You almost had us, Mike McCarthy.
For a moment, it looked like the Cowboys really were turning a corner. They survived without Dak Prescott, going 4-1 despite some often uninspiring quarterback play from Cooper Rush, and then thrashed two bad teams once Prescott returned.
More than that, they did so while the rest of the NFC (sans the Eagles) was looking incompetent, incapable, or both. The Cowboys were emerging as one of the best teams in the NFL: their defense was ripping quarterbacks apart, the offense was running over everyone, punt coverage units were checking under their beds at night for KaVontae Turpin, and Prescott’s return had the Cowboys looking complete.