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Losing in the NFL is always a downer, but losing the week before your bye is particularly gloomy because you have to sit on those feelings for two weeks.
To be honest, there’s been a sense of doom and gloom concerning the Cowboys for more than a few weeks now. The sense surrounding the team these days is one of almost pure negativity as evidenced by SB Nation’s FanPulse tool (which shows how back and forth Cowboys fans tend to be).
This week the FanPulse survey asked every NFL fan base a simple question with what can often times be a complicated answer: Will your team make it to the playoffs this season?
Cowboys fans generally don’t think this is a playoff team
Only 27% of Dallas Cowboys fans feel like this team is going to be playing a 17th game this season. That’s good for the ninth-lowest level of belief across NFL teams.
An astounding 93% of Redskins fans believe that the team that just beat Dallas will be playing in the postseason while those that have made the worst decision possible in life Eagles supporters are the exact inverse of the Cowboys with 73% believing in January football.
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The Cowboys did just trade for wide receiver Amari Cooper who everyone is hoping returns to the superstar numbers he put up in his first two seasons in the league. Tony Casillas and I talked on the latest episode of The 75O about how Amari could be good for an additional 4-7 points per game for the Cowboys. Assuming that’s true, and using that logic looking at the games they’ve played this season, you can make an argument that Dallas beats both Houston and Washington with Cooper in their offense.
Dallas still has a game remaining against the Redskins (Thanksgiving will be fun) and both contests against the Eagles. They certainly have more than enough time to make their mark on the division plus they have winnable games like the Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to help inspire more confidence.
While only 27% of Cowboys fans have playoff hopes it’s fair to deduce that the Cowboys themselves really believe they can make it there. Dallas wouldn’t have traded away their first-round draft pick for next year before Halloween if they didn’t think this season was still salvageable to a great degree. Will they be proven right, or will the 27%? Only time will tell.