Three things Cowboys must do to reach NFC Championship Game for first time since 1995

Three things Cowboys must do to reach NFC Championship Game for first time since 1995

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The ' appeared to be a harbinger of doom for after a 10-3 start.However, thanks to the that dropped their record to 10-4, the Cowboys still have a chance at the NFC East division title and home playoff games in the first two rounds of the postseason after clinching a berth on Sunday for the. That's a feat not accomplished in Dallas since the Cowboys did so in six consecutive seasons: 1991-1996. They won Super Bowls in 1992, 1993 and 1995, which is the last time they reached an NFC Championship Game. "Hey, this gauntlet of games is laid out nice for us and this is an example of it," Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy . "None of us feel good about what happened in Buffalo yesterday. That's not who we are, as far as how we believe in our team." Here are the three ways the Cowboys can fix some i sues now with three games remaining in the regular season -- at the 10-4 in Week 16, versus the 10-4 in Week 17 and at the 4-10 in Week 18 -- in order to put themselves in a position to prove who they are and to avoid another postseason exit prior to the NFC Championship Game. If the regular season ended today, the Cowboys and would be down to tiebreaker No. Connor Hellebuyck Jersey 5 for the division title. That tiebreaker is strength of victory -- the combined won-lost-tied percentage of all of the teams a franchise has defeated. Philadelphia currently has the edge with a .493 strength of victory to the Cowboys' .379.Fortunately for Dallas, they play the AFC East-leading Dolphins and NFC North-leading Lions in each of their next two games. Should they win out, including a second win against the Commanders, a team they beat 45-10 on Thanksgiving, that standing has the potential to flip. The Eagles play the 5-9 twice with a matchup against the 3-11 in the middle of those two against the G-Men. Winning the division is a nece sity given the Cowboys are 3-4 on the road and 7-0 at home this season."You can't get to where you want to go being a .500 team on the road," McCarthy said of his team's road struggles Monday. "You're not going to be playing playoff games at home with that record either. It's definitely a focus for us." Sunday's faceplant is part of a season-wide trend for the Cowboys. At home, they lead the in scoring offense (39.9 points per game), turnover margin (+10), third-down conversion rate (53.6%), point differential (+171) and time of po se sion (35:11). On the road, all of their numbers in those same categories are considerably worse.Cowboys by location this seasonHOMEROADW-L7-0*3-4PPG39.9*21.7PPG allowed15.4*22.3Point differential+171*-4Total YPG431.7*304.6Total YPG allowed289.4299.1 Turnover margin+10*-1Third-down percentage53.6%*43.3%Time of po se sion35:11*28:32Two of the Cowboys' last three games, at the Dolphins in Week 16 and at the Commanders in Week 18, are on the road, but a game in South Florida on Christmas Eve will likely have fantastic, calm weather. That's ideal for quarterback , wide receiver and the rest of the Cowboys pa sing game. That part of their offense has become its identity on that side of the ball and in the le s than ideal conditions in Buffalo on Sunday, while facing a strong team, struggles occurred.Winning out the next three weeks and avoiding the nece sity to play road playoff games at least until the NFC Championship Game is Dallas' best path forward, if not its only conceivable path toward true contention.The Cowboys entered Week 15 with an 8.3% mi sed tackle rate, the lowest in the NFL. Following their debacle of a defeat in Buffalo that included a whopping 17 mi sed tackles, according to Pro Football Focus, that percentage jumped to 9.3%, pushing their rank to second place behind the ' 8.9% rate for the entire season.Those mi sed tackles, most of which occurred on the edge of the line of scrimmage according to defensive coordinator , played a ma sive role in the ' 49 carries going for 266 rushing yards, an average of 5.4 yards a rush and three touchdowns. While it would be logical to point toward converted linebacker , who played safety prior to 2023, and actual safety among the defensive backs aligning at linebacker spots thanks to season-ending injuries to and third-round rookie as a factor for this run game i sue, Quinn pushed back on that school of thought."It's disappointing knowing that one of the things we hang our hat on is tackling," Quinn . "I'm proud of our group. When we don't hit those marks, there's lots of things you want to poke a hole at." Many of Bills running back chunk plays as a runner, en route to a career-high 179 yards on Sunday, did Dustin Byfuglien Jersey occur after slipping a tackle or after a Cowboys defender flailed unsucce sful past him with a lunging tackle attempt. As cliche and coach speak as it sounds, simply executing better in an area Quinn calls a "secret sauce" for his defense could make all the difference in the world.That execution will be tested each week to conclude the regular season. The Dolphins (19.5% of rushes with a tackle avoided, second-best rate in the NFL), the Lions (17.8%, fifth-best) and the Commanders (19%, fourth-best) all rank inside the top five of the league when making defenders mi s after taking a handoff.McCarthy loves to harp on the importance of "complementary football," meaning all three phases of the game for the Cowboys -- offense, Drew Stafford Jersey defense and special teams -- working in concert to put each other in advantageous positions. None of that occurred on Sunday. The Dallas offense sputtered, resulting in punts on five of its first six drives. Defensive lineman Sam Williams was called for a roughing the kicker penalty on an early Bills punt, and that extra opportunity led to Buffalo scoring a touchdown on the drive to go up 14-0.Defensively, that knocked the team out of its desired play style: facing opponents who are trailing and needing to throw the football. Unleashing All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons, whose 89 quarterback pre sures lead the NFL and whose 22.8% quarterback pre sure rate leads the NFL among players with at least 300 pa s-rush snaps, and the Cowboys NFL-best pa s rush -- they lead the NFL with a 47.1% quarterback pre sure rate as a unit -- is how Dallas wins.In order to do that, quarterback Dak Prescott needs to revive his now dead streak of games with multiple pa sing touchdowns in the first half. He had a streak of seven in a row entering Week 15, the NFL's longest since then-NFL MVP did so in eight consecutive games in the New England Patriots' perfect 16-0 regular season in 2007.Continuing to crank up the carries for running back , who continues to run harder and harder the further he gets from his horrific leg injury he suffered last January at the in the divisional round, will be key as will an even larger dose of CeeDee Lamb. Dallas won't win games with him only hauling in seven catches for 53 yards on 10 targets. Nor will the Cowboys win with their only touchdown coming with under three minutes left to play.Everything the Cowboys do in the pa sing game stems from Prescott's, aka vertical, deep pa ses, as that connection and the threat of it open up routes over the middle for tight end as well as throws underneath to the speedy . A strong pa sing game early can help their defense do what it does best, which will in turn allow the offense to remain in favorable situations for the majority of its ballgames.
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