Who’s ready for some Sunday Night Football? This weekend is going to really shape up the NFC East. As of right now, the Cowboys are clinging onto their first place standing in the NFC East at 5-4, and the Redskins loss keeps them at 3-6. The Eagles will face a Roger-less Packers team, and could steal a win on the road, and the Giants host the Raiders. After this weekend the standings could very well tighten up for the Cowboys if the cannot win on the road in New Orleans. This is a huge game for Dallas, and if they can’t pull away from the rest of the East then we’re in trouble.
How many Cowboys fans feel good about going to New Orleans right now? I don’t and neither do the odds makers, we’re -6.5 underdog. Top tier QBs have torched us all year long, and now we face a daunting task on the road against Drew Brees & Co. If the Cowboys want to separate themselves from the past two 8-8 seasons they need to win the tough games, and they need to win on the road. This game will be a true litmus test, we’ll see if Garrett has prepared this team for battle, and it’ll test his game management skills once again, is Garrett progressing as our head coach?. Will DeMarcus Ware be relevant again, will he be a menace on defense or do we see the cracks in his game and his age define him moving forward. There are a lot of questions that will be answered after Sunday night.
For a closer look into the match-up against the Saints I sat down with The Saints Nation to get their commentary on the game:
SN: That’s an interesting question because last week the Saints felt they could torch the Jets. Result? 53 passes, 13 runs, a few sacks, a couple turnovers and only 20 points. So I think Payton will watch the tape and see that the Cowboys are 31st overall against the pass and want to chuck it all over them all day long. But he’ll have to be careful and keep them honest by having a bit more balance than he did last week against the Jets. Particularly with DeMarcus Ware coming back, he can’t be in a position where he’s just rushing every down never worried about holding his block. That was a bad game on the road, though, and in the Dome this passing attack is deadly. I think he’ll try to have more balance but let’s be honest, his tendency is pass pass pass anyway. Against the 31st pass defense overall it’s going to be hard to temper than mindset.
2. On defense do you think there is an advantage on Rob Ryan’s side since he is familiar with the Cowboys offense, or do you think the Cowboys can exploit Ryan’s tendencies since they are familiar with him as well. How do you see this shaking out?
3. If I’m Dallas, how do we beat the Saints, where are they the most vunerable, what has worked against the Saints in their two loses?
Kenny Stills, the rookie receiver, has hurt teams very badly by stretching the field. The dude is good. On defense, Junior Galette and Cameron Jordan aren’t household names but they rush the passer as well as anybody. Romo will have to look out for both. Rookie Kenny Vaccaro has been awesome too.
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