The Cowboys got a much-needed break from the rest of the NFC East on Sunday, and for once, the standings helped soften the sting of Thursday night.
Philadelphia lost to Jacksonville after late-game heroics from the Jaguars, and the Giants and Commanders ended up tied after Washington’s poor clock management. A Commanders win would have been better for Dallas, but the overall day still worked out in the Cowboys’ favor. For a team trying to stay alive in the division race, that mattered.
Dallas still sits in position to climb back into the NFC East picture, but the path is clear: they need wins, and not just any wins. Back-to-back victories have been hard to come by in the Schottenheimer era, with the Cowboys doing it only once so far. That has become the missing ingredient for a team that keeps getting chances handed to it by the rest of the division.
The Eagles currently hold the tiebreaker over Dallas because Philadelphia is 1-0 in the NFC East, while the Cowboys are 1-1. That said, the Eagles also left Sunday looking like a team that should be 3-2 after building a lead against the Jaguars with eight seconds left and still losing. In a week when all four NFC East teams played, the entire division somehow produced zero wins.
That kind of chaos keeps the door open, but it doesn’t solve Dallas’ own problems. The Cowboys are coming off the 24-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night, and the same issues keep showing up.
One of the biggest is the defense’s inability to create a turnover. Dallas is the only team in the league without a defensive interception this season, and when the chance was there to change that against Tampa Bay, they couldn’t finish the play.
DaRon Bland’s drop in the fourth quarter stood out because it likely would have given the Cowboys a go-ahead touchdown with less than four minutes remaining. Instead, the opportunity slipped away, and so did the chance to snap what has become an ugly stretch.
Beyond the immediate standings talk, there is also growing conversation about what comes next if this doesn’t turn quickly. Schottenheimer still has time to steady things, but some around the team are already thinking about alternatives if the turnaround never arrives. Kirby Smart was listed first among five coaches who could take the Cowboys to the next level, with his two national championships at Georgia and the run that followed after losing eight defenders to the 2022 NFL Draft, including five first-round picks, cited as part of the case.
And on the defensive side, frustration is building fast. Christian Parker’s work has drawn sharp criticism after a brutal 2025 campaign, with Jesse Holley posting that “Parker is actually doing much less with much more, making his job performance worse than Matt Eberflus.” The point being made is simple: after another ugly primetime loss, the Cowboys are seeing little reason to feel better about where that side of the ball stands right now.
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Von Miller, meanwhile, has brought a very different kind of conversation to the table. His early impact this season has been limited, and so far his presence has not noticeably lifted the pass rush around him, which matters for a team still trying to figure out how much value there is beyond the name on the back of the jersey. The Cowboys do not need to make any final calls yet, but the way those two players are trending is making the outlook shift faster than expected. [Read more 🡒]
Michael Irvin Just Said What Cowboys Fans Are Thinking About Dak
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What stood out even more was where Irvin wanted the focus to stay. Rather than getting caught up in the back-and-forth around the tunnel, he pushed the attention back to the game and to the larger story of a franchise still trying to shake decades of disappointment. For a team that has spent far too long hearing the same complaints, it was another blunt reminder that the arguments off the field only matter because of what keeps happening on it. [Read more 🡒]
Jake Ferguson Is Becoming A Real Cowboys Concern
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The concern goes beyond a single rough stretch, too. Fergusons fumbles have become part of a larger pattern over the past three years, and his blocking has drawn criticism as well, which only magnifies the sense that the Cowboys are not getting consistent all-around value from a player they expected to anchor the tight end spot. For a team that counts on him in multiple roles, the question now is whether this is just a slump or the start of a more serious issue in his fit moving forward. [Read more 🡒]