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The Dallas Cowboys earned a decisive 27-13 win over the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night. For now, they remain alive for both the NFC East title and the conference's No. 1 seed.

One might believe that the Cowboys feel pretty good heading into their Week 18 finale against the Washington Commanders, but they shouldn't.

While the final score might indicate the sort of clean and complete performance Dallas wants to see heading into the postseason, it wasn't that. The Cowboys surged in the second half, but they played a mistake-filled first half that provided more questions than answers.

Quarterback Dak Prescott committed three turnovers in the first half, and Dallas limped into halftime with a mere four-point lead.

It's easy to chalk up Dallas' slow start to the emotional aftermath of last week's big win over the Philadelphia Eagles. However, it continues a troubling trend for the Cowboys. Yes, they beat the Eagles—though Philadelphia was without star quarterback Jalen Hurts (shoulder)—but before that, they narrowly escaped the lowly Houston Texans and blew a big lead to the Jacksonville Jaguars to lose in overtime.

It's not as if the victory over Philadelphia was truly that much of a feel-good moment either. With backup quarterback Gardner Minshew II running the offense, Philly dropped 442 yards and 34 points on the Dallas defense.

Of course, the Cowboys did gain a little momentum by beating Philadelphia, and they should have been able to add to it against the Titans. Tennessee has been slumping—it has now lost six straight—and entered Thursday night without several key players, including standout running back Derrick Henry.

This should have been a bigger blowout than it was, especially considering the mistakes Tennessee made.

The Titans turned it over twice and committed a whopping 10 penalties for 124 yards. Despite Tennessee's miscues—and Dallas winning the time-of-possession battle by nearly seven minutes—the Cowboys only had a 44-yard advantage offensively.

Despite Henry's absence, Tennessee still rushed for 97 yards and averaged 4.0 yards per carry. With quarterback Joshua Dobbs making his first-ever NFL start, the Titans matched Dallas' 4.9 yards per offensive play. Though the Titans had nothing to play for in this game—their Week 18 game against the Jaguars will settle the AFC South regardless—the Cowboys struggled to put them away until late.

Given Tennessee's offensive personnel, this marked the third straight game in which Dallas' defense has played poorly. It has now surrendered 87 points over its last three games. That isn't ideal.

Dallas has given up at least 300 yards of offense in six consecutive contests.

Prescott's streak of turning the ball over is far from ideal, too. He's now turned it over in six straight games and is tied for the league lead in interceptions. This is despite him missing five games earlier in the year with a hand injury.

While Prescott did finish with 282 passing yards and two touchdowns, that was to be expected. The Titans have been atrocious against the pass and entered Week 17 ranked 31st in passing yards allowed and 29th in passing touchdowns surrendered.

The Cowboys cannot expect to turn the ball over frequently, play lackluster defense and still get past teams like Philadelphia (with a healthy Hurts) and the San Francisco 49ers in the postseason.

What might be most frustrating is that there isn't much for Dallas to learn from Thursday's game. Good teams learn from bad performances, something linebacker Micah Parsons touched on between the loss to Jacksonville and the win over Philadelphia.

"Really, every loss is a chance to learn and get better," Parsons said, per Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated. "Losing close ones sucks, but there's always something you can look at and learn from it."

What is there to learn from outlasting a short-handed Titans team that hasn't won a game since before Thanksgiving? Aside, possibly, from the fact that T.Y. Hilton (four catches, 50 yards) can be a factor or that CeeDee Lamb (11 catches, 100 yards) can beat a bad secondary, not much.

On top of everything, the Cowboys potentially suffered another serious injury-related loss when center Tyler Biadasz exited with an apparent ankle injury.

Injuries were already a concern for Dallas, as running back Tony Pollard (thigh) and linebacker Leighton Vander Esch (neck) both missed Thursday's game. Parsons is dealing with a hand injury, while cornerbacks Anthony Brown (torn Achilles) and Jourdan Lewis (Lisfranc) are on injured reserve.

In the postseason, it's often the healthiest teams that have the best chances to go far. It doesn't look like Dallas is going to be one of those teams. That's a major problem, as is the fact that the Cowboys stumbled through a sloppy win on Thursday.

The reality is that this may have been the Cowboys' last chance to gain some real momentum before the Wild Card Round. If the Eagles get past the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Dallas will have nothing to play for in Week 18.

The Cowboys could use the Washington game to rest their starters and prevent further injuries. Their last truly dominant win came in Week 13 against the Indianapolis Colts, and that feels like a lifetime ago.

Dallas cannot possess the confidence of a true title contender. The chance to change that was there on Thursday, and the Cowboys didn't grab it.

Instead of riding high away from an efficient and complete performance, Dallas limps toward the postseason with concerns about its ability to beat teams that aren't missing their best players.

Las Vegas Raiders star Darren Waller offered a vote of confidence in the team's new starting quarterback, Jarrett Stidham.

Waller told reporters Wednesday that he and his teammates "took note that he knew what he was doing" in training camp, which helped build belief in his abilities. The roster is now looking to maintain a unified front around Stidham with him taking over for Derek Carr.

"The only thing that's productive is to support Jarrett going forward," he said. "We're rallying around him and letting him know we believe in him and doing what we can to prepare for San Francisco."

This will be Stidham's first start since entering the NFL, and he hasn't done much in his limited time on the field. The 2019 fourth-round pick has gone 32-of-61 for 342 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions in 11 appearances.

Benching Carr seems to be less an endorsement of Stidham and more a sign of the Raiders' plans for the three-time Pro Bowler. If Las Vegas cuts or trades Carr shortly after the Super Bowl, then it's only on the hook for a fraction of his $34.9 million salary cap hit in 2023.

But saying the quiet part—Stidham is a placeholder and a clear downgrade from his predecessor—doesn't achieve much. Las Vegas hasn't even been mathematically eliminated from the postseason yet.

You can't blame Waller for remaining outwardly optimistic about the Raiders' chances with Stidham under center.

The World Boxing Council is planning to launch a new transgender division in 2023.

"We are creating a set of rules and structures so that transgender boxing can take place, as they fully deserve to if they want to box," WBC Mauricio Sulaiman said to Gareth A. Davies of the Telegraph (via talkSPORT's Michael Benson).

Sulaiman asserted trans fighters will remain limited in whom they can fight, though.

"Woman to man or man to woman transgender change will never be allowed to fight a different gender by birth," he said.

In August, the WBC issued a set of guidelines for transgender boxers. The organization said it "firmly and unequivocally supports transgender rights and recognizes the gender identity of an individual athlete."

The WBC also contended that "there is no consensus whether a bout between a transgender woman against a cisgender (biological) woman is a fair bout between two equally matched competitors":

Metric such as testosterone level less than 10 nanomoles per liter (achieved by using testosterone suppression medication in the transgender woman), in isolation is inadequate to ensure fairness at the time off the bout. It can be argued that by the time a transgender woman combatant launches her professional career she has already gone through male puberty thus conferring her with the musculature and bony structure of a male. So, a transgender woman combatant may have an unfair advantage over her cisgender woman combatant.

The question over whether transgender women in particular have a physical edge over their cisgender counterparts extends beyond boxing, though the data is far from conclusive.

In November 2021, the International Olympic Committee offered new guidance for individual sporting associations regarding trans athletes.

"No athlete should be precluded from competing or excluded from competition on the exclusive ground of an unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status," the IOC wrote.

The committee added that any restrictions should be implemented only on the strength of "robust and peer reviewed research."

The WBC's approach to transgender boxers follows a similar policy by FINA, which oversees competitive aquatic sports. FINA prohibited transgender swimmers who transitioned after turning 12 from competing in elite women's races in June. The organization said it planned to create an "open" category that would allow more trans swimmers to race.

Athlete Ally, a group that advocates for LGBTQI+ equality, called the move "discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles."

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels hasn't ruled out benching star quarterback Derek Carr for backup Jarrett Stidham.

"That's not good enough, you know what I mean?" McDaniels said Monday in response to a question about Carr's recent performances, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Vincent Bonsignore. "And for us to be able to win this time of the year and be productive offensively, you have to throw the ball better than what we've thrown it at times here over the last month-in-a-half."

While later discussing general playing-time decisions over players with injury or contractual issues, McDaniels added he wouldn't treat the quarterback position any differently in the event he thought a change is required.

"I think there's a possibility that we would do the right thing, regardless of the position, in terms of the team," the coach said.

While McDaniels didn't name Carr, he also refused to say his starting quarterback wouldn't change before the end of the season.

Through his first 10 starts this season, Carr threw 15 touchdowns to five interceptions while averaging 243.5 yards per game. His performance has since fallen off noticeably. The three-time Pro Bowler has averaged 217.4 yards per contest with nine touchdowns and nine interceptions over the last five weeks.

The odds of Stidham actually replacing Carr are probably low. The 2019 fourth-round pick has thrown for 342 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions in 11 appearances.

McDaniels' comments are nonetheless pretty damning for a player who signed a three-year, $121.5 million extension in the spring and is supposed to be the franchise QB.

Carr's contract does provide the Raiders with an escape route this offseason. Cutting or trading him before June 1 would result in a $5.6 million dead cap hit but save $29.3 million in salary-cap space.

Perhaps that's an option the front office will seriously consider if Carr's slide continues over the final two games.

Legado del Fantasma leader Santos Escobar reportedly avoided a serious injury during a ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship on Monday night.

During an untelevised live event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Gunther put the IC title on the line in a ladder match against Escobar, Kofi Kingston, Shinsuke Nakamura and Madcap Moss, and Escobar was on the wrong end of a scary spot.

According to Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News, Kingston did a double stomp off a ladder and landed on Escobar's knee, which led to Escobar being helped to the back by producer Jamie Noble after the match.

Per PWInsider.com's Mike Johnson, Escobar is believed to be "OK" after being checked out by WWE's medical team following the match.

Gunther retained the Intercontinental Championship, extending a dominant reign that has now lasted nearly 200 days.

Rather than airing a traditional episode of Raw on Monday, WWE aired a "Best of 2022" show, which allowed the company to hold two separate live events in New York City and Columbus, Ohio.

Fightful Select (h/t Shubham Banerjee of Ringside News) reported that the Columbus event was a "logistical mess" since several advertised Superstars were either late or couldn't make the show due to travel issues, presumably as a result of extreme winter weather in the northeast.

Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Bobby Lashley and Alexa Bliss were reportedly among those who missed the Columbus show, and Rollins divulged on Twitter that his absence was a result of his bus breaking down.

Rollins was reportedly supposed to be part of a steel-cage match against Austin Theory for the United States Championship in the main event, but instead it was a steel-cage Triple Threat with Theory beating Johnny Gargano and Damian Priest.

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