And here we are again. The Cowboys have reached the month of December and certainly not many expected a 6-6 record.
But what was expected was to be in the first place and the Cowboys have managed to do that, despite being .500.
Since Jason Garrett took over as the interim head coach in 2010, we've seen some strange twists and turns in the final month of play. We've seen them run the table and win four straight to claim the NFC East. We've seen the bottom fall out and the Cowboys go from first place to out of the playoffs.
We've seen them hang on for dear life, something they're trying to do again this year.
So before another December game is played this year, let's take a look back to the previous nine years under Jason Garrett and see how the Cowboys have fared after Thanksgiving.
The Cowboys have seen some crazy things happen in the final month of the season, even under Jason Garrett as head coach. Let's chart the Cowboys' success and misses in his nine years as head coach.
2010: Though he didn't become the full-time head coach until the following year, the Garrett era began in the second half of the 2010 season. Taking over for Wade Phillips after a brutal 1-7 start, Garrett led Dallas to a 5-3 record down the stretch, including three December wins over Philadelphia, Washington and the playoff-bound Colts in overtime, thanks to a pair of interception returns for touchdowns on Peyton Manning. The Cowboys were competitive in every game after the coaching change: Their three Thanksgiving/December losses were by a combined seven points.
2011: December wasn't a kind month for Garrett and the Cowboys this particular year. After beating Miami on Thanksgiving for their fourth straight win and a 7-4 record, the Cowboys dropped four of their last five to finish 8-8 and one game outside the postseason picture. The season finale at the Meadowlands featured the NFC East title up for grabs, but Giants quarterback Eli Manning outdueled an injured Tony Romo with three touchdown passes in a 31-14 win over Dallas.
2012: Once again, Garrett and the Cowboys reached the brink of the postseason in December. After losing 38-31 to rookie quarterback Robert Griffin and Washington on Thanksgiving, Dallas reeled off three straight wins to get to 8-6. But the season ended with two straight heartbreaking losses: 34-31 to New Orleans in overtime, followed by a second straight season-finale loss with the division title at stake. This time, Washington prevailed by intercepting Romo three times, the final pick inside the Cowboys' 30-yard line with under four minutes to play.
2013: The Cowboys entered December with a 7-5 record after beating the Raiders on Thanksgiving. But did they ever run into the month of December, having to face the Bears in Chicago in what is the coldest regular-season game in franchise history. The 8-degree kickoff start was brutal enough, but the Cowboys didn't respond and were thrashed on Monday Night Football. The Cowboys lost a 19-point third quarter lead to the Packers and lost 37-36. While Tony Romo heroically rallied the Cowboys with a bad back to a 24-23 last-second win at Washington to save the season, he couldn't play in the season finale. So while the Cowboys had lost to backups Josh McCown and Matt Flynn earlier in the month, Kyle Orton couldn't pull off the same magic in a do-or-die game with the Eagles. The Cowboys lost 24-22 to fall to 8-8, missing the playoffs for the third straight year on the final game of the season.
2014: The Cowboys started the final stretch of the season coming off a disappointing Thanksgiving Day loss to the Eagles, dropping them to 8-4 and creating all sorts of doubt heading into December. But the Cowboys responded nicely, winning at Chicago on the following Thursday and then avenging a loss to the Eagles with a 38-27 road win. The Cowboys clinched the NFC East by beating the Colts 42-7 and then waxed the Redskins 44-17 in the finale. In the playoffs, the Cowboys survived the Lions 24-20, only to fall to Green Bay in one of the more controversial games in club history. Did Dez actually catch it? The NFL took a few years to finally agree that he did, however it didn't matter that day in Green Bay as the Cowboys lost in the Divisional round.
2015: To date, this is the only season of Jason Garrett's career where the Cowboys finished an entire season with a losing record. This 4-12 season was disastrous following Tony Romo's broken collarbone in Week 2 and then he re-injured it on Thanksgiving in a dismal loss to the Panthers.
After that, the Cowboys actually won their next game – a 19-16 win over the Redskins. But then limped to the finish line with losses to the Packers, Jets, Bills and then Washington in the season finale, putting an end to a frustrating.
2016: December 2016 actually brought the only downturn of that entire, magical season. After a gutsy win against Washington on Thanksgiving, the Cowboys struggled to a 17-15 win against Minnesota in which they gained just 264 yards. That was followed by an ugly 10-7 loss to New York, ensuring a sweep at the hands of the Giants — a rare occurrence in the Jason Garrett era. But just when everyone was starting to question the Dak Prescott magic, the Cowboys responded with convincing wins against Tampa Bay and Detroit, clinching the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and making the season finale against Philadelphia meaningless. Of course, the lasting memory from 2016 will always be the disappointing way it ended. The Cowboys fell into a 21-0 hole early against Green Bay, and though they climbed out of it, a legendary throw from Aaron Rodgers to Jared Cook set up a game-winning field goal that sent the Packers to the NFC Championship Game. The Cowboys went home far earlier than anyone expected them to.
2017: The Cowboys tried valiantly to save a frustrating season — which feels awfully familiar right now. Of course, as up and down as 2019 has been, it doesn't come close to the drama we saw in 2017, with Ezekiel Elliott's ongoing suspension saga, not to mention injuries to the likes of Tyron Smith and Sean Lee. December started off in fantastic fashion, as Dak Prescott guided the Cowboys to a road win against the Giants, thanks in large part to a huge day from Rod Smith. They followed that up with a dramatic road win in Oakland, which saw Gene Steratore use a note card to designate a crucial first down, and Jeff Heath force a Derek Carr fumble through the end zone to preserve a 20-17 win. That set the stage for Elliott's return, just in time for a winner-take-all showdown against the Seahawks, with the victor securing a playoff spot. The Cowboys fell flat, to put it kindly. They struggled to move the ball and they didn't score a touchdown. When Dan Bailey missed a 48-yard field goal with time winding down, it put the nail in the coffin of a lost season. It also set the stage for another meaningless Week 17 game against the Eagles. The Cowboys won this time, helping Garrett avoid the ignominy of a fourth 8-8 season.
2018: Last season might have provided the most fun December of Jason Garrett's tenure — and that's saying something. It started out in amazing fashion the week after Thanksgiving, as the Dallas defense announced itself in a 13-10 win against the Saints, followed the next week by an offensive explosion in a walkoff, overtime win against Philadelphia. The Colts humbled them in Week 15, shutting them out in a 23-0 loss — but the Cowboys rebounded nicely with back-to-back wins against Tampa Bay and New York. That set the stage for a wildcard matchup with Seattle, where Dak Prescott heroically scrambled 16 yards on 3rd-and-14 to all but seal his first playoff win. Stop if this sounds familiar, but the lasting legacy was disappointment. After winning eight of their final nine games, the Cowboys traveled to Los Angeles — where they were gashed by the unlikeliest of people, C.J. Anderson, in a 31-22 loss. It was Jason Garrett's third trip to the playoffs, and his third exit in the divisional round.
