When we last saw the Cowboys -- and it feels like that was about a month ago -- we learned they were no match for the Carolina Panthers despite the fact they had been listed as even money to beat the NFL's only undefeated team.

So if you can't beat them ... become them?

The Cowboys' only hope now is to emulate not this year's Panthers, but last year's team. There was no buzz around the Panthers on Dec. 7, 2014, when they took their 3-8-1 record to New Orleans and knocked off the Saints. Who knew it would be the first of four straight wins? Who knew that a 7-8-1 record could land an invitation to the postseason party?

Who knew Carolina would run that streak to 15 straight regular season wins by Thanksgiving?

On Monday, the Cowboys take their 3-8 record, the NFC's worst, to FedEx Field. And yet it doesn't have to be a night of humiliation in front of a national ESPN audience.

Despite all that has gone wrong in 2015 -- and that would be just about everything -- the Cowboys are two games out of first place. They have two games remaining with the Washington Redskins, the team that has shockingly established itself as the favorite to win this division.

Historically, December has been the cruelest of months for the Cowboys, but we know that's not the case this time around. What could possibly happen to make matters worse here? Tony Romo already has been injured twice and declared out for the season (though not out for the playoffs by the ever-optimistic Jones family).

Heck, a losing month isn't even a problem for most Cowboys fans. In a Dallas Morning News poll last week that drew 19,000 votes, 77 percent of responses wanted the team to "tank" the rest of the season in order to move up the draft board.

I don't consider that the smart way to go -- not yet, anyway -- and certainly coach Jason Garrett doesn't either. So we begin something of a second season with this team. Call it Matt Cassel 2.0. I'm not sure there was a clamor for more of this product after watching him try and fail four times in Romo's absence, but he's back and all the Cowboys have, at least until someone decides Kellen Moore's debut needs to happen.

The most productive quarterback the Cowboys have used this season is Brandon Weeden. Statistically, it's not even that close between Weeden's passer rating (92.2) and Romo's (79.3) and Cassel's (75.8). But Weeden didn't win anything, either, and he's with the Houston Texans now, so it's left to Cassel to show if more time spent with the playbook has paid off.

It was interesting that the team chose not to place Romo on injured reserve just yet in case it makes the playoffs. First of all, if this team makes the playoffs, Cassel may deserve about a five-year extension because he probably will have carried them to a 4-1 record down the stretch.

But the funnier part was simply Stephen Jones telling fans, "we're competitors" in the course of explaining the team's actions. When you're coming up on 20 years without a trip to an NFC Championship Game, it's necessary to remind people.

In order for this team to "pull a Carolina" and sneak into the playoffs, Cassel has to improve much as Washington's Kirk Cousins has done this year after getting all the work. In limited playing time, Cousins was awful in 2013, fair last season and now has shown to be solid enough executing the team's play-action passing game to deliver a 91.7 rating.

Almost Weeden-like.

But the Cowboys have come up short everywhere in 2015, and that falls on the coaches and the players, not the quarterback. It's unfathomable that in a weak division where no one plays anything approaching solid defense, New York has 22 takeaways, Philadelphia 21 and Washington 17. The Cowboys have seven.

Half the league (16 teams) has forced more than 10 fumbles. The Cowboys have forced one.

Are we sure that a quiet approach to tanking didn't begin in Week 3 after the Cowboys lost Romo the first time? That would at least explain the non-results this team has achieved in so many areas.

But put that aside for now. A new season begins tonight in Landover, Md.

Expectations which somehow were riding high for this team on Thanksgiving Day, have bottomed out. We will just have to see what happens. Who ever guessed the Cowboys' 2015 hopes would ride on Matt Cassel becoming the next Kirk Cousins?

Twitter: @TimCowlishaw