Cowboys, Seahawks in must-win predicament
ARLINGTON, Texas — Dak Prescott knows about the stack of scenarios required to get the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs.
There’s no point in looking past the first one, especially since it applies to both teams when Seattle visits today in the return of star Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott from a six-game suspension over domestic violence allegations.
The winning team is still in the NFC wild-card race. The loser isn’t.
“None of those scenarios mean anything if we don’t win,” Prescott said. “So we can talk about them all we want, but the most important thing for us to do is win this game and then we’ll worry about it. Cross our fingers and hope on those scenarios, but all we can do is control this game against Seattle.”
The Cowboys (8-6) lost their first three games without Elliott, forcing them into what they figured was must-win mode with 5 games remaining.
They were right, and now Dallas has matched the threegame winning streak from before Elliott finally started serving his suspension after weeks of legal battles.
Seattle (8-6) is coming off the most lopsided loss in eight seasons under Pete Carroll, a 42-7 defeat to the Rams that put Los Angeles on the brink of the NFC West title.
The Seahawks, who have dropped two consecutive, haven’t lost three in a row in December since 2010, when they made the playoffs at 7-9.
That won’t work this time for Seattle and its injury-depleted defense, most notably stars Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman. The Seahawks have made the playoffs five consecutive years.
“We have never really had to face adversity in the season like this,” receiver Doug Baldwin said. “We’ve endured some pretty devastating losses before, but I think just the time frame in which we are in, the situation which we are in, the state of our roster, age-wise, so many different factors play into it. I think it’s a different place for us.”
Elliott was terse in his first media session, abruptly ending it after a series of questions about his time in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, during the suspension after saying he didn’t want to talk about the saga any longer.
The Cowboys say he’s still the same fun-loving locker room presence from before the hiatus, and a motivated one at that.
“The fact that he probably never let his team down, never been in this position or situation, so to experience that, I know what it lit inside of him and, yeah, you’ll see it,” said Prescott, who was the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year with his backfield mate a year ago when the Cowboys had an NFC-best 13 victories.