Cowboys and playoff picture

Cowboys looked real strong on Thanksgiving Day clobbering the Seahawks. Truthfully, the Cowboys might be the only team in the NFC that can line up man-to-man with the Giants and win on purely personnel matchups. There are other teams that are dangerous - Carolina and Tampa Bay are both 8-3. Atlanta looks pretty good and Arizona with those great WRs can give any team trouble on any given day. Even the Saints, with that big offense can be a challenge, although they are only 6-5 right now and trailing in the wildcard race. But all of these teams have some weaknesses and the Giants, with their balance can find a way to just line up and beat them. Dallas is a different story. Their personnel is outstanding: 13 pro-bowl players and a 13-3 record last year was not an accident. Romo is good at qb, he's probably the 2nd best qb in the NFC East. Their skill position players are outstanding and their defensive front is also excellent. The Dallas weaknesses are in their DB-field which is overrated and in their OL, which, though very large is not that athletic.

Despite these small weaknesses, their personnel matches up well with the Giants and I would like to see them not make into the playoffs. The Cowboys are 8-4 and have 4 relatively hard games left: @ Steelers, Giants, Ravens and @ Eagles. If they split these 4 games, they will finish 10-6 and have a good chance of nabbing the wildcard. It looks likely that one of the wildcards will come from the NFC South and only one this year from the NFC East. The Redskins, after their game this Sunday against the Giants, play: @ Ravens, @ Bengals, Eagles, @ 49ers. Redskins have an easier last 4 games than the Cowboys with two games against very weak teams, even though three are on the road. Redskins rely so much on their running game, I can see their matchup against the Ravens who defend the run so well, could be a tough game for them. But if Giants beat the Redskins and lose to the Cowboys, the Cowboys will be one game up on the Redskins and it will probably come down to a tiebreaker. Head-to-head is first and Redskins-Cowboys split their two games. Next tiebreaker is division record and conference record, which Cowboys will have a good chance to win if they beat the Giants.

Stay tuned.