Don’t Stop Believing: Cowboys Scenarios To Winning NFC East Title

The Dallas Cowboys are, through their first six games of the 2015 NFL season, 2-4. That’s tough cookies.

There is one goal for this 2015 season – win the Super Bowl.

I’ll have you know that this year is actually Super Bowl 50… the golden anniversary of the biggest game in sports.

Some simple math will tell you that means there have been 49 teams who have stood on top of the world, bathed in confetti, raising the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Of those 49 Super Bowl Champion teams… 0 have been 2-4 through their first six games. Zero. Goose egg. Zilch. Nada. None. It has never been done.

Enter the 2015 Dallas Cowboys.

Before I get you all excited let me pump the brakes on this ride a bit. We need to get into the playoffs before we even have a shot at the Super Bowl (duh). I’m here to tell you that the playoffs, even with a 2-4 record, are still well within reach. And everyone knows that to win the Super Bowl, all you need is a ticket to the dance. It doesn’t have to be the first or the prettiest, any ticket gets you into the tournament.

“How is this possible? We’re 2-4. Feels like we’re 0-100. I know that the division is terrible, but what needs to happen for us to win it?”

I’m glad you asked!

This season has really come down to the next five weeks/games. Why these five? Well since you seem to just be full of questions today… the next five games carry the Cowboys through Thanksgiving. After the Cowboys play the Panthers on Turkey Day, they’ll get 11 DAYS of rest before heading to Washington for a Monday Night matchup against the Redskins. The locker room after the Panther game is the next checkpoint on the 2015 season. We need to get there in good standing.

Of course there are games that are pivotal after that stretch, but these five in question are what’s going to serve as the equalizer to get the Cowboys back in the mix for when the cavalry (a #9-shaped cavalry) returns… Not forgetting Dezzy Bryant either.

That crownie-loving cavalry, aka Tony Romo, is eligible to return in Week 11 against the Miami Dolphins. Now would you stop asking questions and let me drop knowledge on you? Sheesh.

As we enter Week 8 of the 2015 NFL season these are the standings within the NFC East:

1. New York Giants (4-3)
2. Washington Redskins (3-4)
3. Philadelphia Eagles (3-4)
4. Dallas Cowboys (2-4)

Here are the next five weeks/games for all four of those teams, which will effectively decide this division this year:

	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12
NYG	@ NO	@ TB	NE	BYE	@ WASH
WASH	BYE	@ NE	NO	@ CAR	NYG
PHI	BYE	@ DAL	MIA	TB	@ DET
DAL	SEA	PHI	@ TB	@ MIA	CAR

Alright so now we’ve laid out all the puzzle pieces… time to put it together.

We’re going to look at this next stretch in three different hypotheticals: Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C.

Plan A: Very Cowboy-friendly. I thought about naming this “pecan pie” because it’s what solves all of our problems. Plan A assumes that all the breaks go our way, but it’s not overly optimistic expecting the division rivals to lose every game.

Plan B: This is the most reasonable expectation for this stretch. Plan B, aka Ham Sandwich, is assuming that the other division teams win the games that they should AND that the Cowboys win/lose the games they should from a reasonable perspective.

Plan C: Defcon 5. This is break-the-glass-pull-the-fire-alarm type stuff. The good news about Plan C (aka Steamed Broccoli) is that the division crown is still attainable with it. It’s just the scariest plan.

Plan A

	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Record After
NYG	@NO – L	@TB – W	NE – L	BYE	@WASH – L	5-6
WASH	BYE	@NE – L	NO – L	@CAR – L	NYG – W	4-7
PHI	BYE	@DAL – L	MIA – L	TB – W	@DET – L	4-7
DAL	SEA – L	PHI – W	@TB – W	@MIA – W	CAR – L	5-6

“I THOUGHT YOU SAID THAT PLAN A OR PECAN PIE OR WHATEVER YOU CALLED IT MEANT THE COWBOYS DOMINATED THIS STRETCH?”

Dude. It does.

As you can see I have deemed that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the sacrificial lamb of the NFC East as the only wins I gave the Giants and Eagles were against Famous Jameis. The lone Washington win was against New York, a game where we’re definitely going to need Kirk Cousins to “like that.”

Obviously the Cowboys could surprise against Seattle on Sunday, they sure do get up for games against the Seahawks, but I thought a loss here was reasonable. As was a loss against the Panthers on Thanksgiving. Consider that the Cowboys will have four days rest after a game IN Miami. Remember Thanksgiving last year? No bueno.

The Cowboys would be tied for first in the division at this point with the home stretch ahead of them… with all of their Stars at their disposal. This is a huge victory.

Plan B

	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Record After
NYG	@NO – L	@TB – W	NE – L	BYE	@WASH – W	6-5
WASH	BYE	@NE – L	NO – W	@CAR – L	NYG – L	4-7
PHI	BYE	@DAL – L	MIA – W	TB – W	@DET – L	5-6
DAL	SEA – L	PHI – W	@TB – W	@MIA – W	CAR – L	5-6

“I don’t feel so great about this scenario. We’re a game back from first place, and we’re tied with the Eagles for second!”

I’m telling you… everything is still a-ok here. To come out of Thanksgiving, with 11 days of rest in front of us, only one game back of the division would be incredible. The stretch after Thanksgiving, when you’ll be searching everywhere for my Christmas present, leans a little bit more in the Cowboys favor than anyone else’s. More on that later.

You might want to pause for a second here.

We’re about to get into Plan C and it’s… well it’s not pretty. I’ll just say that I’d rather have to watch every episode of Pretty Little Liars a thousand times than live this out.

Grab a tub of ice cream and throw a blanket over your head as I unveil this horror. Kind of appropriately since Halloween is this weekend. What are you dressing up as? I was thinking about going as Marty Mc-

“ENOUGH SHOW IT TO US ALREADY!”

Ok, relax. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Record After
NYG	@NO – W	@TB – W	NE – L	BYE	@WASH – W	7-4
WASH	BYE	@NE – L	NO – W	@CAR – L	NYG – L	4-7
PHI	BYE	@DAL – W	MIA – W	TB – W	@DET – L	6-5
DAL	SEA – L	PHI – L	@TB – W	@MIA – W	CAR – L	4-7

*sobbing*

“I should have just let you tell me about your Halloween costume. Now I’ve eaten all this ice cream and I hate myself. And you. This is terrible. My poor eyes.”

Yea, the G-Men really like Plan C. I cautioned us all against the Giants getting too far ahead during the Cowboys bye week. Thankfully the Eagles managed to beat them two weeks ago or this would be even worse.

A few things about Plan C.

1. The Redskins are 4-7… as they are in Plans A and B. They are not a good football team and Kirk Cousins should really celebrate what they did last week because that’s the end of it. We do not need to worry about them.
2. Philadelphia beats us at home, I know it sucks. Detroit isn’t even a guaranteed loss for them, especially if they don’t play like the Philly Sam Bradfords, but even then… they’re going to beat the Bucs. The Dolphins should be able to take care of them, but they’ll be in the race entering December here.
3. The Giants are running away with this thing. They’ve got what could be two cake walks in front of them with New Orleans and Tampa Bay. We need to pull hard for the NFC South these next two weeks. Who dat.

Feeling better? Because I’ve got something that’ll help. It’s the schedule for each team after Thanksgiving.

	Week 13	Week 14	Week 15	Week 16	Week 17
NYG	NYJ	@ MIA	CAR	@ MINN	PHI
WASH	DAL	@ CHI	BUF	@ PHI	@ DAL
PHI	@ NE	BUF	ARI	WASH	@ NYG
DAL	@ WASH	@ GB	NYJ	@ BUF	WASH

There’s a lot of good news here.

“BUT WE PLAY THE PACKERS IN GREEN BAY! AND THE BILLS IN BUFFALO!”

I’m really going to need you to quit interrupting so I can save the day. Thanks.

Look at the Giants. They’ve got the Jets, Panthers, Vikings… those are tough games against teams on the rise right now. Not to mention that they play the Eagles. So somebody’s got to lose that game. Yay!

Washington might beat the Bears. Maybe.

I would feel bad for Philly if I didn’t hate them with every ounce of me. Pats, Bills, Cardinals all in a row… ouchie. After those fun times they’ll pancake the Redskins before they have to play the Giants! Someone is going to lose that game! Yay again!

“Not to interrupt or anything, RJ… but I’m with you now. I threw the ice cream away and everything. Bring this damn thing home.”

Going to Green Bay and Buffalo is tough, I won’t lie to you about that. The good news is that:

1. This is an EXCEPTIONAL road team.
2. The Cowboys have a score to settle in Green Bay. No way they are losing that game. Dez might break the single-game yardage AND touchdown records.
3. The Buffalo Bills are coached by Rex Ryan so you know something is going to go wrong.
4. Two games against Washington in December sound better than that ice cream you just tossed. Hello, Kirk Cousins. This is Greg Hardy, Randy Gregory, Tyrone Crawford, Demarcus Lawrence, Sean Lee, Rolando McClain, and the rest of Rod Marinelli’s fun bunch. We can’t wait to give you your Christmas present.

So have some faith, Cowboys Nation! Obviously we’re rooting for Plans A, B, and C in that order… but even if Armageddon happens (don’t want to cloooose my eyes) everything is going to be ok.

The next five weeks are really important, and specifically the next three. If we can come out of these next 21 days with two wins then we are well on the way to making Plan A a reality.

Get ready for Sunday. Plan A is going into effect and you won’t want to miss it.

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~ Follow RJ Ochoa on Fancred ~

What do YOU think? How realistic do you think Plans A/B/C are? I want to know! Email me your thoughts at Roel.Ochoa.Jr@gmail.com or Tweet to me @rjochoa!