The Dallas Cowboys beat the Miami Dolphins on Thanksgiving Day and find themselves now all alone in first place in the NFC East. With the Arizona Cardinals on the schedule, it looks like they will remain in that position when they host the New York Giants on Dec. 11. With the NFC East suddenly in the Cowboys' hands, here is a look at their opposition within their own conference.
New York Giants
What has happened to the New York Giants? They began the year on a tear. They started off with a 6-2 record and looked to be coasting to the NFC East title. However, this is the New York Giants we are talking about and have always had the propensity to choke in the NFC East race. It is also interesting that two of their early losses were to Washington and Seattle, two teams that Dallas beat pretty soundly.
People like to talk about how Dallas is playing an easy schedule now and that contributed to them taking this lead. However, during the 6-2 start, New York beat St. Louis, Arizona, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Miami. Does that sound familiar to a certain Cowboys' franchise? Yes, the Giants beat New England, but since then, they have lost three in a row, including to San Francisco, who Dallas also beat this season. Next up is Green Bay and Dallas should have a two-game lead when the Giants come to town.
Remember when the season started and everyone called Philadelphia the 2011 Dream Team? Everyone compared them to the Miami Heat. But then, they beat St. Louis is Week 1 and dropped four in a row. When they beat up Dallas on Oct. 30, it looked like they were about to rebound into the NFC East race. It didn't happen as they lost three of the next four games.
However, don't count Philadelphia out yet. They are three games out of the NFC East, and if Dallas chokes down the stretch, the Eagles have a tiebreaker over them right now. Their next three games are against Seattle, Miami and the Jets, so they could easily win those three heading into their next game with Dallas. Could the Eagles race back? Stranger things have happened.
Norv Turner. Marty Schottenheimer. Steve Spurrier. Joe Gibbs. Jim Zorn. Mike Shanahan. Three of those names were extremely successful earlier in their career. Another had greatest success after leaving. Another was a college legend. The other used to be a quarterback. None of them have been able to win since Daniel Snyder bought the Washington Redskins. They have been to the playoffs three times since he took over ownership and this will be another disappointing season for the Redskins
Author Shawn S. Lealos has followed the Dallas Cowboys since he was a child, his favorite players range from Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett to the Triplets of the 90s. Through the great years of the '90s and the hard times of the '80s, Shawn never turned his back on America's Team.
Source: Dallas Cowboys
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