The (6-8) face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-6) in primetime on Sunday Night Football in Week 16, with a lot on the line for the latter. Tampa is clinging to a one-game lead in the NFC South over the Atlanta Falcons (7-7), who swept their season series. Dallas can help out the Falcons by beating Tampa and also keep their own playoff window cracked open ever so slightly.

This will not be an easy challenge for the Cowboys since the Buccaneers are on a roll of late winning four in a row since the bye week. The Bucs are surging but the Cowboys have played well in their own right as winners in three of their last four. While the Cowboys aren’t technically eliminated from playoff contention, it’s pretty much a done deal. But that doesn’t mean the role of spoiler can’t be fun along with some bold predictions for Sunday night’s showdown.

It may not sound out of the ordinary based on the last three games but it’s not like Rico Dowdle has some long-storied track record of rushing for 100 yards. He’s set new career highs for rushing multiple times this season and seems to have hit his stride over the past few weeks. The only thing that might stop him is the playcalling of Mike McCarthy.

Sometimes McCarthy gets a little pass-happy in his offense even with Cooper Rush. Earlier this season Rush passed 55 times in a game although, the Cowboys had fallen far behind the Houston Texans, although this isn’t uncommon for McCarthy. It’s happened many times with Dak Prescott over the years. Even when they’ve fallen behind by just a couple of scores, the running game simply goes flying out of the window for McCarthy when the pressure is on. The key is staying with the run allowing Dowdle to get into the flow of the game.’

“We see him getting stronger and better the more carries you get,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said. “It’s a very physical, daunting task to be the guy that’s getting in the bulk of the carries but he just gets stronger as the game goes, he gets better. He’s looking to engage, he’s looking to knock people around and when Rico’s shoulders are square, he’s running with a lot of confidence, he’s extremely difficult to get down.

“The thing that jumps out the most is how well he’s handling just being the guy but also that he doesn’t lose anything as the game goes on, he gets stronger, which is a great trait.”

Since Parsons returned to the field after missing time with a sprained ankle, he’s been on fire with at least one sack in four of his six games. In three of those games, Parsons has had two sacks. In his first four games of the season (before the injury) Parsons had one sack. The two-time All-Pro found his mojo apparently and now he’s due for a huge game.

Oh yeah, Parsons is also playing for a new contract with the Cowboys. Any talk you may have heard about Dallas “potentially” moving on from Parsons should be ignored. He’s not going anywhere, regardless of how long Jerry Jones attempts to drag it out. The same way Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb got their money a few months back, Parsons will be next.

In case you didn’t know, the Buccaneers rank fourth in scoring this season on offense averaging 28.8 points per game. During this four-game winning streak, Tampa is scoring 31 ppg as they’ve been firing on all cylinders. Baker Mayfield has had a resurgence in his career over the past two seasons in Tampa Bay. But all that stops this week against the Cowboys.

Dallas’ defense played much better during the second half of the season and now ranks fourth in the league in terms of sacks. Early in the year, it looked like the defense was struggling with Mike Zimmer’s system but over the past six weeks have shown much improvement. If they can get to Mayfield and not let him have time to move around and create on the fly, the Cowboys have a good shot in this game. In the Cowboys’ last four games, they’ve given up under 22 points on average and three of those were victories.