{"id":195092,"date":"2024-10-17T16:30:57","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T20:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=195092"},"modified":"2024-10-17T13:16:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T17:16:14","slug":"dallas-cowboys-winning-season-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/17\/dallas-cowboys-winning-season-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Are the Dallas Cowboys Capable of Still Having a Winning Season in 2024?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the devastating loss to the Lions at home, resulting in the worst loss since Jerry Jones bought the team, the Dallas Cowboys are having a massive regroup. They fortunately have two weeks to pull it all together before facing the Niners in San Francisco. The question is, are they capable? Can they still pull a winning season out or have all hopes set sail?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are the Dallas Cowboys Capable of Still Having a Winning Season in 2024?<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The BYE Week Brings a Fresh Start<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the record is not what was expected, it\u2019s starting somewhere. In fact, it\u2019s starting at a breakeven point. With a record of 3-3, the Cowboys are basically 0-0 with a fresh season to look forward to. Meaning that the possibilities of what will come next are endless.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019re also starting fresh when it comes to their identity. These Cowboys don\u2019t know who they are right now. They aren\u2019t the team that scored 29 points every game last season. Dak Prescott is trying to take shots and is missing in a big way, primarily due to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/09\/23\/cowboys-offense-three-changes-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">constant miscommunication with his teammates<\/a>. In the game vs. the Lions, the Cowboys linemen were giving up blocks. The run game remained as nonexistent as ever. As soon as they failed to create a red zone play, all hope drained from the building. The defense stumbled over themselves, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/14\/detroit-lions-total-annihilation-of-the-dallas-cowboys\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">allowing eligible linemen to run passing routes.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ildCvFv3QP8\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">In a YouTube video<\/a> the day of the Lions game, October 12, 2024, Michael Irvin said this about the team: \u201cThe Dallas Cowboys today played like they had a vacation on their mind like they know they have the BYE week coming up, and they\u2019ve already taken the BYE week off.\u201d The team looks checked out. If they\u2019re wanting to rebuild morale, identity, and any hope for the fans, then now is as good a time as any to do that.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can the Dallas Cowboys Realistically Win Six More Games?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether the Cowboys do or don\u2019t get themselves and who they are together, there\u2019s a lot of season to still be played. Most of that season comes with many other teams that are likely to be playoff contenders. The few teams that aren\u2019t contenders are still <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/09\/cowboys-defense-bouncing-back\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">questionable wins<\/a> if the Cowboys play against them like they played the Ravens, Saints, or Lions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than likely, the Cowboys will beat the Carolina Panthers and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/16\/a-step-forwards-or-backwards-week-7-eagles-vs-giants-picks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the New York Giants<\/a>. They\u2019re also likely to beat either the Eagles or the Commanders, even though both of those teams have looked very good. Divisional rivalries tend to bring more passion out of players and create more remarkable gameplay. That still leaves three teams for the Cowboys to beat. With a slate like the Niners, Bengals, Falcons, and Bucs ahead, none of those is easy. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/16\/cowboys-trade-fix-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Trades would make it better<\/a>, but the Cowboys organization doesn&#8217;t tend to work that way. The biggest chance the Cowboys have is course correcting now or their fate as a losing team will be sealed.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Season Isn\u2019t Over, But It Quickly Can Be<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beating a true playoff contender is going to take grit and power, something the current Cowboys squad hasn\u2019t shown that they have. However, it isn\u2019t too late to bring it back to life. Professional athletes are competitors. Very rarely will they face a loss without a fight. It\u2019s the coaches\u2019 job to bring that fight back into this dying team or they could find themselves without a job next year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having a winning streak on the road is great, but it isn\u2019t enough, especially against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/10\/03\/one-weakness-on-defense-the-49ers-need-to-strengthen\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a dominant team like the 49ers<\/a>. For this Cowboys team to have a resurrection, they\u2019ll also need to win at home. The lights are up brighter under the scrutiny of their fans. But also, the love is there too. Dallas Cowboys fans want to see this team turn it around this year instead of watching mediocrity every single Sunday until the 2025 season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: [Andrew Dieb] &#8211; USA Today Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a lot of work to be done for this Dallas Cowboys team over the BYE week. Whether they do it determines the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5238,"featured_media":195128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[54,19],"tags":[43,276,52],"class_list":["post-195092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","category-cowboys","tag-detroit-lions","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-san-francisco-49ers"],"modified_by":"Michael Zimmelman","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}