Game Overview ::
By MIKE JOHNSON >>
- The Cowboys have steamrolled two overmatched opponents so far and now face another lower-tier team.
- Arizona has played a couple of solid and entertaining games while maintaining their organization’s apparent focus on building for 2024 with good draft position.
- Dallas has potentially the best defense in the league and is terrorizing opposing offensive lines and quarterbacks.
- Tony Pollard has become the bell-cow that we have always wanted him to be while CeeDee Lamb has morphed into a true alpha.
How dallas Will Try To Win ::
Dominant. That’s about the only word you need to describe the Cowboys season so far. Through two weeks, they have outscored their opponents 70-10 and seven of the 10 points they have given up came on a busted coverage / missed tackle in the second quarter against the Jets. Outside of that one big play, the Cowboys defense has been downright dominant. Their offense has been fine, but not great – but it really hasn’t had to be. The defense has been so good that the offense has spent a lot of time playing conservatively and attacking short fields – which likely has a lot to do with their ranking of 24th in the NFL in yards per play. This week, Dallas gets another stop on its tour of matchups with overmatched opponents – they head to the desert against an 0-2, but surprisingly competitive, Cardinals team.
It is hard to get a full grasp on how this Cowboys team wants to play this season. They have been an elite offense that plays aggressively when Dak Prescott is on the field in recent years, but Mike McCarthy was adamant this offseason about wanting his team to be built around its defense and running game. Through two games, they really haven’t been pushed at all and have ended up in about the most positive game scripts you can write up against offenses that pose no threat. This week, against an Arizona team that many left for dead before the year, we may get the truest version of the Cowboys offense we’ve seen to date. The reason for this is the Cardinals’ philosophy and game plan are conservative on both sides of the ball. Through two games, Arizona has not committed a first-half turnover, and its defensive philosophy is conservative and focused on avoiding big plays from their opponents. This worked for the first three halves of the Cardinals’ season against the Commanders (in Eric Bienemy’s debut as Washington’s offensive coordinator) and the Giants before Brian Daboll had his “Becky the ‘Ice Box’ O’Shea shows up at halftime” moment that turned the Giants offense loose.
The Cardinals’ approach is relevant to Dallas because their likelihood of avoiding turnovers and moving the ball methodically and conservatively should keep them in it and avoid the Cowboys being gifted short fields that keep their offense from being forced to spread its wings. The Cowboys threw the ball 26 times in the first half against the Jets, compared to only 18 rush attempts (three of which were by Prescott). This means that the Cowboys were not handing the ball off on 66% of their offensive plays during that time – a pretty aggressive number for a team whose coach self-proclaimed to be built on the running game. We should expect a similar approach from the Cowboys offense in this game to what we saw in the first half of the Jets game, and given the personnel strengths of the respective opponents, we could see a very productive first half from Dallas. Pollard and Lamb have established themselves as the clear engines of this offense and will be heavily involved in a variety of ways, with the rest of the team fighting for scraps.
You must be logged in to view collective notes about a game.
You must be logged in to add notes about a game.