Former GM: Cowboys, Prescott 'can win any game' in playoffs, even at San Francisco
The NFL calendar may say it’s Week 18 of the regular season, but as far as the Dallas Cowboys are concerned, the playoffs start now.
Granted, they’ll be in the tournament no matter what happens in the nation’s capital on Sunday, but a win lets them start the one-and-dones at home, where they’re undefeated in their last 16 contests. A loss to the 4-12 Commanders would send them on the road, where the team has played like Forrest Gump’s famed box of chocolates.
But in the mind of one former NFL executive, the Cowboys have one massive advantage over every other team Dallas could face between here and Las Vegas.
“They’ve got the best quarterback in the NFC, and, candidly, I don’t think it’s that close,” said Mike Tannenbaum. The ESPN analyst and founder of The 33rd Team think-tank spent nearly two decades in NFL front offices.
That proclamation may come as a bitter pill for fans of Jalen Hurts, Brock Purdy, and Matthew Stafford, who all look to do some damage in the playoffs. But Tannenbaum has made a career of evaluating talent.
At the assistant GM position or higher, Tannenbaum helped guide the Jets to six postseason appearances, getting as far as the AFC championship twice. Then as EVP of football operations with the Dolphins, he saw them go from last place in the AFC East to a playoff berth the next year.
And from that big-picture vantage point, Tannenbaum says Dak Prescott is what would worry him the most if he were preparing to face the Cowboys in January.
“Dak’s playing really well,” he told Cowboys Wire this week. “You go back to the Dolphins game: the amount of tackles he broke, or passes he completed where people were draped on him, [Chuma] Edoga had a really bad day at tackle that game. I think he’s playing really good football. I think they can win any game, including on the road at the 49ers, if it comes to that in the playoffs.”
That would be a true reversal of fortune, as the Cowboys have seen back-to-back trips to San Francisco end in disappointment, including last year’s divisional-round loss and an October blowout that wasn’t as close as the 41-20 final suggests.
But the Cowboys are arguably a much different team now and better equipped to handle another do-or-die visit to Levi’s Stadium. Prescott’s play surged to MVP-worthy levels, CeeDee Lamb has gotten over his Week 5 funk and broken franchise records, and the defense- while not as overpowering as early in the season- is still capable of creating turnovers and keeping teams out of the end zone.
The dropoff on Dan Quinn’s side of the ball has been noticeable, and the finger can be pointed in several different directions. But Tannenbaum pins a lot of it on one midseason departure to a key leader of the unit.
“We can talk about injuries. It’s a great equalizer; every team’s had injuries. But [linebacker Leighton]Vander Esch was a critical injury for them,” Tannenbaum offered.
Vander Esch went down in that same Week 5 outing in San Francisco with a neck stinger. He hasn’t played since. And although the club rotated existing pieces in to fill his spot, the veteran’s presence has proven very hard to replace.
His absence has prompted Cowboys opponents to use a ground-heavy rushing attack and repeatedly challenge the younger and largely inexperienced linebackers in the middle level of the defense.
“Markquese Bell and Damone Clark are just undersized,” Tannenbaum said, “and we’ve seen some teams stay patient with the run; Miami certainly was one of them.”
He points out that the strategy obviously works best when the score is close. In the eight games Dallas has won by 20 points or more, no opposing player has rushed for over 66 yards.
“It’s hard to do that when you’re behind,” Tannenbaum explained. “And I’ve said this on the record: the best way to help the Dallas defense right now is to score points, because they’re so good rushing the passer.”
Let the best quarterback in the conference rip to put up points early and force the other team to take to the air, and then defensively shut down those passes. That’s a winning formula for the Cowboys, from a front-office mainstay who’s glad he doesn’t have to try to combat it.
Tannenbaum isn’t convinced anyone else will be able to, either.
“I think they’re going to be really hard to beat come playoffs.”
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