Getty Cowboys QB Dak Prescott
The Dallas Cowboys plan to play Dak Prescott along with their starters during the team’s regular season finale against the Philadelphia Eagles. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy admitted that there was some discussion about the possibility of resting the first-team players, but the staff is moving forward like it is a normal game week.
“Yeah definitely, I talked about it last night, talked about it again this morning, we’re gonna play [the starters],” McCarthy explained during his January 3 press conference. “We’re going to play to win the game, so that’s our approach. Obviously, with everything in front of us, we understand the scenarios and so forth. But yeah, we’re going to Philadelphia, and we’re going to line up to do what we need to do to win the game.”
The Cowboys have already secured the NFC East title but have a chance to improve their playoff seeding. Heading into Week 18, the Cowboys are the No. 4 seed with a slight chance to move as high as No. 2. The Packers have already clinched the No. 1 spot which comes with a first-round bye along with home field advantage throughout the postseason.
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Stephen Jones on Cowboys’ Outlook vs. Eagles: ‘We’ll Be Full-Bore, Ready to Go’
Earlier in the day, Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones indicated the team would have a similar attitude to the one McCarthy discussed. Jones described the Cowboys’ outlook heading into the Eagles matchup as “full-bore.”
“Not at this point, no I feel like we’ll be full-bore, ready to go,” Jones told Dallas’ 105.3 the Fan on January 3. “We play on a Saturday night now. Certainly some things can happen where things could go our way.
“Plus, not to mention the fact we need the momentum, and we need to go out and work on our execution and know we’ll do that and we’ll have a great week of practice as we continue to prepare and this will be a big football game for us. The Eagles are playing really well right now. My understanding is they’re locked into the playoffs. So, got a lot of work to do and we’re going to focus on the Eagles.”
The Cowboys Have No Plans to Limit the Starters vs. Eagles
McCarthy also indicated there are no plans to play the starters in a limited capacity. The Cowboys coach emphasized that he does not want to do put undue stress on the roster by limiting their top players’ snaps.
“Our full intention is, as we started the game plan today, was to play our guys, to build a game plan to win the game,” McCarthy responded when asked about potentially pulling the starters during the game. “I think the other thing, it’s that people need to recognize you only have 48 players to play the game.
“So, going up there and then you start pulling players, you’re really putting stress on other players that particularly haven’t played maybe that many reps at that many positions. So, you have to be cognizant of that. I’m talking about special teams and so forth. So, we put a lot of time into the potential playtime reports for projected play for each player each and every week. So, to go up there I think you have to clearly go into the game with the 48 guys that you feel are gonna line up for four quarters to go win the game.”