Cowboys Pregame Three Thoughts for Week 14
Here come the Eagles to Arlington in a game that now really matters for both sides
Here we are. The anticipation for this game, in particular, has been very high for quite a while. Dallas has known that to finally to begin to appear on the league’s radar of contenders, this is the type of game they simply must get.
The Eagles are in their kitchen a small bit. But, they are also coming to Arlington with an extremely rare feeling for them – doubt. Over the last two seasons, they have had almost no occasions to be a wounded animal. But, following several close call victories, they suffered a home humiliation to the same team that provided the Cowboys with their biggest failure of the season. The fact that Dallas failed in Northern California instead of in front of their home stadium for all their loyalist to see – as which just happened in Philadelphia – seems a point worth making.
The timing of the Eagles 1st place schedule placing them in Dallas as their very next game after the 49ers should prove more of a blessing than a curse for them, initially. The likelihood that they sleepwalk into Dallas is zero. They will be fired up to play Dallas because they always are, but also because they know they must regain control of their winning ways immediately to ward off the potential loss of the top seed in the NFC, home-field advantage, and perhaps more importantly the lone bye week.
The ramifications of a second straight loss for the Eagles will be significant and that is why Dallas should expect their best punch. These are my Cowboys PreGame Three Thoughts:
When Dallas has the ball:
– The Cowboys must make the Eagles stay on the field and continue to deplete and exhaust a Philadelphia defense that is beat-up, wounded, and overall, not very good across the board.
Since Week 8, the Eagles defense has played 362 snaps which is easily the most in the NFL for the five games they have played. The average NFL defense during that span is at 289 and some teams are 250 snaps. Not only that, but those have been very difficult snaps as those five opponents have been Washington, Dallas, Kansas City, Buffalo, and San Francisco.
In other words, they need a break and recovery time soon. But, there is no break coming before they can secure the top seed in the NFC, so they prefer to do that sooner rather than later.