2020 NFL strength of schedule: Cowboys, Ravens and Steelers have it easiest

Adreme · Feb 23, 2020

jay94 said:
We literally have the softest schedule I can recall the last 10 years, and yet Goodell has it out for us. I guarantee playoffs unless Dak gets hurt.

The NFC West is no joke. SF will not be worse, Seattle will be better, Arizona will be better, the Rams will be weaker. The AFC North is also no joke. Ravens are scary, Steelers will actually have their starting QB and not a 3rd stringer, the Browns will have an actual coach, and the Bengals will exist. The Vikings beat the Cowboys last year and will not be weaker and I have no idea what to think of ATL (maybe they will convert 4 onside kicks in a row against the Cowboys because they are that unpredictable). If you told me they went 4-6 or 5-5 through those 10 games I would be pretty happy. Now if you beat up on the Giants and Skins that gets you to 8 or 9 wins and then it comes down to whether the Eagles or Cowboys upgrade the most though its unlikely the Eagles get bit by the injury bug quite that hard again. So probably around 9 to 11 wins is the season and I do not think 9 gets you in and I am not sure if, in the NFC, 10 gets you in for sure though if they expand the playoffs maybe it will.

JayFord · Feb 23, 2020

SOS does not matter

People saw SF as a easy win last year

jay94 · Feb 23, 2020

Adreme said:
The NFC West is no joke. SF will not be worse, Seattle will be better, Arizona will be better, the Rams will be weaker. The AFC North is also no joke. Ravens are scary, Steelers will actually have their starting QB and not a 3rd stringer, the Browns will have an actual coach, and the Bengals will exist. The Vikings beat the Cowboys last year and will not be weaker and I have no idea what to think of ATL (maybe they will convert 4 onside kicks in a row against the Cowboys because they are that unpredictable). If you told me they went 4-6 or 5-5 through those 10 games I would be pretty happy. Now if you beat up on the Giants and Skins that gets you to 8 or 9 wins and then it comes down to whether the Eagles or Cowboys upgrade the most though its unlikely the Eagles get bit by the injury bug quite that hard again. So probably around 9 to 11 wins is the season and I do not think 9 gets you in and I am not sure if, in the NFC, 10 gets you in for sure though if they expand the playoffs maybe it will.

I get that were going to have some tough teams, but we literally have 7 games against the bottom 10 of the league, and every team should be improving not just the bad ones. Even if we somehow only win 5 of those, we will likely only need 4 more wins and a 5th for a guaranteed entry with 9 games left.

Adreme · Feb 23, 2020

jay94 said:
I get that were going to have some tough teams, but we literally have 7 games against the bottom 10 of the league, and every team should be improving not just the bad ones. Even if we somehow only win 5 of those, we will likely only need 4 more wins and a 5th for a guaranteed entry with 9 games left.

You cant get better every year. Players get older, some teams just will get worse. The Rams for instance will probably be worse next year then this year. The Browns and Cards will almost certainly not be bottom 10 next year which means you face 5 teams in bottom 10 (NYG and Commanders will likely still be terrible), and then 4 teams that are likely to be behemoths next year and then a bunch of teams where you could make the result that it will go either way.

Established1971 · Feb 23, 2020

jay94 said:
Never have agreed with this, but alot of people believe it. Shocker we seem to miss the playoffs when we have a tough schedule 19-17-15 and make it when we have soft ones 14-16-18, and with our schedule unless dak gets hurt, we are baked in to the playoffs. Also hear of Super Bowl hangover? They likely went from a 3rd of 4th place schedule to obviously a 1st.

but whatever is used to measure "strength of schedule" can be seen one way Feb 2020, another way Sept 2020, yet another Oct, then Nov, then Dec, then in the rear view view mirror after the 2020 season is over. It is an ever changing equation

Section446 · Feb 23, 2020

big dog cowboy said:
Strength of schedule is the most meaningless stat in the NFL.

Especially for the Cowboys...

ESisback · Feb 23, 2020

jay94 said:
We literally have the softest schedule I can recall the last 10 years, and yet Goodell has it out for us. I guarantee playoffs unless Dak gets hurt.

Soft? Look at who we play! Balt., Pitt., Seattle, SF, Rams, Minny, Philly twice, Atlanta, and NY and Wash. are division rivals who will be better. How is that soft?

JoeKing · Feb 23, 2020

Playing in the weak NFC East is already an advantage. Now the rest of the schedule is going to be easy too?

aria · Feb 23, 2020

ESisback said:
I’m a conspiracy theorist—just ask Marcus! I’m the one who comments on the many strange “coincidences”, like that eight game stretch where our opponents didn’t receive a SINGLE flag for holding! How is that possible? Or last year when we were flagged not once, but TWICE for “tripping”!

Why do the Giants have more fines and penalties than us for the past ~8 years if Mara and Goodell are besties? Why did the Giants have the most days without rest by a large margin a few years ago and play the most teams coming off a bye? Why did we get hooked up in the Detroit playoff game when Hitchins clearly committed PI and Dez ran on the field with his helmet off to argue with officials? Why are we getting one of the easiest pre season schedules for the 2nd or 3rd year in a row?

Every team can point to strange coincidences, it’s just conspiracy theorists like you don’t pay attention to other teams so you think all of these “coincidences” only happen to the Cowboys. Ask the Chargers how they feel about Hochuli screwing them out of the playoffs 6-7? years ago on a play he admitted he messed up but couldn’t overturn. Ask the Saints how they feel about the infamous non PI that kept them out of the Super Bowl.

Speaking of the Saints, remember the worst officiated game I’ve ever witnessed when we played the Saints 2 years ago and happened to win? Remember all the horrendous, game changing penalties on both teams? Remember the several page thread of fans here laughing and mocking Saints fans for complaining about the officiating after the loss because “it went both ways”? Can you imagine the outrage from people like you (no personal offense) had we lost that game? Every play would be cherry picked and pointed out as bias against us and the reason why we lost but since we didn’t, everything was “fair”.

Remember all the accusations of how Goodell and Kraft were besties? Then came spy gate which blew that theory up. Then came deflate gate which knocked the conspiracy theorists down even more so they finally shut up about it. Kind of ironic that Goodell and Mara are besties as well but Odell was the first player ever suspended for a game for have 3 personal fouls in one game, kind of seems like double jeopardy to me and was unprecedented. Not only that, but the game he was suspended for was a win and in playoff game which they lost IIRC. The list goes on and on.

Lol, c’mon man. Fishy stuff has definitely happened to us but, again, it happens to every team.

aria · Feb 23, 2020

ESisback said:
Soft? Look at who we play! Balt., Pitt., Seattle, SF, Rams, Minny, Philly twice, Atlanta, and NY and Wash. are division rivals who will be better. How is that soft?

Pitt sucked, Rams didn’t even make the playoffs, Philly had to beat us and win the worst division in the league to make it to the playoffs, Atlanta had a losing record for cripes sake, Giants and Skins were 2 of rhe bottom 4 teams in the league so saying they will be better isn’t saying much at all.

Total over reaction. It’s almost as if you said that sarcastically, which I hope you did.

ESisback · Feb 23, 2020

aria said:
Why do the Giants have more fines and penalties than us for the past ~8 years if Mara and Goodell are besties? Why did the Giants have the most days without rest by a large margin a few years ago and play the most teams coming off a bye? Why did we get hooked up in the Detroit playoff game when Hitchins clearly committed PI and Dez ran on the field with his helmet off to argue with officials? Why are we getting one of the easiest pre season schedules for the 2nd or 3rd year in a row?

Every team can point to strange coincidences, it’s just conspiracy theorists like you don’t pay attention to other teams so you think all of these “coincidences” only happen to the Cowboys. Ask the Chargers how they feel about Hochuli screwing them out of the playoffs 6-7? years ago on a play he admitted he messed up but couldn’t overturn. Ask the Saints how they feel about the infamous non PI that kept them out of the Super Bowl.

Speaking of the Saints, remember the worst officiated game I’ve ever witnessed when we played the Saints 2 years ago and happened to win? Remember all the horrendous, game changing penalties on both teams? Remember the several page thread of fans here laughing and mocking Saints fans for complaining about the officiating after the loss because “it went both ways”? Can you imagine the outrage from people like you (no personal offense) had we lost that game? Every play would be cherry picked and pointed out as bias against us and the reason why we lost but since we didn’t, everything was “fair”.

Remember all the accusations of how Goodell and Kraft were besties? Then came spy gate which blew that theory up. Then came deflate gate which knocked the conspiracy theorists down even more so they finally shut up about it. Kind of ironic that Goodell and Mara are besties as well but Odell was the first player ever suspended for a game for have 3 personal fouls in one game, kind of seems like double jeopardy to me and was unprecedented. Not only that, but the game he was suspended for was a win and in playoff game which they lost IIRC. The list goes on and on.

Lol, c’mon man. Fishy stuff has definitely happened to us but, again, it happens to every team.

I agree. It DOES happen to every team, and we DO notice it much more when it concerns our team, but two things....

1)Mara and Goodell ARE besties
2)The Cowboys ARE the biggest draw, as well as the most hated.

With all the money involved, and all the malfeasance that has occurred in the sports world, it’s not odd that many people connect the dots.

atlantacowboy · Feb 23, 2020

Meaningless. Its a year to year league. We just saw SF go from 4-12 to the super bowl. So, what looks like a bad team on paper can easily get much better in the offseason. Washington and NY should be much better on defense next year.

ESisback · Feb 23, 2020

aria said:
Pitt sucked, Rams didn’t even make the playoffs, Philly had to beat us and win the worst division in the league to make it to the playoffs, Atlanta had a losing record for cripes sake, Giants and Skins were 2 of rhe bottom 4 teams in the league so saying they will be better isn’t saying much at all.

Total over reaction. It’s almost as if you said that sarcastically, which I hope you did.

It’s seems like some fans get the feeling we’re gonna be better, and it makes them uncomfortable or something, like they wanna downplay the achievement in advance. “Yeah, they won 11 games, but they had a cupcake schedule! Other teams would have won 13 or 14! The Cowboys are idiots! Jerry sucks! Dak can’t play! Zeke is fat!”, Blah blah blah...

Most people feel Pittsburgh is gonna be MUCH better with the return of Big Ben. Many feel the Rams will bounce back. They have a very good young HC and several REALLY good players on both sides of the ball. SF is very good, Seattle AND Minnesota are both tough, and division games are NEVER a gimme. That said, no one can really guarantee how a team will do, especially this far out.

aria · Feb 23, 2020

ESisback said:
I agree. It DOES happen to every team, and we DO notice it much more when it concerns our team, but two things....

1)Mara and Goodell ARE besties
2)The Cowboys ARE the biggest draw, as well as the most hated.

With all the money involved, and all the malfeasance that has occurred in the sports world, it’s not odd that many people connect the dots.

Well if this is true, how have the Giants benefited more than the Cowboys. I already gave specific examples of how they have had it worse than the Cowboys, IMOF, come to think of it...I believe the year they won 2? games or last year (doesn’t really matter) they had a harder strength of schedule then we did and we went to the playoffs, how is that?

I agree we’re the most hated, just look at some of the fans on this board. Is it any surprise? I’m embarrassed by over half the Cowboys fans I work with.

Being we are the biggest draw, haters use that as a reason to argue we get a lot of calls to go our way and things like have another easy strength of schedule. The further we go in the playoffs, the more money the league makes and the better the ratings are. It can easily be argued that Goodell wants us to do good because the better the ratings, the more secure his job. Therefore, Goodell tells the officials to ease up on us because he wants us to win. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Hell, we even get more prime time games than the previous years Super Bowl winners most years, why is that? Because we draw the ratings and Jerry feeds the Kool Aid drinking hype fans. So since we get so many prime time games, it would make sense they want us in the playoffs and want us to go far, right? The league does it’s best every year (with the exception of the Zeke suspension) to put us in the playoffs and we can’t get out of our own way.

Aviano90 · Feb 23, 2020

Good teams have easy schedules. Bad teams have hard schedules. You can’t determine strength of schedule in the off-season.

aria · Feb 23, 2020

ESisback said:
It’s seems like some fans get the feeling we’re gonna be better, and it makes them uncomfortable or something, like they wanna downplay the achievement in advance. “Yeah, they won 11 games, but they had a cupcake schedule! Other teams would have won 13 or 14! The Cowboys are idiots! Jerry sucks! Dak can’t play! Zeke is fat!”, Blah blah blah...

Most people feel Pittsburgh is gonna be MUCH better with the return of Big Ben. Many feel the Rams will bounce back. They have a very good young HC and several REALLY good players on both sides of the ball. SF is very good, Seattle AND Minnesota are both tough, and division games are NEVER a gimme. That said, no one can really guarantee how a team will do, especially this far out.

Division games are never a gimme is a myth. Look up our record the past 7-8 years against the Giants and Commanders and get back to me.

Sure, other team “should” get better as so “should” we so it’s a moot point. Agreed, the pre season strength of schedules is dumb. Every year they come out, people make a bunch of noise about it one way or the other and it never pans out like it appears at the beginning of the season.

Flamma · Feb 23, 2020

ESisback said:
Goody doesn’t hate us—he’s a slave to the rating$, and Dallas is the most hated (and loved), so....

Plus, how do we have one of the three “easiest” schedules? We play several tough teams—Philly twice, the AFCN, Seattle, Rams, San Fran, Minny, Atlanta....That’s not easy

Yeah, I don't see how this is a soft schedule.

GMO415 · Feb 23, 2020

jay94 said:
We literally have the softest schedule I can recall the last 10 years, and yet Goodell has it out for us. I guarantee playoffs unless Dak gets hurt.

Most definitely

ESisback · Feb 23, 2020

aria said:
Well if this is true, how have the Giants benefited more than the Cowboys. I already gave specific examples of how they have had it worse than the Cowboys, IMOF, come to think of it...I believe the year they won 2? games or last year (doesn’t really matter) they had a harder strength of schedule then we did and we went to the playoffs, how is that?

I agree we’re the most hated, just look at some of the fans on this board. Is it any surprise? I’m embarrassed by over half the Cowboys fans I work with.

Being we are the biggest draw, haters use that as a reason to argue we get a lot of calls to go our way and things like have another easy strength of schedule. The further we go in the playoffs, the more money the league makes and the better the ratings are. It can easily be argued that Goodell wants us to do good because the better the ratings, the more secure his job. Therefore, Goodell tells the officials to ease up on us because he wants us to win. Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Hell, we even get more prime time games than the previous years Super Bowl winners most years, why is that? Because we draw the ratings and Jerry feeds the Kool Aid drinking hype fans. So since we get so many prime time games, it would make sense they want us in the playoffs and want us to go far, right? The league does it’s best every year (with the exception of the Zeke suspension) to put us in the playoffs and we can’t get out of our own way.

I think that they just want Dallas as one of the main topics of discussion, but the Cowboys can get that WITHOUT playoff success. We have the largest fanbase, so as a contender to MAKE the playoffs, they get the rating$. But because an even larger segment is invested in watching Dallas fail IN the playoffs, they get the rating$ there too, Big ratings are built into the AFCCG and NFCCG, as well as the Super Bowl, and they can add to it by including Dallas news and coverage during the big games.

Sure, there are TONS of annoying Dallas fans, but every team has too many jerks. Maybe you notice it more because it’s your team. Maybe we also have one of the top 3 entitled fanbases because we’re in the top 3 for winning tradition.

ESisback · Feb 24, 2020

aria said:
Division games are never a gimme is a myth. Look up our record the past 7-8 years against the Giants and Commanders and get back to me.

Sure, other team “should” get better as so “should” we so it’s a moot point. Agreed, the pre season strength of schedules is dumb. Every year they come out, people make a bunch of noise about it one way or the other and it never pans out like it appears at the beginning of the season.

We have a winning record in recent years among our division rivals, but they’re usually close and hard fought.

I think Dallas will be a better team in 2020, but that doesn’t automatically mean success is a given. Too many factors.

2020 NFL strength of schedule: Cowboys, Ravens and Steelers have it easiest

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