DALLAS — Regardless of the Jacksonville Jaguars' record, the Dallas Cowboys won't be overlooking them in Week 15.
With a win, Dallas can punch their ticket to the postseason, making the noon Central Time kickoff from TIAA Bank Field on Sunday all the more significant.
The Philadelphia Eagles qualified for the playoffs last week with a 48-22 win over the New York Giants. Now it’s Dallas’ turn to take aim at a spot.
The NFC East, and subsequently the No. 1 overall seed in the conference, remains to be sorted out, but the (10-3) Cowboys and (12-1) Eagles are heavily involved. Their rematch on Dec. 24 at AT&T Stadium should provide clarity to seeding in the NFC playoffs.
There are other sequences of events wherein the Cowboys can still get into the playoffs in Week 15 without having to beat the Jaguars.
The first involves tying with Jacksonville, but it would also involve the Seattle Seahawks losing or tying with the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday Night Football. Dallas has not tied since 1969, the last year before the AFL-NFL merger and five seasons before the NFL instituted sudden death overtime in the regular season. Prior to 1974, if teams were tied at the end of the fourth quarter, the game was a tie, unless it was a postseason contest.
If the Cowboys tie, they can also get into the playoffs if either New York or Washington beat each other. Their Week 15 rematch can't end in a tie, the way the Week 13 encounter did, for Dallas to clinch.
If Dallas loses to Trevor Lawrence and gang, the Seahawks will have already had to have lost Thursday night’s game plus the Detroit Lions will need to lose or tie.
The Cowboys can also get in with a Seattle loss and a Washington loss. But of course, Dallas can make things easy on themselves if they earn their fifth consecutive win on Sunday in Jacksonville.
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones told "K&C Masterpiece" on 105.3 "The Fan" that the goal of the team was to do more than simply win 10 games or make the postseason.
"Certainly it’s great to get 10 wins," Jones said. "It’s a complement to what our staff has done, what our players have done. Certainly [the playoffs are] a nice bar to hit, but as we all know, you start every season your goals are to get into the playoffs and win the [NFC] East and then certainly win playoff games and try to win a championship. That’s certainly the goal of this football team."
Regardless of how the Cowboys get into the postseason, their qualification will mark the first time since 2006-07 that they were able to appear in the playoffs in consecutive years. The playoff berth will also make Mike McCarthy the first Dallas coach since Chan Gailey (1998-99) to lead Dallas to back-to-back playoff seasons. 2006 marked the last year of Bill Parcells' tenure, and 2007 was the first season under Wade Phillips.
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