The word "juggernaut" comes to us from India, where it refers to a huge horse-drawn wagon carrying a stone image of the Hindu god Krishna that crushes everything in its path.
Last season, the Dallas Cowboys, winners of 10 of their first 13 games, had a point differential of a staggering +188 after they demolished the Eagles 33-13 in a Sunday night game at Jerry World on December 10.
It was their eighth victory by a margin of at least 20 points (they would add a ninth such win in their regular-season finale — 38-10 at Washington).
The 509 points that "America's Team" scored last season was the most in the NFL for the year. Their offense also finished third in the league in total yards gained passing, and their defense allowed the fifth fewest passing yards.
But after the aforementioned blowout of Philadelphia, the Cowboys went just 2-3 the rest of the way, culminating in a 48-32 loss at home to Green Bay in an NFC wild card game that was nowhere near as close as the final score would suggest (Dallas had gone undefeated in Arlington during the regular season), many pundits wondered which Cowboys would answer the bell for the 2024 campaign.
It didn't take very long for everyone to find out.
After Cleveland had gone three-and-out to start the second half, a 60-yard punt return for a touchdown by KaVonte Turpin gave Dallas a 27-3 lead, and it was 33-10 when Browns running back Jerome Ford scored on a two-yard run with 29 seconds remaining in the game.
Looks like it didn't take long for the 'Pokes to revert to their 2023 ways of totally humiliating most opponents.
Next week, it's back home for Dallas to take on the Saints, who did some howling of their own in Week 1, pasting the hapless Panthers 47-10, the largest victory margin in 2024 lid-lifters. But New Orleans will find out fast that they're not playing Carolina again this coming week.
The week after that, the Cowboys will take on the Ravens, also at home, followed by a Thursday nighter at MetLife Stadium to take on the sleeping Giants, who are one of only two teams who will enter Week 2 still looking to score their first touchdown of the season (the Steelers are the other — but they won 18-10 in Atlanta on six field goals by Chris Boswell).
And Dak Prescott has just signed a new contract that will pay him $60 million a year over the next four years — right on the heels of CeeDee Lamb having signed a $34 million-a-year deal over four years, plus a $38 million signing bonus.
(By contrast, Joe Namath signed for $400,000 a year to play for the Jets in 1965.)
It appears that Jerry Jones has all his ducks in a row — including Ezekiel Elliott, back in Dallas after a one-year sojourn in Foxboro, and once again up to his old tricks, with 10 carries for 40 yards and a touchdown in the Cleveland game (Dallas running backs scored only 9 TDs in 2023 — and 6 of them were by Tony Pollard, who now wears a Titans uniform).
All the pundits who picked — and all the bettors who wagered on — the Eagles to win the NFC East in 2024 may be in for more anxiety than they bargained for, despite the fact that no defending champion in this division has repeated in 20 years.
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