To paraphrase Charles Dickens and his opening line in A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times for the Texas Rangers, it was the worst of times for the Dallas Cowboys.”
The Rangers had quite a week. After two consecutive playoff sweeps, they now wait to begin the American League Championship Series on Sunday against their hated cross-state rivals, the Houston Astros, with a trip to the World Series on the line. No matter what happens in this upcoming series, the playoff run that Bruce Bochy’s team has been on is already one for the books.
In fact, with their two-game sweep of Tampa (99 regular season wins), and their three-game sweep of Baltimore (101 regular season wins), they accomplished something that no other team in the history of Major League Baseball had ever done – sweeping two teams out of the playoffs that had a combined 200 or more regular season wins. And the Rangers were so dominant in doing so, that in those five full games, they only trailed for one-half of an inning. Amazing stuff.
Now on the flip side of the coin we have the Cowboys, who on Sunday were throttled by the San Francisco 49ers, 42-10. This was a game that many around here were touting as “payback-time” for being knocked out of the playoffs the past two seasons by the very same team. It was anything but that. The Cowboys offense was anemic, with Dak Prescott throwing for just 153 yards and three interceptions, and Tony Pollard leading all Cowboys rushers with just 29 yards on the ground (out of the team’s 57 yards rushing total). The defense wasn’t any better, making Brock Purdy look more like Mr. Tom Brady than Mr. Irrelevant. Purdy threw for 252 yards, four touchdowns and no picks, and the Niners ground game ran over, around and through the Cowboys D for 170 yards rushing.
So, what to make of this 2023 Cowboys squad? When they play lesser opponents, like the Jets, Giants and Patriots, they can still dominate and win big. Their average margin of victory in those three games is 31.6 points. But the Niners’ game was a definite eye opener if not an absolute measuring stick. Was the game just an abomination or was it a realty check? If we don’t get a clearer picture in the next two weeks when the Cowboys face the Los Angeles teams in back-to-back games, we’ll certainly find out more when the ‘Boys travel to Philly on Nov. 5th. But ultimately all that matters is playoff success…and they’re not going to get to play bad teams in the playoffs.
Speaking of playoff success, there tends to be a skewed perception in DFW when it comes to our area teams. The Cowboys, without doubt, dominate sports talk radio, local media coverage, and in general fan interest, and at times it feels as if the Rangers, Mavericks and Stars are just hoping to be acknowledged. But if you take a look at actual performances on the field, court and ice, there is one success indicator that really jumps out, and it’s recent playoff advancements. The Rangers are in the American League Championship Series once again. The Mavs made it to the NBA’s Western Conference Finals as recently as 2022, losing to the eventual champs, Golden State. The Stars managed the same thing just last season, losing in the NHL’s Western Conference Finals to the eventual Stanley Cup champs Las Vegas. The last time the Cowboys made it to an NFC Championship Game? That would be January, 1996.
