The bad news keeps coming for the Dallas Cowboys. First, the team lost wide receiver Dez Bryant for at least half of the season after suffering a fractured foot in the season-opener. Then, starting quarterback and offensive lynchpin Tony Romo broke his collarbone in Week 2, the second such injury he’s suffered in his career. He’ll also be sidelined until mid-season.
And now, the Cowboys will not have their top three defensive ends for Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons, with Jeremy Mincey ruled out with a concussion. Rookie Randy Gregory remains shelved with an ankle sprain, while Greg Hardy is in the midst of serving a four-game suspension to start the year. Tight end Jason Witten, who was questionable to play in Week 3 with ankle and knee problems, will play but it’s likely his role will be limited given his health.
None of this bodes well for the Cowboys’ chances against the Falcons. But it doesn’t doom the Cowboys’ odds of being the NFC East champions for a second straight year. Because, looking around the division, it’s hard to see any other team who wants the division’s top prize—or at least one capable of doing so in any convincing way.
Nothing helps the Cowboys more than their 2-0 record. Two other teams in the East, Washington and the New York Giants, each are 1-2, while the Philadelphia Eagles are one of the league’s surprise 0-2 teams headed into Week 3. And none of the three rivals to the Cowboys seem talented enough to suddenly become dominant. The Giants are too inconsistent on both sides of the ball and prone to collapse—it nearly happened against on Thursday night against Washington, when the Giants went from a 25-6 lead to nearly losing control, ultimately winning 32-21. Washington’s offense is in bad shape with quarterback Kirk Cousins at the helm, and Eagles head coach Chip Kelly’s offseason roster machinations did not produce addition by subtraction, only subtraction, distraction and loss.
Dallas’ weaponry is depleted, but the overarching philosophy of the team hasn’t shifted. Backups, by the very nature of being backups, are not going to perform as well as the starters injuries have forced them to replace. But the Cowboys still look like more capable winners than the three other teams in the division, even with Brandon-Weeden-to-Cole-Beasley just one thing they will try to lean on in Romo’s and Bryant’s absences. As team owner (and team everything) Jerry Jones said on Thursday, “from the standpoint of them not being here and falling off the map, I don’t see that at all. The game is not designed that way. There’s too many people that have to get on the field and play the game.”
That’s not all. There’s also Dallas’ upcoming schedule that works in their favor. There are tough matchups ahead, to be sure, starting with the Falcons on Sunday and extending to the New England Patriots in Week 5 and the Seattle Seahawks in Week 8. But there are other contests that are wholly winnable for the Cowboys, even with Weeden and without Bryant, such as their trip to the not-so-scary New Orleans Saints in Week 4 and meetings with the Giants, Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Miami Dolphins and Carolina Panthers before December gets here and Dallas’ big two on offense return or are close to returning.
The Cowboys could have six to eight wins to their name by the time they travel to Washington in Week 13. And if they lose only two of their final five games, that would be as many as 11 wins and as few as nine; the former would almost guarantee them the NFC East championship and the latter could lead there as well. As we all know, the Giants were 9-7 NFC East titleholders in 2011 and then went on to be Super Bowl champions. And even if the division comes down to the final week of the season, much as it has in the NFC East in recent years (to the delight of the NFL’s schedule makers, who like to plan for such things), who do you trust? A potentially full-strength Dallas team with something to prove, or Washington, with who even knows under center by that time? Exactly.
So fear not, Cowboys fans. Yes, things are ugly right now, and Sunday’s game against the Falcons could be a painful loss. But that does not have to be a harbinger of things to come. Given the nature of the NFC East—not just historically, but also based on what we’ve already seen this year—and the Cowboys’ remaining schedule, things could end as the team had planned, even though their path to getting there was not the idyll they had envisioned prior to opening kickoff in Week 1.