Dallas Cowboys fan rooting guide for Week 8 NFL action

It’s a Sunday in the fall which means football is going on, but as it is Week 8 of the 2019 NFL season the Dallas Cowboys are officially on a bye.

America’s Team picked up a huge win last Sunday night against the Philadelphia Eagles, a victory that put them in the driver’s seat in the NFC East race. While they’ll pick back up in Week 9 on Monday Night Football, the Cowboys will be relaxing all day today.

Just because there’s no Cowboys game doesn’t mean football isn’t of interest to us, though. There are a number of games that will carry an impact for Dallas on this fine Sunday, and that’s because one of them is already in the rearview mirror.

The Minnesota Vikings took care of the Washington Redskins on Thursday night and while it’s always nice to see Washington lose the reality is that Minnesota is going to be a contender in the NFC so it wouldn’t have been the worst thing had they lost. There’s no use crying over spilled milk so let’s look forward and focus on what matters.

Here’s who you should be rooting for in Week 8.

EARLY GAMES: Falcons, Titans, Bengals, Cardinals, Bills, Chargers, Lions

It goes without saying that we always prefer AFC teams to win over NFC teams because you never know what’s going to happen in Wildcard situations or even if Dallas is in contention for a first-round bye and/or home field advantage.

This is the case with the Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, and Los Angeles Chargers. In order they’re playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (hey... it’s an NFC team), Los Angeles Rams (a legitimate conference contender), Philadelphia Eagles (GO BILLS), and Chicago Bears. Let’s go AFC.

There are some dual NFC games happening though which means we have to carefully choose who we want to root for. This is the case with the Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals, and Detroit Lions as they play the Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans Saints, and New York Giants, respectively.

Seattle and New Orleans are both going to be serious contenders down the stretch of this season and the latter has the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Cowboys by virtue of beating them in Week 4. It sure would be great if we got losses here.

The Lions are playing the Giants which sums up why we’re rooting for them.

AFTERNOON GAMES: Panthers

The only afternoon game that will truly impact the Cowboys is the one between the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers. The latter remains unbeaten on the season and while the former figures to be a contender as well (especially if Cam Newton comes back to his MVP-like form), the best case scenario is limiting where the 49ers are at the moment.

SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL: Chiefs

They’re hosting the Green Bay Packers. Enough said.