Dallas Cowboys primed to return to the playoffs and extend this incredible streak
To inspire his team, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has gone full “Dead Poets Society” and told his team to, “Carpe Omnia.”
In Latin, it means, “Seize Everything.”
Always best to be hopeful, but, just in case, we may need to order a case of T-shirts that read, “2023 Dallas Cowboys: Quos Decipimus.”
In Latin, it means, “Who are we kidding?”
Best to prepare yourself now that your social calendar will open up by Jan. 28, 2024. That’s the weekend of the NFL’s conference championship games.
No need to plan on watching the Dallas Cowboys. We know where they’ll be.
As the 2023 NFL season opens, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the Cowboys returning to the playoffs for a third consecutive season. That would be the first time they’ve achieved that feat since 1991 to 1996.
That was when the Cowboys were defined by Super Bowls, or at least contending for them.
The path is wide, and without too much traffic, for the Cowboys to finally achieve something that has defined this era of the franchise: Their historic ability to avoid the conference title game.
Rather than winning Super Bowls, what currently defines this franchise is an ugly streak.
Since 1996, the Cowboys are 0-7 in the NFC’s divisional round. Seven times they have been one win away from reaching the NFC title game, and lost every single time.
On Jan. 22, they trailed the San Francisco 49ers by four points in the fourth quarter, and could not score another point.
Five of those seven division round games were played on the road.
The faces change, the results don’t.
The coaches for those games are Barry Switzer (1), Wade Phillips (2), Jason Garrett (3) and Mike McCarthy (1).
The quarterbacks for the Cowboys in those games are Troy Aikman (1), Tony Romo (3), Dak Prescott (3).
A few of those games have been painful; the home loss to the New York Giants in 2007, when the Cowboys were the No. 1 seed.
The Dez Bryant “The Catch?” game at Lambeau Field in January of 2015.
The Aaron Rodgers’ miracle throw game at AT&T Stadium in the 2016 season.
The challenge for the present day Cowboys is similar to that of the very old Tom Landry Cowboys, when, before they were known as “America’s Team,” they were more often called, “Next Year’s Champions.”
At this point, Cowboys fans will celebrate a Super Bowl runner-up banner, or “NFC Finalist” ring.
You can’t find a team in sports over the last 10 to 12 years that has been so consistently “around it” without ever having enjoyed one of those “break through” moments.
“The volume is always on 10 with the Cowboys,” NBC’s NFL play-by-play voice, Mike Tirico, said recently on a conference call. He will call the Cowboys’ game on Sunday night in New York against the Giants.
“It’s always max attention, max noise. Hey, sure, let’s bring Trey Lance in here just to stir it up a little bit. How do you not love what the Cowboys have given us in terms of story lines for forever really but certainly over the last (several) years.”
It’s not that any follower doesn’t love it; even if you hate it, you love it.
The problem for a Cowboys fan is that the payoff is just the story line. They are defined not by mediocrity, because they’re better than average.
They’re defined by consistently coming close to reaching an expectation this franchise set decades ago without actually achieving it again.
That has become the most compelling element to this franchise.
At some point, you’d think the law of averages would kick in during one of these divisional round games and the Cowboys would “break through” to make the NFL’s Final Four.
As much as we all may have fun kicking around Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for his ability to run a football team, the team itself is pretty good. Has been for well over a decade.
They’re always around it.
They will be around it again, so go ahead and Carpe Omnia.
When Carpe Omnia doesn’t work out, wear your “2023 Dallas Cowboys: Quos Decipimus” T-shirt with pride.
