2023 Dallas Cowboys season
64th season in franchise history / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2023 season was the Dallas Cowboys' 64th season in the National Football League, their 35th under the ownership of Jerry Jones, and their fourth under head coach Mike McCarthy. The Cowboys matched their 12–5 record from the previous two seasons and won the NFC East division for the first time since the 2021 season and the second time in three seasons. They ended up in a three-way tie with the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions for first place in the NFC at 12–5. However, they lost the conference record tiebreaker to the 49ers but won the head to head tiebreaker over the Lions, giving them the second seed in the playoffs.[1] Although the Cowboys lost to the Buffalo Bills in Week 15, they clinched their third straight playoff berth before taking the field when the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers,[2] respectively. This marked the Cowboys' first run of three consecutive postseason appearances since appearing in six straight from 1991 to 1996.
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2023 Dallas Cowboys season | |
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Owner | Jerry Jones |
General manager | Jerry Jones |
Head coach | Mike McCarthy |
Offensive coordinator | Brian Schottenheimer |
Defensive coordinator | Dan Quinn |
Home field | AT&T Stadium |
Results | |
Record | 12–5 |
Division place | 1st NFC East |
Playoff finish | Lost Wild Card Playoffs (vs. Packers) 32–48 |
Pro Bowlers | |
AP All-Pros | 9
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Uniform | |
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For the first time since 2018, the Cowboys did not play the Minnesota Vikings during the regular season.
However, the Cowboys collapsed in the playoffs, and, despite having one of the best-ranked offenses and defenses of the league, were crushed 48–32 by their rival, seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers in the Wild Card round, at one point trailing 48–16 during the fourth quarter. With the loss, the Cowboys became the first team to lose to a #7 seed since the playoff bracket expanded for the 2020–21 NFL playoffs.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
This also marked the first time a team failed to reach a Conference Championship Game despite winning at least 12 games in three consecutive seasons.[9] The Cowboys were the only one of the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area's big four professional sports teams to not reach at least the penultimate round of their respective postseasons between the autumn of 2023 and the spring of 2024. During that timeframe, the Texas Rangers won the 2023 World Series, the Dallas Mavericks have qualified for the 2024 NBA Finals and the Dallas Stars reached the Western Conference Final of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This was the first season since 2015 without running back Ezekiel Elliott on the roster, as he was released on March 15[10] and signed with the New England Patriots on August 14.[11]