A Michael Gallup-less offense is one the Cowboys have been successful with before

Week 17 wasn’t kind to the Dallas Cowboys. Not only did they underperform dramatically in the 25-22 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, but they also lost one of their best wide receivers, Michael Gallup, to a season-ending injury. These are two pretty big blows to the Cowboys confidence, but neither should stand in the way of their Super Bowl aspirations.

The good news is the Cowboys have already secured a spot in the playoffs. They may not know what number seed they will be as of yet, but they do know the road to the Super Bowl is still available to them regardless of what happens in the season-finale against the Philadelphia Eagles. The bad news, that journey will have to continue without Michael Gallup.

There’s no denying Mike McCarthy and Company would much prefer to have No. 13 at their disposal in the postseason, but sadly that’s not the way the cards have been dealt. One of their aces may have been removed from the deck, but they still have to play with the hand that fate has dealt out. Luckily, they’ve navigated these waters already once this year.

It’s easy to forget, but the Dallas Cowboys were without Michael Gallup for pretty much the entire first half of the 2021 season after he suffered a calf strain in the season-opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He finally returned in Week 10 against the Atlanta Falcons for the second half of the season. Now, he is done for the year.

Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

During Michael Gallup’s absence from Week 2 through Week 9, the Cowboys were arguably at their best offensively, minus their bye week in Week 7 and their unexpected loss to the Denver Broncos two weeks later. During that time, Dak Prescott and Company were nearly unstoppable, which resulted in a six-game win streak.

So, while Michael Gallup’s potential last season with the Dallas Cowboys may have ended prematurely, hope it still alive they can function at a high level without one of their star receivers. It’s definitely not ideal the way things have turned out, however, the show must go on regardless of how much we wished the opposite was true.

With one less mouth to feed, maybe Kellen Moore can now get back to being more creative with his play-calling like he was earlier in the season when Michael Gallup was sidelined. He will want to feed Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb, but the Cowboys have a viable replacement option in Cedrick Wilson, who will return to the #3 wide receiver role.

All in all, there’s no denying the Dallas Cowboys will miss their best deep threat and red zone target, but the silver lining is they have proven they can be successful without him. Fingers crossed they can go out there and do it once they are in a do-or-die situation after their last regular-season game against the Eagles on Saturday.