The Cowboys have concluded their regular season and sit at 12-5. It’s the first time they’ve won 12 games in consecutive games this century, yet Dallas still has to travel to Tampa Bay for their first playoff game in a rematch of their season opener.

So where does the team stand? With a full season’s worth of data in the books now, we have one final analytics roundup from the 2022 season before the Cowboys kick their postseason off. Let’s see how they stack up against the rest of the league.

The season ended on a sour note against the Commanders, and things were bad on nearly every front. While it’s just one game, it was a very bad performance against a very bad team. That’s enough for the Cowboys to drop two spots to sixth in total team DVOA, and they’re seventh in weighted DVOA that reflects how a team is performing in their most recent games.

Special teams took the biggest hit by far. After the worst special teams performance since John Fassel came to Dallas, that unit dropped from fourth to 10th in special teams DVOA. They’re also 17th in weighted DVOA, highlighting a general downward trend for Fassel’s unit as this season came to a close.

The EPA-based team tiers also reflect the harsh reality of that Week 18 game. For nearly two months now, Dallas has been clustered among the other five teams in the desirable top right corner, but that loss to the Commanders has created some distance.

Interestingly enough, the Cowboys jump up to third in total EPA/play when looking only at games since Dak Prescott returned from his injury. The Cowboys are slightly ahead of both the Eagles and Bengals over that span, which includes that disastrous regular-season finale.

Offense

It’s easy to forget how bad this offense was before Prescott’s return, but the unit has made strides since he came back. Still, the offense struggled to improve past a certain point, never reaching the top 10 in efficiency and oscillating between in the 12-16 range. They settle in at 15th overall and 13th in weighted DVOA, which seems about right.

That gives the Cowboys the third worst offense by DVOA of any playoff team. Ironically, the only NFC playoff team with a worse offense is Tampa Bay. They’re ranked just one spot behind Dallas, though the Cowboys are 2.5 percentage points better. It’s a pretty steep drop-off from 15 to 16 this year.

Alright, let’s get this out of the way: Sunday’s game was easily Prescott’s worst performance of the season. Every week in this analytics roundup, I’ve been making the case for how great Prescott has been when he doesn’t throw picks, but that wasn’t the case this week. Prescott was bad in all facets of the game.

He finishes with a career high in interceptions despite only playing in 12 games. Honest fans know that not all of those interceptions were his fault, but it hurts the team regardless. Combine that with Prescott’s poor performances against the Buccaneers and Commanders, and it’s not surprising to see Prescott rank middle of the pack in most of these metrics we track here.

It really is unfortunate, too, because Prescott had been playing some of the best ball of his career. The interceptions were the only thing that detracted from how great his performance was. A week ago, Prescott actually led the league in EPA/play when discounting turnovers for all quarterbacks. But in a league where people only remember what you’ve done most recently, Prescott left everyone with a genuine stinker of a game.

It’s hard to put too much stock into the offensive line after Week 18, as they were forced to reshuffle the whole left side without Tyler Biadasz. That included Jason Peters playing a full game for the first time all year, and Tyron Smith is still clearly getting acclimated to playing right tackle.

That said, this is consecutive weeks in which the Cowboys struggled to run the ball with any efficiency at all. The run game has been a core piece of this offense’s identity all year, and the offensive line was a big part of that. But they haven’t looked the same since Terence Steele went down, and playing without Biadasz this week exacerbated that.

In terms of pass protection, Biadasz finished the year with the least pressures allowed of any offensive lineman that played on at least half of all dropbacks this season; Zack Martin allowed just one more pressure than Biadasz, but obviously played one more game. Neither Biadasz nor Martin allowed a sack all year either.

Defense

The Cowboys defense has lost a lot of shine in recent weeks, and deservedly so, but things haven’t fallen apart. They’re still one of just two defenses to rank inside the top five in both run defense DVOA and pass defense DVOA. That said, Dallas is sixth in weighted DVOA, reflecting their recent struggles.

The good news is that Dallas is expected to get both Johnathan Hankins and Leighton Vander Esch back for the playoffs. Both players’ injuries coincided with the defense’s statistical decline, so getting them back for the Wild Card game is huge.

Speaking of Vander Esch, his return will also be a boon for the Cowboys’ pass coverage. Anthony Barr and Damone Clark have become easy targets in coverage, and neither linebacker has excelled in that area this year. Vander Esch’s passer rating allowed of 96.4 is actually 12th best among qualifying linebackers this year; Barr and Clark, on the other hand, are both inside the bottom 15.

The search for CB2 continues, as well. Nahshon Wright has thus far proven to be the most reliable option in Anthony Brown’s place, but Dan Quinn gave Trayvon Mullen plenty of opportunities against Washington. Simply put, it did not go well for Mullen. There are rumblings that Xavier Rhodes - a three-time Pro Bowler added to the practice squad last week - might be active against the Buccaneers.

Whatever the case is, it’s clear that Dallas has struggled without Brown. Often the target of much derision, Brown deserves some credit now. Brown may have given up big plays with a less-than-ideal regularity, but consider how many times he was thrown at: Brown missed the final five games and still finished with the most targets on the team, in addition to seeing the 11th most targets of any cornerback in the NFL. His 53.5% completion rate allowed on the season was still best among corners on this team, which is a big reason why the defense has struggled since losing him.