The Dallas Cowboys have owned the Washington Commanders over the last few seasons, taking five of the last six meetings. And coming into this 2024 campaign, the Cowboys were expected to be the far better team.
But that obviously hasn't been the case.
After getting Dan Quinn to leave America's Team to become the 31st head coach in franchise history, the Commanders struck gold with No. 2 overall pick Jayden Daniels and have been one of the biggest surprises of the season.
Even coming off consecutive losses, Washington is still in a solid position to make the postseason for the first time since 2020, currently holding the final wild-card slot.
The Cowboys, on the other hand, have been one of the league's biggest disappointments. Mike Zimmer hasn't come anywhere close to filling Quinn's shoes as the team's defensive coordinator, and Mike McCarthy's decision-making, whether in his play-calling or any other aspect, for that matter, has been dreadful. And that's putting it nicely.
The Dak Prescott injury hurt, for sure, but it's not as if he was playing his greatest football before his hamstring gave out on him. And Cooper Rush hasn't been the quarterback he was when he won four of five starts filling in two years ago. We won't even get into how bad the Dallas running game has been.
Now 3-7 after taking their fifth straight loss this past Monday night to the Houston Texans, the Cowboys are on the opposite side of the playoff spectrum, as they're essentially guaranteed to miss the postseason for the first time since 2020.
Given the state of these franchises, it's no surprise that Washington is favored in this game. And that's actually one of the many, many storylines surrounding this NFC East rivalry matchup.
Not only are the Cowboys the obvious underdogs here, but for the first time in more than 24 years, they head into a battle with Washington as double-digit underdogs, with the Commanders currently listed as 10.5-point favorites at most of the major sportsbooks.
That said, however, the last time this happened, Dallas pulled off an upset. And the circumstances were actually somewhat similar.
The 2000 season was one of transition for the Cowboys.
Jerry Jones had fired Chan Gailey after two seasons and made defensive coordinator Dave Campo just the fifth head coach in franchise history. Michael Irvin was gone after being forced to retire following the fractured spine he sustained the season before, and longtime fullback Daryl "Moose" Johnston retired as well.
Also gone was Deion Sanders, who was released following the '99 season and signed a seven-year contract with none other than Washington, although he only played one year of it before retiring for the first time.
Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman still remained, but Aikman went down with a concussion in a blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 1. This was his last season, by the way. The Cowboys then took a loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2, which brings us to the last time they were double-digit dogs to Washington.
On September 18, 2000, Dallas went into the nation's capital as heavy underdogs on Monday Night Football to a Washington team that had won its first NFC East title for the first time in eight years a season earlier. And things didn't look great early for Dallas, who fell down 7-0 less than seven minutes in.
But the Cowboys controlled things from there, scoring the next 17 points and ultimately taking a 27-21 victory.
With Aikman still sidelined, Dallas was led to its first win of the season by none other than Randall Cunningham, who wasn't accurate by any stretch, completing just 10 of 23 passes, but still threw for 185 yards and two touchdowns. Emmitt Smith rushed for just 83 yards on 24 carries but added a touchdown.
For those wondering, "Prime Time" made one tackle against his former team.
Will history repeat itself this Sunday? Probably not. If anyone's going to bring back memories of Randall Cunningham, it'll be Jayden Daniels, not Cooper Rush. Can the Cowboys cover? Maybe. But are they winning this game? A magic 8-ball would tell you, "Outlook not so good."
