Cowboys Keys to Victory Against Saints

The Cowboys will now enter the meaty part of their schedule and it starts with hosting the Saints Sunday Night. The Saints have pretty much owned the Cowboys  over the past few years, especially under Sean Payton. We seem to draw the Saints every year now, but this year the Cowboys will try to tally a win.

The Saints come into this year with a shaky defense and that’s been a typical M.O. for Rob Ryan’s defenses at every stop he’s been at.

What the Saints still do well is move the ball and score at will, and this will help their suspect defense just enough to win games this year.

Here are my keys to victory this week against the Saints:

• No more turnovers! The Cowboys have been extremely lucky in their games against the Titans and Rams, but the Saints won’t be as forgiving, they will hurt you bad if you turn the ball over to Drew Brees. If Murray has a forth straight fumble you have to bench the player, hopefully he has that BS out of his system.

• Don’t get in a shoot out with Brees. The Cowboys need to slow the game down with the running game and keep the ball away from Brees and in essence from Romo too. I’m still not trusting Romo passing it out. Keep running.

• Slow down Jimmy Graham. Graham will probably need to be double-teamed, so everyone else better be able to cover their guy

• Bench Claiborne fulltime if he struggles again. For whatever reason, Claiborne is active for this game, and will start ahead of Moore and Patmon. If he get’s eaten up as usual, they better make the right call and bench him. I’m terrified at the idea of having Mo out there today and the rest of the season.

• Force turnovers and pressure. Today we will get our first look at Anthony Spencer, and I’m not expecting the second coming of Charles Haley, but if he can get a few snaps and get some pressure, then he could be a much needed asset the rest of the year.

• Tyrone Crawford at DT. With Melton continuing to his gimpy 2014 campaign, and others are injured, we’ll see Crawford move inside more and this could be where he can flourish. If we can get back Hatcher’s stats from 2013, then we’ll be better on defense. We have not replaced his production yet, not even close. Could Suh be a target in 2015?

• Get Escobar involved this week. If the Cowboys want to create some mismatches in the secondary, that answer may be Gavin Escobar. The 2nd round pick from last year wants the ball, and we have yet to get him involved, and I don’t know why. We aren’t going to get mismatches with a smaller slot guy like Beasley. Get Escobar going already!

Let’s Go Cowboys!