FRISCO, Texas — This is where some would say "don't look now, but" when referring to how the Dallas Cowboys have found a corner to turn over the last several weeks, but I'm not going to say it going into their Week 16 matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
That phrase is usually reserved for something that's surprisingly occurring at the moment that, shortly prior, was mostly unthinkable.
But given how many takeaways the defense has delivered over the past month, and their ability to stop the run, and in how explosive KaVontae Turpin has routinely been along with the trusty boot of Brandon Aubrey, and in how Cooper Rush has joined with CeeDee Lamb and Rico Dowdle to seemingly turn the offense around?
OK, you can look now.
"We've always been a resilient bunch," said head coach Mike McCarthy after the convincing 30-14 upset over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. " … [But] we have Tampa Bay coming in next and [we still have] too many penalties. We have to take care of the football, but the takeaways are outstanding, and thought the defense really set the tone for us in the first half."
McCarthy went on to identify the other reasons the team is 3-1 in their last four outings, having turned things around from the five-game slide and despite a Mount Kilimanjaro of adversity.
"Turp is magnificent, and special teams [with] the field position battle," he explained. "… And a plus-three turnover ratio. Those are the basics that we want to play to. I think we had 20 more total plays than [the Panthers] did. I don't know what the time of possession came out to be, but that's the way we want to play.
"We want to play balanced on offense, get our trips to the plate in the run game, and be smart in the passing game."
That was indeed the formula for success in Carolina, and could be going forward, seeing as Dowdle has proven himself one of the better backs in the NFL, Lamb setting records even in a down season and with a backup quarterback, and Mike Zimmer's defense continually finding new guys to step up in the face of devastating injuries to impact starters.
They've now gone from 3-7 to 6-8 on the season and, with three games left, the door isn't mathematically closed on a possible playoff berth — though the odds are far, far from being in their favor.
You won't catch McCarthy looking that far ahead, though.
He remains where his feet are.
"I'm a realist, so I take a lot of pride in the commitment that we have to one another," he said when asked about the playoffs, navigating the topic over to the never-say-die attitude within the locker room and coaching staff in Dallas. "It shows up from Monday through Saturday, and that is the hardest part. On Sundays, I mean, this is what we live for — to get out here and compete against other other NFL teams.
"I just love the way they stay after it every single day, and that's a credit to the coaches and the players."
Should the Cowboys land another upset this week, it will mark the third in the past five games, and that's saying a lot when considering everything Dallas is up against on a weekly basis — consistently losing key players to injury every other quarter, it feels like.
"We've got a big one now," said McCarthy. "Obviously, they're all big, but we fully expected to win this game [against the Panthers]. It was a tough one Monday night [versus the Bengals], but you can't look back. You just continue to grow, stack success.
"We've won three out of four, and we know the path that's been cut for us."
