In each team’s second game of the Sunday doubleheader, the RAMS jumped out to a big lead over the COWBOYS and rode it out the rest of the way to notch a 30 - 0 victory ahead of the playoffs. 

It’s been something of a trying season for the COWBOYS. They’ve had a full roster to work with precisely once, and that was all the way back in Week 1. Since then, according to offensive coordinator Kevin Peters, they’ve done their best to rotate their players as much as possible and put together a cohesive system, and they haven’t always gotten the results they want.

You’d never guess any of that just from watching them. The COWBOYS caught every bad break you could imagine on Sunday—on one play, the RAIDERS grabbed a one-handed, spinning interception directly in front of the endzone; on another, a touchdown was called back because of a juggled snap. But when Keith’s frustration looked ready to boil over, the team was there to encourage him and help him maintain his cool. And when Caleb came up with a diving interception late in the game, despite the huge margin, Ryan, Keith, Noah, and Reis all mobbed him like he’d just clinched the Super Bowl. 

I asked Coach Kevin about that spirit after the game, and his eyes lit up. “Our team has the best spirit in the league,” he told me. (For what it’s worth, both Coach Kevin and his father and COWBOYS defensive coordinator Brian Peters clearly play a part in that. Not a play goes by in which they don’t find something to be encouraged about—a great flag grab, nice positioning, you name it.) He acknowledges the fact that the COWBOYS’ season hasn’t gone the way they’d hoped so far—but both he and the players are keeping their heads up and their eyes forward. “We know everything so far has just been preseason for the playoffs.” There’s nothing more dangerous in the postseason than a team that never quits—whoever plays the COWBOYS would be wise to remember that.