After falling to the Rams in the season opener and then miraculously winning a game they had lost several times over the course of Sunday afternoon, it’s easy to feel a little down on this Cowboys team at just 1-1 to start the season. Well, a win’s a win in this league and no win is easy each Sunday. At the end of the season, no one’s going to care how Dallas beat the Falcons back on September 20th, they’re only care if they did or not.

Even at 1-1, some unexpected and unfortunate events already have created a situation where the Cowboys should be able to convincingly win the NFC East. Here’s what the rest of the division looks like after two weeks.

Washington Football Team (1-1)
Week one: Def. Eagles 27-17
Week two: L @ Cardinals 30-15
Next week: @ Browns (1-1)

While Washington’s week one win over the Eagles seemed like an upset at the time, it now looks like that wasn’t particularly impressive (more on that later). Week two wasn’t as rosy for Washington as they had to take on the pleasantly surprising Cardinals who are now 2-0 on the season behind sophomore star Kyler Murray.

Kyler Murray has:

▪︎ More rush yds than Christian McCaffrey
▪︎ More rush TD than Ezekiel Elliott
▪︎ More pass yds than Patrick Mahomes

Redefining DUAL-THREAT #RedSea pic.twitter.com/bZQa5dCnWS

— CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) September 21, 2020

Up next Washington heads to the Dawg Pound to take on the truly unpredictable Browns. Cleveland narrowly defeated the Bengals at home last Thursday night after being handily defeated by the mighty Baltimore Ravens in week one. Who knows what to expect from the Browns from week-to-week. This will be an interesting matchup, but Washington definitely has a chance to extend its good vibes to start the season this week.

New York Giants (0-2)
Week one: L vs Steelers 26-10
Week two: L @ Bears 17-13
Next week: vs 49ers (1-1)

Remember the good vibes around Washington after a surprising week one win? There are none of those for Jason Garrett and company up in the Meadowlands. Sunday’s loss in Chicago wasn’t just bad on the scoreboard, but it featured the team losing its star running back Saquon Barkley to a torn ACL that will end his 2020 season.

Giants’ RB Saquan Barkley does indeed have a torn ACL. He is out for the season.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 21, 2020

While the 49ers stock may not be as high as it was on Super Bowl Sunday earlier this year, they will certainly be favored over a Giants team that has scored just 23 points through two weeks and is without its best player for the rest of the season. The Cowboys first play New York in week five at AT&T Stadium.

Philadelphia Eagles (0-2) 
Week one: L @ Washington 27-17
Week two: L vs Rams 37-19
Next week: vs Bengals (0-2)

It has to be fun to listen to Philly sports radio this week as surely they are full on panicking after an 0-2 Eagles start. Philadelphia was seen as really the only other team in the division besides Dallas to have a shot at winning the division, but the 0-2 start doesn’t help. Just like last season, the poor start by Philadelphia doesn’t necessarily doom them unless the Cowboys crush their opportunity to create some distance. This likely won’t happen immediately with the Cowboys having to travel to Seattle in week three and the Eagles hosting the Bengals. The schedules after that certainly create an opportunity for Dallas separation:

	Cowboys	Eagles
Week Four	vs CLE (1-1)	@SF (1-1)
Week Five	vs NYG (0-2)	@PIT (2-0)
Week Six	vs ARI (2-0)	vs BAL (2-0)

Knowing how things basically never play out how you would expect with the Cowboys, it wouldn’t be surprising to see these teams basically tied up heading into their first matchup of the season in week eight.

After Carson Wentz was sacked eight times in week one, the Philly O-Line was able to patch things up against the mighty Aaron Donald and did not allow Wentz to get sacked on Sunday. Unfortunately, it meant virtually nothing as the Rams continued to make their statement that people are sleeping on them this season.

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The NFC East has turned out to be even weaker than many expected due to the unfortunate injury to Saquon Barkley and the 0-2 start by the Eagles. Can the Cowboys take care of business or will be nervously watching each and every December game to see if Dallas can even make the postseason? These next few weeks will go a long way in determining that.