FRISCO, Texas– Mind over matter.
That's basically the message Jason Garrett has been preaching to his players this week as the Cowboys prepare for the annual Thanksgiving Day game with the Redskins.
Sure, a guy like Jason Witten has played in this game 13 times while rookies such as Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott have never had a quick turnaround like this – playing two games in a five-day span.
No matter the experience of this game, the players did have a game on Sunday against the Ravens. The body might feel like it's two days afterwards, but Garrett is trying the best he can to make sure they stay on the seven-day schedule.
"You just have to be mindful of the days of preparation that you have. We believe mindset is important," Garrett told the media on Tuesday. "We joked as we came in, today is Thursday. To the rest of the world, everyone thinks is Tuesday. But today is Thursday, and we really get ourselves in that frame of mind. We're going to work on third down, just like we do on every Thursday. It needs to feel like a Thursday, because this game is coming."
However, even Garrett admitted that Wednesday will be rather tricky for his team.
"The real transformation happens tomorrow, because (Wednesday) morning is Friday – but once we leave here it becomes Saturday," Garrett said. "It's really important that everybody understands that, and we try to emphasize that to our team."
Even if it's rather difficult to understand, Garrett knows where he wants his team to focus this week.
"You've got to get your eyes forward and move on," added Garrett, who said he needed just four minutes to go over the Ravens game tape on Monday. "Every team in the league plays on a Thursday. This is our turn to do it. But we've just got to be ready for it."
The question is, will Garrett be calling it a "Thursday" come Thursday afternoon.
