What's new about Dallas Cowboys since 2023 matchup with Detroit Lions?
Allen Park — Since 2021, only the Kansas City Chiefs have won more games than the Dallas Cowboys.
The biggest difference between the franchises is the Chiefs have taken the last two Super Bowls, while the Cowboys have struggled to find meaningful postseason success. That latter sentence actually goes back to the team’s last championship in 1996.
Despite winning 12 games each of of past three seasons, Dallas has escaped the Wild Card round just once during the stretch. Last year, after earning the No. 2 seed in the conference, they were dismantled by the upstart Green Bay Packers during the opening weekend of the playoffs, 48-32, in a game that wasn’t as close as the score suggests.
Had the Cowboys managed to advance, they would have hosted the Detroit Lions in the Divisional round, a rematch from Week 17, when the Cowboys scored a controversial victory. Instead, the sides will run in back in Week 6 of the 2024 campaign, with the opponent looking noticeably different, and temporarily more so based on its current injury situation.
Dallas entered the spring butting up against the salary cap and the team's biggest focus was appeasing their star players on expiring contracts. But unlike Detroit, which smoothly worked out contract extensions for Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell, the opposition’s negotiations went deep into the offseason.