It's Not Where You Start, It's Where You Finish

New week, new hot take, *insert smiling devil emoji.* I have no faith in the Dallas whatsoever. Last week’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals highlighted that fact once again. They can’t seem to get anything going, there is a plethora of mistakes and miscues, they have so many injuries, Jerry Jones is a mess, need I go on? Their dry spell at home outside of the Giants continue. I get it, bounce back games can be misleading in the sense that you believe you’re a better team than you are because you beat a bad team, but the Cowboys issues have been on full display since arguably the end of last year. I’m not going to get into front office conjecture, all I’ll say is the they'll never win another Super Bowl with Jerry Jones at the helm. Until that changes, nothing is going to change. But if you look past that and convince yourself he’s a good owner, then I guess you can start working on the symptoms of the problem. Mike McCarthy has said it numerous times since last week’s loss in numerous press conferences, which is “we are going to need a lot of help.” That’s your head coach! Saying that publicly! A week after talking about their path to the playoffs because they beat the Giants. What a joke.

The Panthers have a chance to continue to embarrass the Cowboys. We’ve already discussed last week the positive play from the Panthers in recent weeks, and it happened again against the Eagles. They only lost the game by 6 and Bryce Young reiterated that he is here to stay. He didn’t have a phenomenal game, only throwing for 191 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT, but he helped his team stay competitive against one of the best teams in the NFC. They should feel absolutely amazing about that. Not only that, but the Panthers are not even mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. Do I think they will make the playoffs? No. But a team that was vastly considered the worst team in the league for the better part of the whole season, is competing against real teams. If they can keep playing the way they have been for the last few weeks, I believe Carolina will finally get that fourth win they’ve been chasing for awhile against a fragile Dallas Cowboys team.

POSTGAME:

I was wrong about this one, but for a little bit of time I thought Carolina was going to do it. They got a TD on their last drive of the half on a 51-yard bomb from Bryce Young to Jalen Coker off a Cowboys fumble. It was 10-7 at the end of the half after the Cowboys missed a FG, and it seemed like Dallas was going to be embarrassed again. But Cooper Rush came out slinging and finished the game with 3 TDs on 214-yard passing. The Cowboys would ultimately be too much for Carolina to handle, but Bryce Young and the Panthers played well and competed, and for a team that has struggles as bad as they have for as long as they have, every positive performance feels good. I’m not being facetious; the Panthers should be proud in how they played. Sure, they didn’t get the win, but they hung in there (for a little bit.)