• Baker Cookin’: Bad enough that the Cowboys catch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a four-game winning streak and increase their record to 8-6 with four games to go, but they also catch quarterback Baker Mayfield on a hot streak. He was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in the Bucs’ 40-17 victory over the Chargers. He completed 22 of 27 passes (81.5 percent) for 288 yards, four touchdowns, one INT and a QB rating of 135.3. During that four-game winning streak, Mayfield completed 85 of 122 passes (70 percent) for 1,112 yards, eight TDs, five INTs and a QB rating of 102.9. That’s pretty impressive, especially when it comes to touchdown passes this season, his third-leading 32, and also his yards passing (3,612). Certainly a handful for the Cowboys.

• Football: Cowboys special teams coach John Fassel, who helped design the newly implemented kickoff rules, was quite pleased with the total number of returns this season, particularly how exciting some of the post-season games were with touchbacks Touchbacks were. Fassel said: “The foot is definitely back in football compared to the last two seasons. The foot is definitely back in football. Our boys want to play.” Especially the Cowboys. They returned 31 kickoffs, the sixth-most in the NFL, but only because they pushed NFL leader KaVontae Turpin to the limit, averaging 34.4 yards on 24 attempts, the most in the NFL considering That only five players have at least 18 tries wide this season.

• Bright Eyes: Ol’ Turp’s eyes lit up when he asked if he would want an opponent to attempt a 70-yard field goal against the Cowboys, like Dallas did against Carolina on Sunday. when Brandon Aubrey came up short, allowing the Panthers to return the ball kick landing in the end zone. “I wish they would,” Turpin said. “I know how to set up the angles” because I realize that most of the players who block on field goal attempts are offensive linemen. “I know how to adjust the angles on these guys.” I bet he does.

• Third-and-1: Go back and look at the Cowboys’ third-and-1 attempt from the Carolina 14-yard line with 45 seconds left in the half. Since tight end Jake Ferguson was moving left to right at the snap, and Rush would have successfully gotten the ball out of Rico Dowdlein instead of fumbling, and the Panthers’ defensive end would have crashed hard inside to stop the run, Coop would have an easy one 1-yard gain achieved Keeping the ball or, better yet, a simple soft toss to Ferguson’s gong to the right, which certainly would have gained the 1-yard, but was entirely possible if Lamb had gotten his block on the safety, the Fergie for a touchdown and gave the Cowboys a 17-0 halftime lead.

• Holiday Nibbles: The best news in a 13-man injury report Wednesday is center Cooper Beebe, who missed last game in the concussion protocol, is listed as fully trained, and cornerback Jourdan Lewis, who has a slew of cornerback injuries, is at least listed limited, as he said This elbow injury will be fine… Don’t think the Cowboys have given up on trying again because of Aubrey on his 70-yard field goal attempt fell short as Fassel knew they were kicking into the wind It was a cold day and Aubrey admittedly tried to bulk up on this attempt instead of taking his normal approach… Also note Aubrey’s 11 made field goals of more than 50 yards in 14 games are the second-most in NFL history, trailing only Houston’s Ka’imi Fairbarn’s 13 this season more… Speaking of kickoffs, there was discussion during recent NFL meetings about attempting to reintroduce the onside kick, which under the new rules is limited to the fourth quarter and the attempt must be disclosed to avoid surprise attacks to take away from the game…Cowboys defensive lineman Chauncey Golston expected a counter attempt if Aubrey didn’t reach the 70-yarder and knew he was the tackler out there on the line of Scrimmage was on, and “Fassel told me they would probably come back to my side,” which the Panthers did, saying he was ready because “you have to be a player.”

This could be an update to this week’s final word after he quoted defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer earlier this year about coaching Micah Parsons, talking about his abilities and what he expects from the fourth-year player.