FRISCO – The Dallas Cowboys’ “nice”: A heart-stopping victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday Night Football, accented by owner Jerry Jones glowing about his team’s “Super Bowl” effort and assistant coach Al Harris receiving enthusiastic support on Twitter from FOX’s Erin Andrews.

The Dallas Cowboys’ “naughty”: Their meaningless late-season surge – four wins in five games – is steering them right into Purgatory. Not bad enough for the depths of Hell but certainly not good enough for the Heaven of postseason play.

At 7-8 entering Sunday’s game at the Philadelphia Eagles, the Cowboys are trending toward the worst landing spot in the NFL. Ideally, teams want to make the playoffs or get a high draft pick.

Dallas is headed toward neither.

Of the 18 teams that will miss the postseason they are No. 15. With their latest two wins over the Carolina Panthers and Buccaneers, they have seen their pick in next April’s NFL Draft fall from No. 11 to No. 15. It’s a treadmill to nowhere.

While Jerry, McCarthy and plenty of fans are seemingly giddy about the team’s “pride” and creating late-season momentum, the league knows better.

The Cowboys-Eagles matchup – normally reserved for the highest-profile stages – has been bumped to a Noon kickoff because Dallas has already been eliminated from the playoffs. And along with their draft currency getting diluted, their schedule is shaping up to be difficult – or even surprisingly brutal – next season.

Now locked into a third-place finish in the NFC East, the Cowboys know all but three of their 2025 opponents.

On the docket next season: Two games against the 12-3 Eagles and matchups with the 14-1

Kansas City Chiefs and 13-2 Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions.

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