👋 Good morning! - Congratulations, you survived another Dallas Cowboys season. Here’s your gold star… and your participation trophy. ⭐🏆- Ali Jawad

The Cowboys wanted Week 18 to be a tidy bow on a messy year, play the starters, beat the Giants, and at least walk into the offseason muttering “8-8-1” like it meant something.

Instead, Dallas face planted in a 34-17 loss that felt less like a finale and more like a warning label.

The record is 7-9-1, the playoffs have been a memory for weeks, and the only “momentum” leaving MetLife was the sound of the season slamming shut.

If you needed a snapshot of everything that went wrong in 2025, the defense provided it in HD.

The Giants, yes, that Giants team, moved the ball at will, gashed Dallas on the ground, and even let backup wideout Gunner Olszewski stack up a career day. The backbreaker came right before halftime: a 96-yard drive capped by tight end Daniel Bellinger turning a 3rd-and-16 into a 29-yard score, bouncing off tackles like the Cowboys were wearing oven mitts.

The cruel cherry on top? The 2025 Cowboys became the first defense in franchise history to allow 500 points in a season.

The few positives were basically footnotes, and they came from the kids. Rookie backs Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah found the end zone for their first NFL touchdowns, while Dak Prescott’s first-half cameo produced just 70 passing yards before Joe Milton took over after halftime.

Jadeveon Clowney was the lone adult in the room on defense, posting a career-high three sacks with four tackles for loss, three QB hits, and a pass breakup.

But even that couldn’t change what this game really was: Dallas’ first loss to the Giants since 2020, and Prescott’s first as a starter since 2016, sending the Cowboys into an offseason that now feels guaranteed to bring major changes.

The Stars erased two separate deficits and clawed their way into overtime, but Sunday ended the same way this skid keeps ending, heartbreak, this time on Lane Hutson’s 3-on-3 dagger in a 4-3 loss to Montréal at AAC.

Wyatt Johnston popped for two goals and Mavrik Bourque scored too, yet Dallas still couldn’t finish, extending the winless streak to five games (0-2-3) and leaving the Stars without a win since Dec. 21 vs. Toronto.

Another point in the standings… and another gut punch for a team that can’t buy a clean ending right now.

Brandon Williams checked in, collapsed Houston’s defense on his first touch, and suddenly Dallas looked like it remembered what a real point guard does.

With Williams and Ryan Nembhard steadying the offense in a 110-104 win that snapped a four-game skid.

Anthony Davis bullied a Şengün-less Rockets frontcourt for 26 and 12, while Max Christie stayed nuclear from deep and poured in 24 as the Mavericks finally got clean looks and clean air.

Cooper Flagg’s shot is still missing (3-for-12, 30% over his last three), but Kidd’s “rookie wall” talk is getting louder, and Dallas heads to Sacramento with momentum and a decision to make about letting a traditional PG run the show.

I hope you all enjoyed the Ali Jawad bowl.

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Ali Jawad
Dallas Cowboys ​Content Creator/Newsletter Writer
[email protected]