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Dallas Cowboys Need To Go Full Tilt In Season Finale

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This will be the first time in four years that the Dallas Cowboys will go into Week 17 of the regular season having already secured their spot in the playoffs. While they still have an outside shot of earning a first-round bye, the reality is that they’re pretty much looking at hosting a Wild Card game in the first round next weekend.

So, this Sunday’s game would be a prime opportunity to rest some of their players since it really doesn’t matter if they win or lose.

But here’s the issue with Jason Garrett resting his players and not going into their game with the Washington Redskins fully prepared to win: he has a young team that, for the most part, has never experienced the playoffs. With the exception of Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Doug Free and long snapper J.P. Ladouceur, no one on this team was a member of the Cowboys the last time they made the post season.

Sure, there may be a free agent or two who were on playoff teams in the past, but they played limited roles at best on those squads. So, this team is still learning how to deal with success and needs to prepare for the extra gear they will experience in the playoffs as the speed of the game goes up another level.

If you don’t live in the Texas area, then you have no idea how excited Cowboys fans are for their return to the postseason; everywhere you look, fans are throwing up the X (paying homage to Dez Bryant’s touchdown celebration), wearing newly-minted Cowboys merchandise, and are openly talking about a return to the Super Bowl.

The Cowboys’ players hear and see these things, and the last thing they need to do is get a big head and start to lose their hunger. This is why they must go into a game knowing that if they lose, it will make the other team’s season — this game means everything to the Redskins and their avid fans.

Dallas must also be smart and rest the starters at some point in the game to avoid a devastating injury, but the team must go into this week mentally and physically prepared to compete at a high level. They cannot go into their playoff game with the same bye week hangover they had against the New York Giants earlier this year. While a team like the Giants will allow the Cowboys to get back in the game despite a slow start, the same cannot be said about a team like the Detroit Lions or the Green Bay Packers.

So, the Cowboys must approach this week as their playoff preparation game because who knows — they just may end up with that much-needed bye week after all.

Kelly Anderson is a blogger for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @bgipp01 or add him to your network on Google.

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