The Cowboys trail the Eagles by four games in the NFC East. Philadelphia is one of eight teams in the NFC with a better record than the Cowboys, and the Packers have the same 5-5 mark but hold the head-to-head tiebreak.
Dallas has lost two in a row, plays Thursday and knows it won’t have Sean Lee and Ezekiel Elliott and might play again without Tyron Smith and Dan Bailey.
Where do the Cowboys go from here?
“We missed all those guys,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “A lot of teams are missing guys and missing key guys. Our quarterback [Dak Prescott] is standing. He’s a key, and I know those other guys are our best players arguably, frankly, at those key, critical positions. We know what Lee is.
“It’s real hard for me to do anything but think about what we can do about this. That’s what I should be thinking about. We’re not going to get in here and in any way feel sorry for yourself, and I’m certainly not going to resign over this. I’m not going to be changing any coaches out or anything like that. I still drop down every night and put those elbows on the bed and thank God for Dak.”
Jones has maintained his sense of humor despite the Cowboys’ struggles, which has seen them score one touchdown in their 23 drives over the past two games. That has the Cowboys’ playoff picture out of focus with six games remaining.
“We can all add,” Jones said. “We can all see how we’re playing right now. Then, you can put the subjective aspect in there, plus the real world of arithmetic, and we can come up to our own conclusions. Really we can.”
The Cowboys have not made back-to-back playoff appearances since 2006-07.