Vincent Frank
The Dallas Cowboys head into Saturday night’s game against the Detroit Lions having already clinched a spot in the playoffs. But these are nervous times for fans in Big D with Dallas having lost two consecutive games, both on the road.
Dallas is 7-0 at home on the season and winning by more than three touchdowns per game. Mike McCarthy’s squad is also a pedestrian 3-5 on the road, leading to the belief that they are pretenders heading into the NFL Playoffs.
Former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers star Rob Gronkowski weighed in on this recently while blasting the Cowboys’ hopes of being legitimate NFC title contenders.
“They had another chance to prove they could win on the road, and they proved everyone right – that they can’t win on the road. They had another opportunity and they lost that game once again. No one really believes in them.”
Rob Gronkowski on the Dallas Cowboys, via Up & Adams with Kay Adams
This is a narrative that will continue to be thrown out there until Dallas proves that it can actually win a big game on the road.
The ‘Boys are 0-4 against winning teams on the road this season and are losing by an average of 15 points per game in those outings. That includes blowout losses to the San Francisco 49ers (42-10) and Buffalo Bills (31-10).
Related: Dallas Cowboys will move on from Mike McCarthy under one scenario
Dallas Cowboys will have to be road warriors
A home win by Philadelphia against the lowly Arizona Cardinals on New Year’s Eve would eliminate Dallas from contention in the NFC East. In turn, this would lead to a road game in the NFC Wild Card Playoffs against the NFC South champions (likely the red-hot Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
Dallas knows very well the narrative being thrown out there as it relates to the team’s inability to win away from Big D.
“It was a juggernaut game. That’s what we expected. It’s a challenge in these games because you know it’s gonna come down to one play. And they probably made a play or two more than we did. It was a hard fought game. We may have to go on the road, obviously, to get this done,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said after Week 16’s loss to the Dolphins.
“I think we got a lot that we can draw from this. We got to play better than we did today, because you have to play above it on the road, and road warriors we will be.”
It’s one thing to say the right thing. It’s a completely different thing to show it on the field. Dallas has not accomplished that latter goal this season.
Heck, the Cowboys have not made it as far as the conference championship game since January of 1996. Playoff futility has been the name of the game, including consecutive losses to San Francisco in the playoffs each of the past two seasons.
It now appears that the Cowboys will have to be road warriors if they want to break out of this funk. Just don’t count Rob Gronkowski as one of those who have faith that they’ll be able to do it.
