Week 18 will be very important for the Dallas Cowboys on multiple levels.

The Dallas Cowboys have not had double-digit win totals for three seasons in a row since 1994-1996. Now, in just his fourth season with Dallas, head coach Mike McCarthy has his team one win away from three straight 12-win seasons. But is it even possible that record might not be enough to keep the coach around for 2024 and beyond.

In Diana Russini’s latest article for The Athletic, she talked about the head coaching landscape across the league. At the end of the piece, Russini touches on the Cowboys’ situation – entering Week 18 with a chance to win the division. She mentioned the Cowboys talked about the 2019 New England Patriots and how they can’t sleepwalk into the No. 2 seed.

In 2019, the Patriots were 14-point favorites over the Dolphins at home, looking to lock up the AFC East against a Miami team with not much to play for. But New England lost, then hosted a wild-card game against the Tennessee Titans the next week. It lost that game, too, and Tom Brady never played for the Patriots again. According to a league source, the message to the Cowboys this week was, “We can’t squander the No. 2 seed.”

If that happens? I would add Mike McCarthy to my list of coaches in trouble.

The playoff path is much harder for Dallas as the No. 5 seed if they were to miss out on winning the NFC East and drop all the way down to fifth. They would travel to the winner of the NFC South and then, if they win, face the daunting San Francisco 49ers. In 2019, when the Patriots lost to the Dolphins in Week 18, they still hosted a playoff game but faced the red-hot Tennessee Titans and lost, while the Titans made it to the AFC Championship that year.

The goal is to set yourself up for the best possible path to the Super Bowl, and the Cowboys hosting at least two playoff games at home would be best for them—considering the last quarterback to beat the Dallas at home was Tom Brady in Week 1 of 2022.