The Cowboys' big win over the Buccaneers on Monday night marked their first road playoff victory since 1992, but it's not a win that they'll get to celebrate for very long due to the way the NFL playoff schedule is set up.
The Cowboys will be playing their next game on a short week against a 49ers team that will likely be well-rested after playing their wild-card game on Saturday, a 41-23 win over the Seahawks. With the Cowboys only getting six days of rest before their next game and the 49ers getting eight, some people might think that's unfair, but not Jerry Jones.
Following the Cowboys' 31-14 win over Tampa Bay, Jones gave a very clear answer when he was asked if the playoff schedule was "unfair" to his team.
"Not at all. Not at all," Jones said, via PFT. "That's what we were dealt. We got to play in front of the nation. We got an extra day to get ready for tonight. Good thing."
As Jones notes, his team might be getting the short end of the stick this week, but they got more rest than the 49ers going into the wild-card round. Another reason why Jones isn't bothered by the rest discrepancy is because the Cowboys are used to playing on short rest.
"We'll go play on a short week," Jones said. "We've done that Thanksgiving Day, played short weeks ... I don't see that being a disadvantage."
Of course, when the Cowboys play on Thanksgiving, they're playing a team that is also going into the game on three days' rest, so there's no advantage for either team.
When the Monday night playoff game was added last season, the NFL created a schedule that made way more sense. Both NFC games played were on Sunday in the wild-card round, which created a situation where a team would only have a one-day rest advantage over the team that won on Monday night.
The team that won the Monday night game last year was the Rams, who went on to win the Super Bowl, and right now, Jones is starting to feel like his team could pull off the same feat.
"We've got a team here that has enough skill, in my opinion, to go win it," Jones said. "And now we have some experiences that will build the intangibles."
If the Cowboys win it all, that would mark two years in a row that the Super Bowl winner had to play on Monday night in the opening round, and if that happens, you probably won't hear anyone complain about playing on Monday night in the playoffs ever again.
