Everything changes, everything stays the same.
Speaking to his team recently, Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett reminded the group that they’re in the exact same spot now that they were in at this time last year, at least relative to the division—which is to say, a game back with four games to go.
"We didn't even think about it until Coach Garrett brought it up,” said veteran tight end Jason Witten, per the Dallas Morning News. "That's important. It allows you to kind of look at it with a perspective of we were in this situation before.”
Granted, a few key things were different when the Cowboys were in this position a year ago. For one thing, they were a winning team, at 8-4 after a loss to the Eagles, not 4-8; their franchise quarterback didn’t have a broken collarbone and they had the most dominant rusher in the game on their roster.
Now, with all that stuff working for them last year, they were able to win out and finish as NFC East Champions at 12-4. This year, without that stuff working in their favor? Well, we’ll see.
