This is how dynasties are born: with the luckiest of breaks, with everything breaking exactly the right way at the exact right time, with defeat flipping to victory at the last possible moment.
This is how dynasties die: by being a step too slow, by missing the target by just an inch, by watching as fortune and luck leap across the field to cozy up to the opposition.
Sunday afternoon’s Cowboys-Patriots game wasn’t just the best game of the season to date, with five lead changes and ties in the final 10 minutes of game play. It might just be the point at which two of the league’s most storied and decorated franchises passed each other going in opposite directions.