NFC East remains in Cowboys’ hands
LANDOVER, Md. — Mike McCarthy and Ron Rivera are big fans of the NFL schedule-makers this season.
McCarthy’s Dallas Cowboys have a shot at the top seed in the NFC with four of five games left against
East Division opponents. Washington has won four in a row to move into the thick of the playoff race, which is exactly what Rivera wanted from his team with five NFC East matchups left.
“We’re in a round-robin,” Rivera said.
“You have that opportunity, you control it, so you’ve got to go out and do your job.”
The round-robin for the NFC East title begins with Dallas at Washington today. The Cowboys (8-4) enter in first place, with Washington (6-6) and the idle Philadelphia Eagles still in the hunt.
“I love the gantlet of this division stretch,” McCarthy said. “This is going to give us everything we need as a football team to be the best that we can be.”
The Cowboys have been good even without running back Ezekiel Elliott fully healthy. Elliott has been held under 50 yards rushing in four consecutive games for the first time in his career, and Dallas is 2-2 during this stretch, including an overtime loss to Las Vegas.
Washington followed a four-game skid with a fourgame winning streak, riding a strong running game and improving defense into a wild-card spot. It’ll be the first time since the 1995 Tampa Bay Buccaneers that a team finishes the regular season with five consecutive division games.
“These division games are almost like the rivalry games where you have Auburn-Alabama where on paper, Alabama should beat them by 20, 30 points,” quarterback Taylor Heinicke said. “You just know with these division-slash-rivalry games that anything can happen. And we got that five weeks in a row.”
Teammate Daron Payne, who played in the Iron Bowl at Alabama, said it’s a similar mentality: “It’s a got-tohave-it type game, and we
“We’re in a round-robin. You have that opportunity, you control it, so you’ve got to go out and do your job.” Washington Coach Ron Rivera
definitely got to have this one.”
Despite games against the Eagles and New York Giants on the horizon, McCarthy and Rivera are trying to keep the focus today. The tightness of the standings gets the point across.
“Every game from this point on is critical,” Cowboys defensive end Demarcus Lawrence said. “We’re playing for playoffs. That’s the bottom line. We got high dreams, high goals, and we can’t let nobody step in our way and take those away from us.”
Washington is trying to go from 2-6 to NFC East champs for a second season in a row. While Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons, who opted out of 2020, said of Washington’s domination of Dallas last year that “covid year don’t count,” young players on the other side are benefiting from their last late-season run.
“We’ve been in this situation before and dug ourselves out before,” pass-rusher James Smith-Williams said.
“We had faith that we could do it again.”