Sunday was not friendly for the Cowboys’ playoff chances

Dec 1, 2025
2 mins read
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With the Dallas Cowboys’ back-to-back wins over the Eagles and Chiefs, it gives them a little bit of life heading into the showdown this week with the Lions on Thursday Night Football.

Yesterday was a day filled with watching other teams, hoping they would lose, so the Cowboys could gain some ground in the NFC playoff picture, but as far as the rooting guide, everything that could have gone wrong, pretty much went wrong for the Cowboys.

Winning the division is probably the most straightforward path, but they still have a outside chance at the wild card as well.

Panthers Upset Rams

The biggest upset of the day was the Carolina Panthers upsetting the hottest team in football, and the guy who everyone has for the MVP right now, Matthew Stafford 31-28.

Before this game, Stafford had thrown 28 straight touchdowns before this first turnover yesterday, and he gave the ball away three times, which in the end was the reason that the Panthers won this game and will stay a half game ahead of Dallas for the 9-seed because of the Dallas tie with Green Bay.

Thinking back to the Cowboys-Panthers game, it would have been awesome to have this defense they have now play in that game, because the offense was just fine, they just could not make a stop at that point in the season.

Either way, this was the first big blow to the Cowboys, meaning that one more team will still be with them around the 8-9-10 seed.

Browns Lose Again

The team I was hoping to pull an upset off was the Cleveland Browns. They played the 49ers, who won the game 26-8 to move to 9-and-4 on the year.

They currently hold the last wildcard spot and if the Cowboys are going to catch someone in the standings, it will probably be the 49ers who looked the most vulnerable, I guess.

Cleveland continues to try and buy into this Sanders at quarterback deal, but after he scored 8 points in the first half, he couldn’t move the ball against the 49ers defense.

Heck, they hardly let him throw it to begin with, they ran the ball over 30 times.

The other two games that the Cowboys needed were the Cardinals to beat Tampa Bay, and they lost a close one, 20-17, and the Vikings, with a backup quarterback, could not move the ball against the Seattle Seahawks defense, and lost 26-0.

So legit, every single thing the Cowboys needed to go right yesterday. We weren’t wrong in terms of the playoffs.

Dallas is going to have to win the game on Thursday and continue to take care of business and hope the Eagles can drop a couple of games to maybe the Chargers, Bills or Washington, who they play twice to end the year.

Winning the NFC East is probably the only way they get in.

Shane Taylor

Shane Taylor

Shane Taylor is a sports journalist with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and seven years of professional media experience. He has written 766 articles for InsideTheStar.com, reaching over 928,000 readers. Prior to Inside The Star, Shane worked as a Sports Reporter for Journal Star and a Regional News Reporter for Shaw Media. He currently works in the TRIO Upward Bound department at a junior college.

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