Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has made it clear that the clinching of the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs via the Thursday night loss by the Giants changes nothing in advance of Monday night’s game against the Lions. Six days later, the Cowboys play the Eagles in Philadelphia -- and it’s not known whether they will play or rest their starters in that game.
The position of owner Jerry Jones will be influenced by something that happened nine years ago.
In 2007, the Cowboys earned the No. 1 seed. They rested starters in Week 17. After a bye week, the Cowboys hosted the Giants in the divisional round. And the Giants beat them in a game that was capped by a tearful “that’s my quarterback” press conference from Terrell Owens arising from the belief that Tony Romo’s bye-week trip to Mexico with Jessica Simpson contributed to the loss.
“It’s an age-old question and certainly deserves to be a question,” Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan, via Clarence E. Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “How much do you want to be playing well? How much edge do you want to have? I know that in our season here with Wade Phillips. We had a great season and then we turned around and got into the playoffs and rested pretty good the last ballgame. And we ended up losing the first playoff game that we had with home-field bye all the way through. That’s going to bear heavily our experience there with Wade in ’07 will weigh heavily on any thoughts I have about who plays.”
Whether Jerry’s thoughts alone determine the strategy remains to be seen. In recent years, others in the organization (specifically, Garrett and Stephen Jones) have found a way to steer Jerry away from things he may have wanted to do.
Still, if the Cowboys rest starters next Sunday and lose again in the divisional round, Jerry at least will be saying to those who talked him into it, “I told you so.”
