Best news for Washington Commanders may involve rival's embarrassment

Entering the Washington Commanders' Divisional Round matchup with the Detroit Lions, Washington owned the distinction of having the longest Championship Game appearance drought in the NFC.

After stunning the Lions in a 45-31 shootout, that "honor" now belongs to...

The Cowboys now have the longest NFC Championship Game drought with Washington winning. Washington is in its first conference title game since 1991. Cowboys’ last appearance came in 1995.

If there's any icing on the cake for Commanders fans from Saturday night's win, it's this. Washington managed to hand the Dallas Cowboys an L without their bitter rival even being in the playoffs.

Prior to this season, Washington's most recent NFC Championship Game appearance had been in 1991, a drought of 32 seasons. It was tied with the Miami Dolphins for the second-longest title game drought in the entire NFL, while trailing only the Cleveland Browns (35 seasons).

Now, Dallas sits in third place on that list, behind Cleveland and Miami. As far as the rest of the NFC is concerned, it's not particularly close, either: the next-longest drought behind them is the Chicago Bears, at only 14 seasons ever since playing in the 2011 NFC Championship Game.

It doesn't seem like things are going to be turning around anytime soon for the Cowboys, either. With rumors swirling regarding their next coaching hire and potentially even an uncertain future for QB Dak Prescott, they could be in for a lengthy rebuild.

Of course, as Washington knows, not all rebuilds have to take a long time. This Commanders roster wasn't supposed to get this far this fast, and yet here they are. They'll be awaiting the winner of tomorrow's game between the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles, and in the meantime, Commanders fans can all laugh at the Cowboys.