Dallas Cowboys Dealt 2-7 Hand: How To Make It Work

2-7.

It’s hard to look at. It’s hard to type. It’s hard to say out loud.

There were a lot of references last week to prior teams that have turned 2-6 records into playoff runs. Those were meant to give the Dallas Cowboys some semblance of hope entering the Tampa Bay game.

“The 1970 Bengals made the playoffs after going 2-6,” (in a 14-game regular season, mind you) was our battle cry. “The Panthers lost six in a row and still made the playoffs just last year!” was the coal in our engine of optimism.

That’s all gone. All that remains is a 2-7 record.

If you’re a Texas Hold’Em aficionado then you know what the worst starting hand in the game is: 2-7 off suit.

For all of you Scrabble fans out there that are unaware of why 2-7 is not desirable, there are a lot of reasons why this is a terrible hand.

These are the lowest two possible cards that you can have that cannot make a straight as there are four cards between two and seven.

Even if they are suited and you somehow pull off a flush, your highest holding member of the flush is a seven. Say you manage to pair one of them… congratulations you’ve got a pair of deuces and unless they’re wild you are in some hot water. This hand is so hard to come back from that it’s actually referred to as “The Hammer” among poker players. Yikes.

The odds vary on how successful this hand is based on the number of players at the table, and the Dallas Cowboys have now drawn it in a four man game against the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Washington Redskins.

I’ve written extensively here at Inside The Star about some different “plans” for winning the NFC East. The first set of plans blew up in my face when the Cowboys lost to the Eagles at home in Week 9. I sat back down and drew up a second plan last week that got off to a rough start two days ago against the Buccaneers.

Third time’s the charm, right?

After some brainstorming thanks to an exchange of Tweets with Chase Aguiar I’ve come up with yet another plan… this one intent on conquering “The Hammer” hand we’ve been dealt.

I’m resilient. And I believe in this team… despite their 2-7 record. I’m also listening to “Fix You” by Coldplay while writing this so I’m feeling inspired. Just go with it.

As it stands this is the NFC East through Week 10:

	Overall Record	Division Record
New York Giants	5-5	2-2
Washington Redskins	4-5	1-1
Philadelphia Eagles	4-5	2-2
Dallas Cowboys	2-7	2-2

The previous variations of my “plans” have involved winning games without a certain star quarterback. We now know: A) that did not happen B) Tony Romo is expected to return this Sunday against the Miami Dolphins

So while I was trying to cook you guys up a “plan” before… I was using a little battery-powered Easy Bake Oven. This team is now cooking with gas. It’s going to be delicious.

Here are the games these teams will play over the next nine days with the dates they’re played on in parentheses:

	Week 11	Week 12
New York Giants	BYE	@WASH (11/29)
Washington Redskins	@CAR (11/22)	NYG (11/29)
Philadelphia Eagles	TB (11/22)	@DET (11/26)
Dallas Cowboys	@MIA (11/22)	CAR (11/26)

Here’s what we need to happen with wins in green and losses in red:

	Week 11	Week 12
New York Giants	BYE	@WASH (11/29)
Washington Redskins	@CAR (11/22)	NYG (11/29)
Philadelphia Eagles	TB (11/22)	@DET (11/26)
Dallas Cowboys	@MIA (11/22)	CAR (11/26)

Say for the first time in 2015 we were to actually catch a break and have this happen (I purposely did not pick the Giants/Redskins game as that does not happen in the next nine days, don’t worry).

Then let’s fast forward to Thanksgiving Night when you’re listening to Aunt Theresa talk about Facebook, figuring out what you’re going to buy on Black Friday, and blah blah blah. This would be the situation:

• The Dallas Cowboys would be 4-7.
• The Philadelphia Eagles would be 4-7.
• The Washington Redskins would be 4-6.
• The New York Giants would be 5-5.
• We would be three days away from the Redskins hosting the Giants.

Imagine if the Redskins won that game? Tying themselves with the Giants at 5-6? Oh my.

Then we’d have the Cowboys at 4-7, Eagles at 4-7, Redskins at 5-6, and Giants at 5-6 with this coming up:

	Week 13	Week 14	Week 15	Week 16	Week 17
New York Giants	NYJ	@MIA	CAR	@MINN	PHI
Washington Redskins	DAL	@CHI	BUF	@PHI	@DAL
Philadelphia Eagles	@NE	BUF	ARI	WASH	@NYG
Dallas Cowboys	@WASH	@GB	NYJ	@BUF	WASH

I know that you’re digging the color-coded madness going on so I’m going to throw some more at you. All three division teams showed a lot more (both good and bad) in Week 10 that we should consider when predicting their games. Washington likes that, Odell dropped that, and Philadelphia could be without the services of Sam Bradford for some time.

Remember greens are predicted wins, reds are predicted losses, and blues are toss ups. All of these “predictions” are what I feel is fair. Greens are what these teams should win, reds lose, you get the picture.

	Week 13	Week 14	Week 15	Week 16	Week 17
New York Giants	NYJ	@MIA	CAR	@MINN	PHI
Washington Redskins	DAL	@CHI	BUF	@PHI	@DAL
Philadelphia Eagles	@NE	BUF	ARI	WASH	@NYG
Dallas Cowboys	@WASH	@GB	NYJ	@BUF	WASH

Let’s assume that both the Cowboys and Giants win one of their respective toss-ups. Let’s even assume that Philadelphia wins theirs. Add those up and you’ve got:

At The End Of The Regular Season	Overall Record	Division Record
Dallas Cowboys	8-8	4-2
New York Giants	7-9	3-3
Washington Redskins	7-9	3-3
Philadelphia Eagles	5-11	2-4

NFC East Champs.

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If you’ve managed to read through all of my plans then let me first say – you’re the best. Love you. Thanks for being part of the ride.

As a reward for surviving “RJ’s Plans” I’ve gone as far as to just give you a numerical breakdown of what we need if the schedule grid just isn’t your cup of tea.

Through the rest of the season we need (however they come):

• 4 New York Giants Losses
• 4 Washington Redskins Losses
• 4 Philadelphia Eagles Losses
• 6 Dallas Cowboys Victories

It doesn’t sound so scary when you say it like that, right? We just need each division team to lose four times and for us to win six. 4+4+4+6 = NFC East Champs.

That’s a lot of data to process. The rest here is just straight from the heart.

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This season has sucked. A lot.

I’ve thought a lot about how maybe if we were 2-7 with our full compliment of weapons it wouldn’t be as bad… because part of what has sucked is we haven’t gotten to watch our favorite players even play this season.

In some ways it feels like the 2015 season hasn’t even started. We skated by the Giants in Week 1 – but we lost Dez. “It’s all good! As long as Romo’s here we’ve always got a chance!” was on the minds of every Dallas Cowboys fan… only to watch him go down just one week later. It was brutal reading Tony’s lips as he said, “It’s broken.” out in Philadelphia.

If you’re like me and you pictured what winning a Super Bowl would this team would feel like you imagined dominating the season and being one of the league’s best teams all year long. You also felt the worst that you have in a long time when the Cowboys fell to 2-7 two days ago.

You know what I know in that the odds of pulling this off are slim – for crying out loud this has never even been done before. In a few months we’ll all celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Championship Game that no one has ever won after starting 2-7.

How awesome would it be to be the first?

Tony Romo has been the single most important person to the Dallas Cowboys organization in a long time. You could argue that, based on how the team has been without him recently and historically, that the only single influence larger than Tony’s has been Tom Landry’s.

Yes, the expectation (and this whole series of plans that I’ve derived) on Tony Romo is extremely unfair… but imagine if he really does pull it off?

It would be unprecedented in NFL, and arguably all of sports, History. It would prove what you and I have believed all along… Tony Romo is one of the best quarterbacks of all-time.

This “plan” is based on what should happen and there has been no larger lesson learned in the 2015 NFL season than that things don’t go according to plan.

For as long as I have watched football the best player that I have ever seen at adapting to things not going to plan is Tony Romo.

So yea, we’ve been dealt this unfortunate 2-7 hand.

Yea… it has been torture to watch these losses mount up.

It has been two of the more frustrating months in Dallas Cowboys History.

I’ve now searched for an answer through three different plans. I don’t know the future.

One thing that I do know is that if there is anyone on this planet who can turn this 2-7 hand into something special… it’s Tony Romo.

That’s our quarterback.

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What’s keeping your hopes alive for the 2015 Dallas Cowboys? Email me your thoughts at Roel.Ochoa.Jr@Gmail.com or Tweet to me @rjochoa!