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Expectations remain high for Dallas Cowboys

It's not quite Super Bowl or bust for the Cowboys this season but the expectations are always high in Dallas
Credit: Joe Robbins
CANTON, OH - AUGUST 04: Dallas Cowboys fans are seen prior to the 2018 NFL Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium on August 4, 2018 in Canton, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

DALLAS —

The football playoffs are really unique, in the major sports. For lots of reasons. There are, of course, a LOT fewer games – baseball, basketball, and hockey are all best of seven, while football is best of one.

And even though the twelve teams that make the playoffs is comparable to the number that make it in other leagues, first round byes make such a big difference.

The New England Patriots have had an unbelievable run over the last decade, and more, but they’ve also rarely had to play more than two playoff games before making the Super Bowl.

Divisions are another big deal. In baseball, you're encouraged to win your division so as to avoid playing a do-or-die one game playoff Wild Card game to open postseason play. Anything can happen in that one game and suddenly a team could find itself on vacation after they played 162 games just to reach October baseball.

Basketball gave up on emphasizing divisions some time ago, and in no small part because of your hometown Dallas Mavericks. When the Mavs and the San Antonio Spurs met in a barn burner of a semi-finals, that was enough for the league to focus on conferences.

Meanwhile, only two teams can make the NFL playoffs, total, who do not win their division.

Actually, though, that’s not the important difference, when it comes to conferences. In basketball, you play each of your division mates as often as you play every other team in your conference – four times, for a total of twenty games out of eighty-two, spread over four different teams.

In football, you play each of the three teams in your division twice and the season is only sixteen games long. So, you have six out of your sixteen against division opponents. That’s the difference between a ten-win season and a four-win season. And the NFL has never done anything to try to readjust divisions for competitive balance.

So, to use the Patriots as an example again, the New York Jets have averaged 6.5 wins over the last seven years, the Miami Dolphins 7.5, and the Buffalo Bills 7.2. Just as a comparison, the Cowboys have averaged nearly 9, even with a 4-win season three years ago, and have only made the playoffs twice in that time.

The Pats, in other words, have an easy road to having to only play two playoff games before potentially playing in the Super Bowl and the Cowboys have a hard one to even making the playoffs.

There is no question that it is time for the Cowboys to win more than one playoff game. They’ve rarely won one of late, but it’s been literally 23 years since they won two. That’s how the team will be judged this year, and that’s how it should be judged.

But, in football, a team can be plenty good and not make the playoffs, so long as there’s a better team in their division, and of course, only four teams from each conference even make the second round, half the number you get in basketball. You can’t just be good, you have to be one of the very best teams in the league.

For really thirteen years now, the Cowboys have mostly been a good team. They’ve won nine games or more eight times in that span, and 11+ four times. They’ve only had two losing seasons, which is very impressive, and in both cases the major cause was an injury to the starting quarterback.

They have, however, never once been one of the best four teams in the league. That’s the only thing that will make Dallas fans stand up and take notice, and it’s the only thing that will make the season a success.

What would you consider to be a successful 2018 season for the Dallas Cowboys? Share your expectations with Andy on Twitter @andytobo.

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