Dak Prescott is painfully right about the reality 2025 Cowboys face, maybe more than even he realizes
The Dallas Cowboys are in a dark place nine weeks into the 2025 NFL season.
Dak Prescott isn’t going to come out and say it. Maybe as the Dallas Cowboys quarterback, he can’t even admit it to himself.
But at 3-5-1, the 2025 NFL season is essentially over for America’s Team. Following the Cowboys’ 27-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Prescott offered a painfully right message about where the team stands headed into a Week 10 bye.
“Every game is a must-win going forward,” Prescott told reporters. “When you put yourself behind like we have, it’s even more that case. It’s now or never.”
Prescott is spot on. Probably more than he realizes because again, he’s a quarterback at heart and in profession. He was part of the 2018 Cowboys that went 3-5 before going on a 7-1 run and sneaking into the playoffs partly because of the Amari Cooper trade. But that team was different and it certainly didn’t have the NFL’s worst defense on one side of the ball. Not even Jerry Jones’ alleged trade is making it better.
However, that experience probably blinds Prescott to the clear reality here: Dallas likely needs to go 7-1 from here until the end of the season to even aspire to the postseason. And even then that’s not for certain. In a 17-game schedule—which was not a thing in 2018—the Seattle Seahawks missed the postseason with 10 wins in 2024. In 2023, five nine-win teams were left out.
FTN currently projects seven NFC teams to win 10+ games. Can Dallas match it with the league’s worst defense? Heck, not even the offense has been inspiring as of late as pass protection issues have been exposed as the Cowboys have found themselves trailing by multiple scores.
Never say never in sports. But with the way the Cowboys have been playing on defense, it’s impossible to see such a stretch happen. Especially because the schedule is about to get much harder. Following a bye week and a Week 11 trip to Las Vegas, Dallas needs to play the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, and Los Angeles Chargers.
“We put ourselves into a hole,” Cowboys HC Brian Schottenheimer said postgame. “We know that. And that’s why we have to maximize this week and the bye and look for the solutions and the challenge ahead.”
It’s now or never. And it’s sure looking like never.
This story was originally published in A to Z Sports Dallas Cowboys, as Dak Prescott is painfully right about the reality 2025 Cowboys face, maybe more than even he realizes.