The Dallas Cowboys have a bit of success recently against most of the teams on their schedule

It can often be confusing how an NFL schedule is put together. Using the Dallas Cowboys as an example, we knew every opponent that they would play in 2022 the moment that last season ended. Obviously Dallas would play six games against each of their division rivals, but they were also up to take on the AFC South and NFC North. Given that the last time Dallas faced those divisions on rotation they hosted the Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, and Green Bay Packers they are visiting them this year and hosting the other eight.

But that is only 14 of the 17 games that the Cowboys will play. The other three are a part of their first-place division finish last year as they play the teams who finished in the same place in the NFC South (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), NFC West (Los Angeles Rams), and AFC North (Cincinnati Bengals).

The schedule makes for some trips to places that the Cowboys haven’t been at for some time (they haven’t visited Jacksonville since 2006) and games against opponents who they don’t see a lot. In the spirit of understanding how Dallas has fared against these teams as of late, we looked at their schedule with some recent history added to it.

The Dallas Cowboys have a bit of success recently against most of the teams on their schedule

Part of the inspiration for this ideal actually came from the other football, as in futbol. Sometimes when you look at a soccer team in standings or in an analysis they will include the team’s last five games with Ws and Ls in chronological order (Ds are also used for draws).

We decided to take a look at the Cowboys’ last five games for each of the opponents that they are facing in 2022. While we knew who Dallas was playing this season before the schedule dropped last week we can now look at it in its proper order.

The Cowboys have a winning record in their last five matchups against these teams for 11 of their 14 opponents. That is pretty stout.

The three teams on this season’s schedule that Dallas has lost to more often than not in their last five matchups against are not too shocking. Two teams who have ended Dallas playoff runs are on this list in the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams (we did include playoff games in this sample by the way), but interestingly so are the Chicago Bears.

It is obviously different for each team, but the five years in which Dallas last played Chicago were 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2019. The three Dallas losses were 2012, 2013, and the most recent game in 2019.

Since 2012 the three best records for the Bears franchise were 2018 (12-4), 2012 (10-6), and three seasons tied at 8-8, including both 2013 and 2019. Interestingly enough, the Cowboys have just sort of run into some of the better Bears teams of the last decade when they have squared off and also fallen well short of expectations themselves. The last matchup between the two in 2019 was certainly evidence of that.

Back to the main point, the Cowboys have generally fared well against the teams that they will face in 2022. It goes without saying that the last five games between Dallas and each of these teams will have little to no bearing on the matchup taking place this season, but it is still a fun exercise nonetheless.