The Cowboys return from their bye with a game against the Giants on Sunday night and they’ll be trying to take another step toward the playoffs when the game kicks off.
If the Cowboys can make it to the postseason, it will snap a three-year run of 8-8 records that culminated with the division title on the line in Week 17. The Cowboys lost all those games, including a loss to the Eagles last December that inspired wide receiver Dez Bryant to get an early start on preparations for the 2014 season. That experience has left Bryant with the feeling that the Cowboys weren’t working hard enough over the last few years.
“I’m going to give you my honest opinion. The years that we did go 8-8, I think -- me, because this is just how I am -- I don’t think we worked hard enough,” Bryant said, via ESPNDallas.com. “I’m not saying we didn’t work, like, I mean the offseason, during the OTAs -- not the coaches. That’s on us. The first thing that I did right after the game, we lost to Philadelphia, my brother will tell you -- I was working out the next day. Just because I felt like ‘Damn, we didn’t do enough.’ Obviously we didn’t do enough, they was the better team. It feels different, it’s a lot different -- it’s a lot different from last year. We’re more together, we want it more, we’ve got the same vision, and that’s kind of hard when you’ve got a team like that.”
Bryant had a huge second quarter against the Jaguars in the Cowboys’ last game, but it’s been an otherwise quiet stretch for the wideout of late. He’s had catches in just three of the last 12 quarters the team has played, something that will have to change if the Cowboys are going to finish the job in front of them in the regular season. An injury-riddled Giants secondary might be just the thing to get him back on track.