5 NFL teams that must win in Week 14

1. Dallas Cowboys

It feels like the Cowboys are regular visitors to this list of late, and it doesn’t help their cause that they keep losing big games. After dropping a game they should have won in New England in Week 12, the Cowboys embarrassed themselves on Thanksgiving by laying an egg against the Buffalo Bills.

This wasn’t an overwhelming offensive performance for Buffalo, but they saw Josh Allen make enough plays and dial up a trick play that saw John Brown throw a touchdown to Devin Singletary. The bigger issue for the Cowboys was that Dak Prescott started turning the football over, throwing a critical interception and losing a fumble that led to points for the Bills.

The defeat was the Cowboys’ third in their last four games, and it has caused chaos in the locker room as Jerry Jones has criticized head coach Jason Garrett but also refused to make a move in-season. Despite all the turmoil, the Cowboys are in first place in the NFC East, albeit because the rest of the division has been worse than them.

Dallas is playing on Thursday again this week when they take on the Chicago Bears, who got back to the .500 plateau with a pair of victories. Those performances came against a two-win Giants’ team and a Lions’ squad starting its third string quarterback, but they may have been enough to boost Mitchell Trubisky’s confidence going down the stretch.

This game is in Chicago, and the Bears have proven they still have a dangerous defense, so it is no sure thing to expect a Dallas victory on Thursday. The Cowboys need to get this, however, to maintain their lead in the NFC East and restore a little sanity around Jerry World right now.