The Dallas Cowboys have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC and don’t really have much to gain in Monday’s game against the Detroit Lions, but don’t expect them to take it easy.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on 105.3 FM Friday that the team will not rest its starters. The reason is based on Jones’ learning experience from the 2007 season when the Cowboys clinched the top seed, rested players, and then lost to the Giants in their first playoff game.
“It’s an age-old question and certainly deserves to be a question how much do you want to be playing well, how much edge do you want to have,” Jones said on “G-Bag Nation.” “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.”
There is no right or wrong answer in this situation. In some sense, you figure it would do the body good for some of the players to rest and heal, especially someone like Ezekiel Elliott, who leads the league in carries. But history has taught us that the teams that don’t lose their hungry mindset tend to perform better in the postseason.
Jones’ team has tried it one way and it didn’t go well, so now he’s trying it the other.
