Dallas must do something they’ve never done before

In the 64 previous NFL seasons they’ve completed, there is one thing the Dallas Cowboys have never done.

They’ve never been 5-7 and rallied to make the playoffs. That is exactly what they are being tasked to do this year.

If the Cowboys can win out they would finish at 10-7.

Two teams made the playoffs last year as wildcards with that same 10-7 record – the Los Angeles Rams and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Green Bay Packers slipped in as a wild card team at 9-8 last year. We all know what happened next.

The Cowboys could go 4-1 to get to 9-8 and still get in, but they’d still need a lot of help if they drop one of their final five games.

History Against Them

Dallas has found itself at 5-7 in a season a few times.

However, they’ve never managed to get back over .500 in any of those seasons, much less qualify for the playoffs.

The closest they’ve come to rallying back was all the way back in 1965. The Cowboys won the last two games that season to get to 7-7.

With only 14 games in the season back then, the Cowboys missed the postseason that year by 3.5 games.

In recent years, the Cowboys have managed to rally back from a 5-6 record to finish at .500 or better on two occasions.

In 2012, the 5–6 Cowboys won three of their final five games to finish 8-8. They still missed the playoffs by two games.

In 2017, the 5–7 Cowboys won four of their last five games.

The 9-7 record was one win short of the final wildcard slot.

The five teams left on this year’s schedule are 28-28 combined. However, two of the teams are division rivals – the Eagles and the Commanders – are 16-7 combined.

Those will likely be two very difficult games to win, even just getting one of the two is a hard ask.

On top of that, Dallas would still have to jump over the five teams that are currently ahead of them. They do have two games against those five teams – Tampa Bay and Washington.

They can’t end up tied with the 49ers because San Francisco owns the tie-breaker thanks to a head-to-head win earlier this year by the 49ers.

The Rams and Cardinals are chasing Seattle for the NFC West and play each other, as well as the 49ers before the season ends.

The Cowboys would likely need all of those games to break their way. Which is one reason why they have less than a 4% chance to pull this off.

The Super Bowl That Almost Was

Monday night’s game between the Cowboys and the Cincinnati Bengals will be the 15th meeting between the two franchises.

The Bengals joined the old AFL in 1968 and was slotted into the AFC when the two leagues merged in 1970. Which means all 15 games have fallen in the regular season.

Dallas will carry a 10-4 record into Monday’s game, 7-1 when the games are played in Texas.

Over 40 years ago, the two teams very nearly met in the playoffs. Better still, it would have been in a Super Bowl.

In 1981, both the Bengals and the Cowboys finished the year at 12-4.

Cincinnati won the then AFC Central division while Dallas captured the NFC East.

The Bengals won their divisional round game over Buffalo, 28-21, then survived a frigid day at home to defeat San Diego 27-7 for the AFC crown.

The win sent the Bengals into Super Bowl XVI at Detroit’s Pontiac Silverdome. All that remained was to see who the NFC opponent would be.

The Cowboys had crushed Tampa Bay 38-0 at home in the Divisional round, then headed west to play the 49ers.

Three months before, the 49ers had routed Dallas 45-14. The NFC Championship game was a much closer contest.

As Cowboys fans are painfully aware, the 49ers took a late lead on a Joe Montana to Dwight Clark touchdown pass.

I refuse to speak, or type, those two words associated with that play.

Dallas nearly rallied back to attempt a game-winning field goal. A shoestring tackle kept Drew Pearson from scoring a touchdown.

Then Danny White fumbled the ball away and San Francisco went on to Detroit and their first championship.

What Might Have Been

In that Super Bowl, the 49ers jumped out to a 20-0 lead at halftime, then held off a late charge for a 26-21 win over the Bengals.

If it had been the Cowboys instead, would it have ended with the Cowboys’ third Super Bowl win? Probably.

The Cowboys defense, prior to the NFC title game, had held their opponents under 13 points for six straight games.

The Bengals’ defense wasn’t so stingy. Cincinnati’s offense probably would’ve had the same turnovers and sacks allowed issues against Dallas that they had against the 49ers.

It’s a question that will never be fully answered. But it is the closest, less than two minutes away from becoming reality, that the two teams have ever come to meeting in the postseason.

With Dallas at 5-7 and the Bengals at 4-8, such a postseason meeting this year isn’t going to happen.

But one thing is certain, after Monday night’s game ends, one team will be all but eliminated from the playoffs and the other will be hanging by a thread.