Every season, the Dallas Cowboys seem to take their fans on a wild ride. There are stretches during which they look absolutely impressive, leading their fans to believe a Super Bowl championship is incoming. But they also have the annoying habit of dropping big games, especially in December and January, which pops that optimism like a balloon that has flown too high.

Earlier this month, the team was riding a five-game winning streak. Times were very good for the Cowboys, and their quarterback, Dak Prescott, was playing outstanding football, so much so that he was arguably the frontrunner for the MVP award. But then came a dismal performance in a loss to the sputtering Buffalo Bills, which was followed by a two-point loss to a Miami Dolphins team that hadn’t beaten any team with a winning record to that point.

While Dallas has a 15-game home winning streak, it is just 3-5 away from AT&T Stadium this season. Team legend Michael Irvin said on Fox Sports 1’s “Undisputed” that Dallas’ inability to win consistently on the road is a “demon” that it must conquer.

It is axiomatic in the NFL, as is the case in other sports, that a team must win more than half of its games on the road in order to be considered a legitimate championship contender.

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Back in Irvin’s day, the Cowboys were road warriors, and that was one reason they won three Vince Lombardi Trophies in the early and mid-1990s. But this current iteration seems to pale in comparison to those vintage squads that were led by Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman.

The 2023 Cowboys will face the Baltimore Ravens, who have the best record in the league, on Saturday, and fortunately for them, this contest will be in Dallas. This will be that proverbial “statement game” that they likely need to win to definitely prove that they’re capable of becoming world champions this February.