ARLINGTON, Texas — As you might expect, Jerry Jones was in a festive, reflective mood late Sunday night after his Dallas Cowboys embodied some sort of statement with their biggest win of the season. The team’s owner is also its chief hype man, and the 33-13 rout of the Philadelphia Eagles provided so much fresh material. He couldn’t get enough.
Jones openly campaigned for his red-hot quarterback, Dak Prescott, to snag MVP honors.
He invoked the image of the legendary Emmitt Smith as he searched deep into the mental archives to find a regular-season victory with similar significance. Kids, that was so classic when Emmitt rallied Dallas to a 1993 season division title-clinching win at the Meadowlands with a bad shoulder.
In laying on effusive praise for his coach, Mike McCarthy, ‘ol Jerry morphed into folksy storytelling mode to make his point. McCarthy again pushed the right buttons in calling plays for his revamped offense, only this time his body significantly ached — four days after he underwent an appendectomy.
“It was like El Cid,” Jones said, referring to the lionized Spanish warrior who was depicted in a 1961 Hollywood version and …
NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.
Well, let Jerry tell us.
“Charlton Heston played the role,” Jones continued. “They strapped him to a horse. He had been mortally wounded. His soldiers quit and his enemy were over-run and they strapped him to a horse and ran him down the beach. His enemy ran and his guys got courage and won it with a dead El Cid.
“Now he wasn’t exactly dead,” Jones added of McCarthy. “But we did have him strapped to the horse, running down the beach.”
The Cowboys (10-3) gained a huge dose of confidence in addition to the colorful commentary from the hype man. Not only have they climbed into first place in the NFC East (with tiebreakers applied), they have claimed a share of the NFL’s best record, too, and match the league’s longest winning streak with a fifth straight triumph.
And, of course, they have fueled questions.
Could this be the year? Finally?
“That’s what I play for,” Prescott replied when asked if he can see taking this team to a Super Bowl. “That’s what this team plays for. That’s what this team has its sights on. But obviously we have to take it one game at a time.”
Obviously.
The Cowboys have won five Super Bowls in franchise history but the last one came nearly 28 years ago — before current Dallas stars Micah Parsons and CeeDee Lamb were even born. In fact, despite fielding a few teams over the years that appeared to be contenders, they haven’t even advanced to an NFC title game since the 1995 season. Rather than ‘America’s Team’ the wildly popular Cowboys have become “America’s Tease.”
So, here they go again. The hope and hype that is quintessentially Cowboys is fueled for another glorious round of potential. Jones thinks this balanced team — with a high-powered offense complemented by a big-play defense and a rookie kicker with a golden, record-setting leg — has the best shot at championship glory since the Tony Romo-led unit in 2007.
That 2007 team claimed the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs with a 13-3 regular season but was bounced in its playoff opener by the eventual wild-card Super Bowl-winning New York Giants.
“My biggest disappointment since being with the Cowboys,” said Jones, who bought the team in 1989.
Asked when he last felt this good about a Cowboys team, Jones talked about another matchup against the Giants. It was in September. Dallas opened the season by blasting the Giants, 40-0.
“Visions of sugar plums,” Jones said. “But that came crashing down, out there in San Francisco.”
The early season hype met a reality check in Week 5 when the Cowboys tried to measure up against the team that eliminated them from the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. They were pummeled 42-10 by the 49ers.
Since that setback, the Cowboys have undoubtedly regrouped. They are 7-1 since losing at San Francisco, and just avenged the only loss in that span — in Week 9, at Philadelphia.
The momentum is flowing. Since Week 9, Dallas has averaged 40.2 points per game, which is best in the NFL. With Prescott playing the best football of his career, the Cowboys have averaged 437.4 yards per game (second-best in the league) and converted an NFL-best 52.9% of their third downs since their last loss. And in the past seven games, Prescott has fired an NFL-high 22 touchdown passes with just two interceptions.
Then think about this team on its own turf, at the glitzy palace affectionally known as Jerry World. The Cowboys won their 15th consecutive home game on Sunday night. And lately it has been one romp after another. Dallas is the first team in NFL history to score at least 30 points in each of its first seven home games.
As Parsons put it, “I like the direction where we’re headed.”
To reach the NFL mountaintop, though, the Cowboys will likely have to prove they can win big games in a direction away from AT&T Stadium — and the road seems destined to go through San Francisco. They could lose their grip on the division lead and be forced to go the wild-card route if the Eagles, with the fifth-easiest remaining schedule, win their final four regular season games. If the Cowboys win the NFC East and wind up tied with the 49ers for the NFC’s best record, they would lose out on home-field advantage because of that trouncing by the Bay in October.
“It looks like we may have a little bigger challenge to come up the back side,” Jones said, pondering the possibility of making the playoffs as a wild-card entrant. “I’m not dismissing the possibilities here. I’ve seen it done before. I saw the Giants do it.”
In any event, the Cowboys have the third-hardest remaining schedule in the league. And they simply have to prove — and probably multiple times — that they can beat a quality opponent on the road. The next test coming at Buffalo on Sunday against a desperate Bills squad that was projected as a preseason Super Bowl contender. After that, it will be a trip to Miami in Week 16 to contend with the high-flying Dolphins offense.
So, as much as they gained a boost by defeating the sagging Eagles, more questions about their viability loom.
Said Jones, “Next week in Buffalo will be a new deal of cards.”
And maybe, just maybe an opportunity to secure a new round of hope and hype.