Buckle up, Cowboys fans.

The NFL season flies, doesn't it? It's going to be quite a finish, NFL fans. The fun thing about the NFL is that, with exception of the occasional down year (yes, 8-8 Giants, I'm looking at you), you have to be really good to keep playing important games after Christmas.

In other sports, like hockey, you can be a barely mediocre team, struggle all season long, and make the playoffs. Twelve teams, and 12 teams only, make the playoffs in the NFL; with seven teams all duking it out for the two wild-card spots.

Indeed, that sets up a fun December... unless you're the Dallas Cowboys.

If you want to see a Merry Christmas for the Cowboys, you would have to look back to 1996. As we all know (thank you, ESPN), that was the last time the Cowboys won a playoff game. It was also the last time the Cowboys had a winning record in the month of December. Since '96, the Cowboys have a dismal 18-32 record in the should-be merry weeks of December.

"Nobody wants to hear about the terrible Decembers we keep having, year in and year out," said CB Terrence Newman. Trust me, T-New, neither do the fans. But it keeps coming back up to the surface, and right about now it's the only thing we think about.

Who can forget the debacle two years ago when the Cowboys played the McNabb-less Eagles and the laughing stock Lions in back-to-back weeks to close out the season? One win is all it would have taken to win the division, get a home playoff game, and probably not see the slick ball fly out of Romo's hands while we sat on our couches in disbelief. But, alas, it happened, and we stumbled to the finish while Tony Romo did his best Lucy and Charlie Brown impressions in Seattle.

Not this year... This year things have got to change. This is one of those years when a great team WILL miss out on the playoffs, and who's to say it is not us?

In the same respect, who's to say it WILL be us? This Cowboys team isn't good. It's great. We went into Pittsburgh against the league's stingiest defense (without our Pro Bowl running back, mind you) and took it to them for, oh, 50 minutes.

We lost, I get it, and I'm over it, but we showed what kind of team we CAN be. It's pretty fun trying to work everything out and root against teams near us, but I'm done with that. I know at 12:30 EST on Sunday, December 28, I'll know just what to expect.

Hopefully, it will be a no-brainer. Hopefully, we take care of business the next two weeks (which are HOME GAMES by the way), and we will have a simple "win today, and you can play next week," situation. Hopefully I don't have to watch the Redskins battle the 'Niners or the Falcons take on the Rams as much as I have to watch my game.

And that's what I am clinging to.

The sky certainly isn't falling yet, I can promise you that. If the season ended right now, we would be in. We would play a manageable indoor game against the Vikings in the first round, and who knows what we could do past that. How sweet would it be to go into the Meadowlands and beat the Giants in the same Cinderella-like way that they beat us year?

And why not?

All eyes are going to be on us next Sunday night...

...so...

...Isn't it obvious?....

Getcha' popcorn ready Dallas fans, because this one's going to be a show!