What is the incentive to win Sunday?

[FanSince61]

How about a home playoff game? Is that preferable to playing on the road? I think so.

And Jerry would love it.

 

[HoosierCowboy]

It's called the Gambler's Fallacy. Every time you roll the dice (or play the Eagles) you have the same chance of rolling seven. If you roll two sevens in a row, you have the same odds of rolling a seven on the third roll. We only help the odds by playing them at home.

 

[percyhoward]

Maybe so, but no one seems to be able to take away those big plays (except us the first time we played them). And more importantly, every other NFC team is flawed, too, and has less momentum than the Eagles have.

That's why there's such a high probability of facing them again anyway, just later in the playoffs and in their stadium. And if anybody does beat them, it'll be Green Bay. We'd have to go there and win, too.

Not to mention, we'd be guaranteed of having to win in New Orleans again, just to make any of that possible.

 

[JBond]

FWIW, I don't believe that we would beat Philly in a playoff rematch. Beating the same team back to back is very difficult, let alone beating the same team 3 times in a season.

Thats completely wrong. Sorry.

dbair did an excellent post on this topic.

http://cowboyszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173194

 

[coblue]

Seriously?

Someone HAS to facepalm this thread!

There are countless more reasons to win this game than not.

 

[JD_KaPow]

Let's start with the NFC East crown. There is no trophy, but it matters.

Yes, a bit.

How about a home playoff game? Is that preferable to playing on the road? I think so.

Home against Philly the second week in a row or on the road (in a dome) against a reeling Minnesota. The gap isn't huge.

We are still eligible to be a #2 seed and potentially have a 1st round bye. Then if the Saints faltered and we won, the NFC Championship would be in our house. Is that worth playing for? I think so.

Yes, well obviously if the Vikings lose the early game, then this game becomes extremely important. The question only exists if the Vikings lose the early game.

How about a season sweep of the Eagles?

Don't care that much at this point.

How about momentum going into the playoffs?

Don't believe in it. The Cardinals lost 4 of their last 6 last year and made it to the SB. The Giants lost their last game in '07. The Colts lost 3 of their last 5 in '06.

How about not wasting the last 2 games?

This doesn't mean anything. The last 2 games got us into the playoffs - can't waste them.

What are we playing for? Everything.

Hardly.

The best argument, to me, is that not being the 6 seed gives you at least a chance of a home game later in the playoffs. But I'll tell you, right now I'm not sure I prefer Philly at home to MIN on the road.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Like most of you, I can't believe this is even a thread. However, here it is. We should want to win because losing sucks! That should really be enough. However, if you want to take it a step further, then yeah, the Division Crown does mean something. We just might be able to get a buy for the first round and that's huge. Lastly and most importantly, we are not a good cold weather team. We lose to Philly in Dallas and that means that we assure ourselves a game in Philly, against a confident team who just beat us in January. You ever played football in January in Philly? I honestly don't believe we can win that game. Yeah, it's hard to beat a good team 3 times in one season but it's much harder to beat Philly in Philly in January when they are confident. We gotta win Sunday. To me, that is a must win game. If we win it, we assure ourselves of not having to play another cold weather game period.

 

[Alexander]

Lastly and most importantly, we are not a good cold weather team. We lose to Philly in Dallas and that means that we assure ourselves a game in Philly, against a confident team who just beat us in January. You ever played football in January in Philly? I honestly don't believe we can win that game. Yeah, it's hard to beat a good team 3 times in one season but it's much harder to beat Philly in Philly in January when they are confident. We gotta win Sunday. To me, that is a must win game. If we win it, we assure ourselves of not having to play another cold weather game period.

Minnesota's loss last night assured us that we will not have to make a trip to Philadelphia unless it is in the divisional round or championship game.

 

[JD_KaPow]

Minnesota's loss last night assured us that we will not have to make a trip to Philadelphia unless it is in the divisional round or championship game.

Only the championship game. If we lose Sunday, we will be the 6 seed, which means we would play NO in the divisional round.

 

[robb01]

Pride

 

[TellerMorrow34]

There is plenty of incentive to win. There is still a shot at the #2 seed in the playoffs. That is huge incentive, IMO.

 

[adbutcher]

Holy mackerel, really?

Let's start with the NFC East crown. There is no trophy, but it matters.

How about a home playoff game? Is that preferable to playing on the road? I think so.

We are still eligible to be a #2 seed and potentially have a 1st round bye. Then if the Saints faltered and we won, the NFC Championship would be in our house. Is that worth playing for? I think so.

How about a season sweep of the Eagles?

How about momentum going into the playoffs?

How about not wasting the last 2 games?

What are we playing for? Everything.

 

[SilverStarCowboy]

Momentum going into the Playoffs is crucial.....it's more than obvious that some people....1. either havn't been football fans for very long, 2. maybe their memory is impared for some reason or 3. they just don't pay alot of attention to Play-Off Scenarios and how they play out each year.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Minnesota's loss last night assured us that we will not have to make a trip to Philadelphia unless it is in the divisional round or championship game.

If we win, we are assured no cold weather games. We are a horrible cold weather team IMO. I just rewatched the NY game over the weekend and the tackling in that game was, IMO, the worst I've seen by far from our team. If we can avoid a cold weather game, I think you do it.

 

[percyhoward]

If we win, we are assured no cold weather games.

Excellent point.

 

[Chuck 54]

You play to win the game.

You play to win because it's all about confidence, going in on a roll, playing a playoff game at home.

Losing gives the Eagles the upper hand in confidence, momentum, and home field...that's huge.

I personally hope the Cowboys do NOT get the #2 seed or the bye. We aren't sitting around waiting for a key guy who's out to get back...a bye would only hurt a young team like ours, imo. We need to get on a roll, play every week, and win, win, win with less time to think about it or be involved with media hype.

Still, you play to win the game...that's all the incentive any NFL team needs.

 

[btcutter]

pride and self-respect.

Self confidence.

You play to win the game. Simple as that.

 

[Deep_South]

We need to win because we are probably the only team that can beat Philly and take them out of the playoffs, so we might as well get some practice beating them on Sunday.

 

[JD_KaPow]

Momentum going into the Playoffs is crucial.....it's more than obvious that some people....1. either havn't been football fans for very long, 2. maybe their memory is impared for some reason or 3. they just don't pay alot of attention to Play-Off Scenarios and how they play out each year.

Fortunately, I don't have to go to the trouble of debunking this, as Football Outsiders did it for me this morning:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/quick-reads/2009/week-16-quick-reads

What recent results have showed, though, is that the idea of momentum -- of teams "peaking at the right time" -- is a crock. The last three years provide enough fodder to kill the idea. The 2006 Colts went 2-3 in December, losing by 27 to the Jaguars and by three to a 6-10 Texans team before narrowly beating a 6-10 Dolphins team to finish the year. They went and won four straight games en route to the Super Bowl.

In 2007, the Giants supposedly picked up momentum when they played the undefeated Patriots to an extremely close game, losing by three before starting off their hot streak. That's reasonable, but it was preceded by a 3-3 stretch that saw the team lose to the Vikings by 27, the Commanders by 12, and narrowly pull out victories over mediocre teams in Detroit (six points), Chicago (five points), and Philadelphia (three points ). The idea that the Giants' win over the Patriots had given them momentum didn't come until they actually made it to the Super Bowl, and their "momentum" consisted of one game.

Last year's Cardinals took the cake, though. After virtually locking up the NFC West with a 7-3 start, Arizona took the rest of the season off. Finishing 2-4, the Cardinals lost to the Giants by eight and the Eagles -- the same team they'd beat in the NFC Championship Game -- by 28. It got worse in December. Playing two playoff-caliber teams, the Cardinals lost by 21 to the Vikings and the Patriots by 40. The idea that they had momentum is absurd; time will not produce a better example of a team limping into the playoffs for decades.

Of course, the flip side of the "momentum" idea is fallacious, too; there are plenty of examples of teams sweeping December after an uneven first three months, only to disappear in the playoffs. The 2007 Commanders won their final four games after burying Sean Taylor, pushing them into the playoffs after a 5-7 start, but got annihilated in Seattle when Todd Collins started throwing interceptions. Last year's Chargers went 4-0 in December to sneak into the playoffs, and beat the Colts with a great performance at home in the Wild Card round, but were summarily dispatched in Pittsburgh a week later. The Falcons finished 5-1, winning their final three, and lost to the Cardinals in the Wild Card round. The Dolphins did them one better -- going 5-0 to end the year, and 9-1 overall -- and got stomped, 27-9, by the Ravens in the Wild Card round. These are the most recent of many such examples in the past.

The point of all this is that what happened in December doesn't mean squat once the playoffs roll around. Each year, fans and media alike try and parse meaning out of small samples and natural variance. How many people get excited for the first preseason game of the year? By the time Week 1 of the regular season rolls around, only a month later, the preseason's been totally forgotten about. While the Colts lost their chance at an undefeated season, their decision to rest their stars won't have any effect on when they're "peaking" or their momentum heading into the playoffs.
Bottom line: Teams win in the playoffs because they play well and breaks go their way, the same way they do in the regular season. And if teams really can peak, the right time to peak isn't the end of December. It's the end of January.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

Holy mackerel, really?

Let's start with the NFC East crown. There is no trophy, but it matters.

How about a home playoff game? Is that preferable to playing on the road? I think so.

We are still eligible to be a #2 seed and potentially have a 1st round bye. Then if the Saints faltered and we won, the NFC Championship would be in our house. Is that worth playing for? I think so.

How about a season sweep of the Eagles?

How about momentum going into the playoffs?

How about not wasting the last 2 games?

What are we playing for? Everything.

I can't believe you took the time to write this.