FRISCO — Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer believes every week, in his words, is a “championship opportunity.” It’s a mantra he instilled early during his first season as the head coach in Dallas. He’s used it as a touchstone, repeating it often to remind his players that the most important game of the season is the next one, regardless of circumstance.
At this juncture, however, circumstances have made it hard to only focus on this week’s championship opportunity.
The Cowboys enter this week with a 10% chance to make the playoffs, according to ESPN. The simplest and most likely path is winning the division —a possibility opened by a three-game losing streak by the division-leading Eagles and a feeling of pessimism in Philadelphia that even an inflatable positivity rabbit couldn’t fix.
If the Cowboys win two more games than the Eagles do over the course of the next four games, then the Cowboys will be the division winners. They probably need to win the rest of their games and hope that the Eagles continue to falter.
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“If we do well in these next games, we’ve got an excellent chance to write a story that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on 105.3 The Fan this week. ”And that’s out there.”
But ultimately, out of their control, adding a burden for Sunday’s pivotal game against the Minnesota Vikings and the three weeks that follow.
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“It does make you step up,” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said, adding that he thrives when his back is against the theoretical wall. “You can’t take a moment for granted in your preparation, away from the building and the things that you’re sacrificing with your time, whether to study the game or take care of your body. Everything matters. And when you’re in these positions, you understand that.”
The Cowboys have acknowledged their part in their current reality. They only had three wins through their first nine games of the season, though they could’ve had more.
They let a potential comeback in Philadelphia slip through their hands in the season opener. They fell on the road in Carolina on a last-second field goal, though they had chances to win prior to that moment. Even their 40-40 tie against the Green Bay Packers will be remembered because of the one second that remained on the clock in overtime when a Jordan Love pass to the end zone was deflected down, instead of bouncing upward. A deflection in any direction other than downward might’ve led to one more second of gametime, resulting in a pivotal win for the Cowboys.
In a glass-half-full way of thinking: All of those things, according to Prescott, happened for a reason. In his mind, a 3-5-1 start for the bye week might’ve sparked Jones, the team’s general manager, to make a big swing at the trade deadline and acquire All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, whose presence has marked a significant change in the Cowboys’ defense.
“Do we make the changes and do what we do in the bye week to even have the team that we have now? Probably not,” Prescott said.
Schottenheimer insists their approach this week hasn’t changed. The messaging, to use another one of his favorite words, has been consistent. He said the team’s goal every practice is to “throw a perfect practice.” Like a pitcher searching for a perfect game, they strive for no errors and no blemishes. Schottenheimer believes that approach keeps his team focused on the next step, rather than the bigger picture.
“You don’t say, ‘Oh, man, we’re four games away,’” Schottenheimer said. “I’m not going to change. They’re not going to change. We’re talking the same way as we do in April as we do in December, January, and beyond.”
In April, however, the Cowboys had room for error, whether they admit it or not. Now, they don’t. It’s a burden that even Prescott acknowledged.
“It’s not heavy, even if I feel it,” Prescott said about their current place in the standings, “and obviously I think about it a lot. I say that to say that I want that. That’s unfortunately the situation that we’ve put ourselves in and that’s the only way that we can get out of it. It’s not like it’s some, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this is on me,’ or ‘This is stress.’ No. This is just the avenue that we have to go and the only way that we can get out of this is handling our business.”
One championship opportunity at a time.
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