ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky Took Savage Shot at Cowboys While Breaking Down Lions’ Playoff Success

It’s been a week since the Dallas Cowboys got bounced out of the NFC playoffs by the Green Bay Packers, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still make fun of them. 

Dallas’s premature postseason exit and subsequent decision to retain coach Mike McCarthy despite the embarrassing defeat sparked all kinds of snickering—mostly from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith. 

One of Smith’s colleagues got in on the fun on Monday, though. On First Take, Dan Orlovsky managed to take the Detroit Lions’ win on Sunday and turn it into a slam on the Cowboys. 

“The Detroit Lions went 0–16,” Orlovsky said, “and they’ve got more NFC championship game appearances this century than the Cowboys.”

Dan Orlovsky gets in on the Cowboys trolling:

"The Detroit Lions went 0-16 and they've got more NFC Championship Game appearances this century than the Cowboys." https://t.co/rlkHRlMPNe pic.twitter.com/zND81N0DRJ

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 22, 2024

(Orlovsky appears to have swiped his joke from a viral tweet. The post by user @_ChefDon_, which has more than 91,000 likes as of this writing, is worded a bit more clearly than Orlovsky’s version: “The Lions went 0-16 this century and still made it to the Conference Championship before Dallas.”)

Orlovsky knows first-hand just how bad things got in Detroit. He started seven games at quarterback for the Lions during their infamous 0–16 season in 2008. He was best known for an unfortunate play where he ran out of the back of the end zone for a safety. At least the Cowboys haven’t sunk that low.