DALLAS — Being a sports fan is sometimes about wearing your lucky socks, believing in superstitious activities and clinging to any type of statistic that makes you believe your team has a chance to win it all.
Well, irrational Dallas Cowboys fans...this particular tidbit is for you.
The Cowboys finished their regular season about as sloppy as they could have hoped for on Sunday, as the team lost 26-6 to the Washington Commanders and finished the season 12-5. They will be one of the NFC's three wild-card playoff teams.
However, this continues a trend that has been ongoing since the team's first game of the season on Sep. 11, 2022.
The Dallas Cowboys have had a win-loss pattern that goes as follows:
- 1 loss
- 4 wins
- 1 loss
- 2 wins
- 1 loss
- 4 wins
- 1 loss
- 2 wins
- 1 loss (Sunday against Washington)
So, what's next?
If the Cowboys continue this unexplainable trend, they should (hypothetically) be in line for another set of four wins.
Since Dallas has to play in the wild card against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday, those (hypothetical) four wins would take them through the entirety of the playoffs and include a Super Bowl victory.
Congratulations, Dallas! (Insert winking emoji here.)
While this is clearly coincidental and partially irrelevant, it does show the Cowboys' ability to bounce back after a defeat. Dallas has yet to lose two games in a row all season. The Minnesota Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs are the only other NFL playoff teams that can claim to have done that as well.
Before the Washington game, three of the Cowboys' four victories after their four losses came against playoff teams (Cincinnati Bengals, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles).
On Sunday, the warning signs of a struggle came early and often. In the first two possessions for the Cowboys, they showed that they weren’t ready to play for the top spot in the NFC. Punter Bryan Anger dropped a perfectly good snap, and then couldn’t recover to get the punt off or run for the first down giving the Commanders possession deep in Dallas territory.
The Cowboys eventually allowed first-time NFL starter Sam Howell to easily beat them. Despite having something to play for, the Cowboys had a confusing outlook on the game.
Starting Monday, though, it will be time to see if this pattern has a little bit of destiny to it or if it's just another reason to give fans hope that will inevitably be crushed.