FRISCO - Coming into the season, my very loose prediction - I gave myself that elbow room because of the tumult of the time involving the trade of Micah Parsons to Green Bay and a lack of knowledge of what might happen in the wake of it - was that your Dallas Cowboys could win 10 games.

Now here we are halfway through the season and you’re not even one-third of the way to 10 wins.

Can 2025 be saved?

The Cowboys enter Week 11 with a 3-5-1 record, with a defense ranked near the bottom of the NFL in most every category, with a demanding schedule ahead, with the death of Marshawn Kneeland in their hearts and heads and with the ESPN big computer spitting out that they have a 5.3-percent chance of making the playoffs.

Pretty doom-and-gloomy.

A quick glance at the competition suggests that the Cowboys need a 10-6-1 record to be a playoff team.

But with eight games remaining - especially these particular eight - is that at all feasible?

Let’s drill down on three factors with a glass-is-half-full (or empty) look …

1 - A DEFENSIVE FACELIFT?

HALF-FULL The return of DeMarvion Overshown and Malik Hooker (and maybe Trevon Diggs?!), the trades for Logan Wilson and Quinnen Williams, and the debut of rookie corner Shavon Revel Jr. could alter the look of Dallas’ defensive foundation.

HALF-EMPTY In the first half of this season, coordinator, Matt Eberflus his group didn’t just look overmatched in terms of talent … They looked lost.

Will adding four or five new guys into the lineup solve the confusion… Or contribute to more of it?

2 - A SCHEDULING CHALLENGE?

HALF-FULL This is a league of parity. So dream away and consider …

-Favored Dallas wins at Las Vegas on Monday and now you’re 4–5–1.

-Philadelphia comes here and hey, you always play them tough. How about an upset win to move to .500?

-The Chiefs come here for Thanksgiving. A very short week for them, four days after a monster matchup with the powerful Colts. Can you catch Patrick Mahomes on a rare bad day? Sure!

You’re 6-5-1 and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

-At Detroit, and no, I’m not going to take optimism to a foolish level. Dallas is 6-6-1.

-Minnesota comes here. A winnable game. Do it. You’re 7-6-1.

-The Chargers come here. Dak Prescott can do anything Justin Herbert can do … right?

You’re 8-6-1 and now you can almost taste it! Coach Brian Schottenheimer’s “culture” is taking hold!

-You’re at Washington. So often a late-season nightmare. Maybe the Commanders will be out of it by then.

You’re 9-6-1.

-You’re at the Giants for a second straight East Coast trip. The Cowboys almost never lose to a Giants team experiencing yet another lost season.

And voila! The Cowboys are a miraculous 10-6-1!

HALF-EMPTY First, it’s not automatic that 10-6-1 gets you in.

Second … are you putting any money on back-to-back wins over the Eagles and the Chiefs?

3 - THE DAK FACTOR

HALF-FULL Prescott, we’ve all written during the first half of the year, “would be an MVP candidate if his team was winning.”

So the Dallas QB might just carry his guys through the second half.

HALF-EMPTY That MVP talk seems like a long time ago if we bother to notice that Dallas has lost two straight games in lopsided fashion to the Broncos and the Cardinals.

And in those two games? Dak’s thrown one TD to three interceptions.

That’s not carrying anybody anywhere. That’s no longer an “MVP-level season being wasted.”

That aforementioned ESPN big computer, in addition to its 5.3-prediction on Dallas making the playoffs, puts it at to 0.4 percent to reach the Super Bowl.

No, I’m not going to do a deep dive on that idea. I think you get the picture … and I think they’d better concern themselves with the real-enough possibility that they don’t even beat the Ashton. Jeanty and the Raiders.