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IRVING, Texas - On most days Jerry Jones walks straight to the practice field at Valley Ranch, right past a line of reporters who would love the chance to speak with the Cowboys owner.
Monday was different. Jones strolled slowly past the track where onlookers stand watching the first few minutes of practice, seemingly begging for someone to chat him up. The Cowboys were holding their first workout in preparation for Sunday's game at the Meadowlands against the New York Giants and Jones' excitement level was obvious.
No one stepped forward to pose the question, though, so Jones just went ahead and said it.
"I'll tell you how we're doing after we play these Giants."
How far the Cowboys have come these past three months, and how far they still have to go, knowing at 8-3 and with the toughest, most difficult part of the season dead ahead, much is still to be decided.
After flipping their roster in the off-season, they've seemingly made things work with a largely different cast of characters. They've had young stars emerge. They've moved into a new home and defended it every week since falling to the same New York team in the home opener. That loss, coupled with one in Denver two weeks later, had some beginning to worry about an implosion. The quarterback couldn't manage the game. The head coach was a goner. It just wasn't looking good.
And since then? All that has happened is six wins in seven games, the Cowboys working themselves into a one-game lead in the NFC East with five games remaining in the regular season.
Thanks to their strong play during the middle of the schedule, the Cowboys have earned control of their own destiny from here until the finish line. Starting with the Giants game they play the rest of the division once more apiece. They'll also face the NFC's top club, New Orleans, and play one of the hottest groups in the league, San Diego.
But maybe most importantly to this bunch, starting on Sunday the Cowboys will have the opportunity to shed what has become a rather annoying label, as losers in the month of December. With each outing, the Cowboys have the chance to prove themselves and reverse a trend that has been building around these parts for some 13 seasons.
Rest assured, the media drum-banging has already begun. December. December. December.
It started in 1997, perhaps not-so-coincidentally the year the Cowboys' unprecedented playoff win drought began, when an aging team of former Super Bowl stars went into the last month of the calendar year on a two-game losing streak. December extended that streak to five games, as the Cowboys fizzled to a 6-10 finish and initiated a search for Barry Switzer's replacement.
Chan Gailey's 1998 Cowboys went 2-2 in December, winning the division by beating Philadelphia and Washington in Weeks 16 and 17. The Cowboys would lose a Wild Card Playoff game the next week to then-NFC East rival Arizona. The '99 Cowboys finished December just 1-3, though they went into the playoffs on somewhat of a high since they beat the Giants to clinch a postseason berth on Jan. 2, 2000, only to be knocked out by Minnesota the next week.
Dave Campo's 2001 team can boast the Cowboys' only winning December since 1996. They went 3-2 in the month, but lost a Jan. 6, 2002 season finale. In Campo's three years as head coach the Cowboys were 4-9 in Decembers, with a four-game slide sealing his fate in 2002.
Things didn't improve during Bill Parcells' tenure either, his teams faring no better than 2-2 in the month, with all four regular seasons ending in a loss, as well as a first-round exit both times the Cowboys made the postseason.
Wade Phillips' first Cowboys team was 12-1 heading into December in 2007, but lost to both Philadelphia and, in the season finale when the starters were pulled, Washington. The Cowboys had already wrapped up homefield advantage before the Redskins game, but the loss was just part of a late-season slide. The Cowboys had two weeks to get ready for a home playoff game, but lost to New York, the eventual Super Bowl champs. Last season the Cowboys drew four playoff teams in December, and underwent locker room turmoil during a 1-3 finish.
Whatever the case - and it has been different each time - the Cowboys simply haven't enjoyed much success during the most crucial stretch of the NFL calendar.
And here they stand, at the beginning of crunch time, with everyone asking about December this and December that. As some players put it, the current team is undefeated in December, evidence they're listening less to outside naysayers, and more to their steady-as-she-goes head coach.
"I talked to them about playing this game," Phillips said. "That's really the key. Those things will take care of themselves. We talk about starting the first game trying to win the first game and going from there. You can look at the big picture a lot, but really it comes down to total focus on what you're doing."
Judging from the talk inside a locker room refreshed by a three-day victory weekend, the Cowboys are buying in. The players realize New York, losers in five of their last six games, cannot afford another defeat, which would drop them to three games back of the Cowboys. The opportunity to all but cross a division rival off the list of NFC playoff contenders has definite appeal.
And so does the opportunity to make December a problem for someone else.
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Josh Ellis - 
