of the tiebreaker should it come to that. But having fallen short on Sunday, they’re two and a half games back, and in real danger of watching the playoffs slip from their grasp.
“It is running, and we’re starting to get very urgent, having to be very urgent--not that we shouldn’t be,” said owner and general manager Jerry Jones following the loss, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I thought we played urgent when we played behind. But we’re starting to run out of our opportunities here with New York where they are in the East.”
Frankly, at 3-4, there’s a tough road ahead for Dallas. Realistically, they’d have to go 6-3 the rest of the way out to so much as be in the playoff discussion in the NFC, and they’re staring down an unforgiving stretch of schedule, beginning this week in Atlanta and continuing next week in the unfriendly confines of Lincoln Financial Field in Philly.
“We know what we’ve got ahead of us,” Jones said. “Now we’ve got our work cut out for us. We really do. We wanted to--with them leading our division--we needed to win this ballgame.”
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