It always made sense that the Dallas Cowboys would call off the horses of competitiveness, so to speak, once they were formally eliminated from playoff contention. That is fair.
Obviously the Cowboys were eliminated ahead of their game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week, but the news of it all happened so close to kickoff that it was also fair that Dallas went about the approach they had all week long in preparation. They played hard, they won and that was that.
I’m not saying that the Cowboys folded on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles or that the 41-7 blowout the division rival handed them was intentional in any stretch.