The Dallas Cowboys are sitting at 2-4, but the bigger story right now might be the mess around them. The NFC East, once a division with real bite, has stumbled into a stretch so ugly that every team has now gone at least two weeks without a win. That hasn’t happened since the 1970 merger.
It gets stranger. Two of the division’s teams met in Week 5 and still couldn’t produce a winner, as the Washington Commanders and New York Giants played to a tie. So while Dallas has its own problems, the rest of the division has handed the Cowboys an unexpected opening to keep their season from slipping away.
Washington’s season has been a roller coaster, but the numbers are still the numbers: one win, an 0-2-1 mark in the division, and a lot of pressure on Dan Quinn. The Commanders did knock off the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in Week 3, and they showed some fight Monday night by climbing back from a 23-3 hole against the San Francisco 49ers before falling 23-17.
Philadelphia is in a worse spot in terms of momentum. The Eagles have dropped four straight and are expected to be without Jalen Hurts for the rest of the season because of blood clots in his lungs. The health issue is the priority, but on the field the slide has put the Cowboys in position to take advantage when the two teams meet on Monday Night Football.
Dallas, meanwhile, has some reason to believe there’s still something left in the tank. The defense showed signs of life against the Packers, with Dee Winters picking off a pass, Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark each recording a sack, and Joey Porter Jr. turning in a strong performance. If that side of the ball keeps building and the offense wakes up, the Cowboys could make a push.
Then there’s New York, a team that opened the season by shocking Dallas but has done little since. The Giants have beaten only the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans since that Week 1 win, while losses to the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints and the tie with Washington have left them scrambling. Losing quarterback Jaxson Dart has been a major blow, and Week 7 brings another difficult test against the Houston Texans, who are suddenly surging.
For now, the Cowboys are still in second place, tied there with the Eagles and stuck behind them in the tiebreaker. That could change quickly if Dallas takes care of business and Philadelphia keeps sliding. In a division this rough, even a bad team can find a path back into the race.
In Other News...
McLaurin Injury Puts Immediate Pressure On Commanders To Chase Help
Terry McLaurins injury leaves Washington staring at a receiver room that suddenly looks a lot thinner than it did a week ago. The Commanders have built plenty of their offensive identity around McLaurins steadiness and big-play ability, so losing him for the rest of the season changes the conversation for general manager Adam Peters almost immediately.
One name to watch in that search is Brian Thomas Jr., who has reportedly fallen out of favor in Jacksonville. The Jaguars handling of him has only added to the intrigue around a possible trade market, and Washington has to at least be weighing whether to act quickly or ride with what it has while other options emerge. Nothing is done yet, but McLaurins absence has turned receiver help from a nice-to-have into a real roster issue. [Read more 🡒]
Commanders Bye Week Puts Adam Peters Under Pressure Early
The bye week arrived with the Commanders sitting at 1-4-1 after six games, a record that has only sharpened the early scrutiny on the people in charge of building this roster. General manager Adam Peters made sweeping changes in the offseason, and the idea was that Washington would look sturdier and more competitive by now. Instead, the teams issues have been easy to spot, especially up front, where the offensive line has remained a source of frustration and a symbol of how far the roster still has to go.
For Peters and head coach Dan Quinn, the break offers a chance to reset, but it also comes with the kind of pressure that can build quickly when expectations and results are this far apart. The Commanders are already facing questions about whether the offseason work was enough, and the next stretch will matter even more because the frustration around the line is no longer just about one rough week or two. It is becoming part of a broader critique of how Washington put this team together, and whether meaningful changes are coming once the bye is over. [Read more 🡒]
Dan Quinn Gets More Time As Commanders Pressure Keeps Building
Dan Quinn has bought himself a little more time in Washington after the Commanders recent game and the bye week, with the organization not rushing to make any immediate changes. The support appears to be there for now, and the sense around the team is that there is no midseason urgency to make a coaching switch despite the noise that has built around his future.
Still, the pressure has not gone away, only been pushed down the road. Quinns standing beyond this season remains unsettled, and everything now points toward the coming stretch as the real test of where this relationship goes next, with results over the final run set to shape the conversation one way or another. [Read more 🡒]