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Giants (3-3) vs Cowboys (5-1)
Last
Sunday the Cowboys surprised a lot of people with their 30-23 win over the Seattle
Seahawks. The defending Super Bowl champs don't lose at home. They just don't,
but they did and now the Cowboys are being talked up as a team that's putting
it all together at the right time.
The Giants surprised a lot of people too,
but not in a good way. The Eagles handed them a sounding 27-0 beating on Sunday
night in front of a national audience. It killed the Giants encouraging three
game win streak and makes them look like easy pickings as they head off to Dallas
this week.
Giants
- Eagles Wrap-Up
Dallas
Cowboys
Playing fantasy football is a lot
of fun and as Owner, President, and General Manager, Jerry Jones gets to do it
for real. His fantasy for a long while now has been to win a Super Bowl or at
very least get into the playoffs. How's Jerry been doing with this? Well for one
thing, he tends to start the same quarterback year after year, and even recently
balked at picking up highly regarded prospect Johnny Manziel for his team. The
Cowboys were in the top five in scoring points last year but one real costly mistake
was Jones dropping defensive coordinator Rob Ryan from the team. The Cowboys ended
up with the worst ranked defense in the league and despite an offense that ended
in the top five in putting points on the board, they lost three games by just
one point. Just winning one of those games could have made all the difference.
The Cowboys still had a shot for a playoff berth in their very last game with
a win over the Eagles, but lost 24-22. Once again no playoffs, and the Cowboys
have the distinction of being only the third team in NFL history to finish with
three straight 8-8 records.
Those are Jason Garrett's numbers in his three
full seasons as head coach, but now he's got the team off to a great 5-1 start
looking to break that mediocre trend. Tony
Romo currently has a 68-46 regular season win loss record and is one of the top
ten quarterbacks in career passer ratings. The big knock is that the other nine
quarterbacks have combined to win 14 Super Bowls and the Cowboys have had just
one lone playoff win since 1996. Is it Romo, or is it the supporting cast? Jones
seems to have made some good decisions in that area going into this year, so we'll
see. Dallas Cowboys
Offense
Tony Romo's detractors, who insist
he can't win the big ones, should be reminded that he didn't blow that last season
game that kept the Cowboys out of the 2013 playoffs. Romo was recovering from
back surgery and did not play. They might laugh and remind you that the Cowboys
are doing well keeping the ball out of Romo's hands. Well, sort of, as it's true
that Romo has thrown the least amount of passes in these first six games than
when he became a starter in 2007, but it's all more of a commitment to the running
game rather than for any concerns. Despite a poor first game home opener and loss
to San Francisco, where Romo threw 3 interceptions, he has completed 68.6 percent
of all his passes.
Dez Bryant is the top receiver with 36 catches for 439 yards
and he's scored four touchdowns, but Romo was only able to connect with him on
four of the ten passes that went his way last week. Terrance Williams, coming
off his rookie year, replaces Miles Austin, playing opposite Bryant and he has
a team high 5 touchdowns on 18 catches. Reliable tight end and nine time Pro Bowler
Jason Witten last week caught a touchdown and became only the second tight end
in NFL history to have 900 receptions.
DeMarco Murray ran for over 1000 yards
last season (1121) and it was the first time since 2006 that any running back
on this team did that. Murray hasn't stopped running, already has 785 yards, and
currently leads all the top other running backs by at least 243 yards. Joseph
Randle stole (bad joke) some of Murray's thunder by having the longest run of
the game - 38 yards. Randle will be playing despite his shoplifting incident the
day after the game. If you go overboard to stop the run, they'll hit you with
play-action to Williams, Bryant and Witten. Dallas
Cowboys Defense
They've
made some coaching changes this year with Monte Kiffin being named as assistant
head coach/defense and Rod Marinelli was promoted from line coach to take over
as the new defensive coordinator. Marinelli, a former head coach with the Detroit
Lions, keeps the defensive schemes as simple as possible for his players and that
has worked very well for the younger ones on the team. They have been assisted
by their offense having a running game that has them on the field less.
Defensive
end DeMarcus Ware was their all-time sacks leader and he's playing in Denver now.
Defensive tackle Jason Hatcher, led the team last year with 11 sacks, and he's
in Washington. The Cowboys gave up a third round pick to get pass rusher DeMarcus
Lawrence in round two, but he's on injured reserve. It's a good thing they picked
up Henry Melton in free agency. He's worked under Marinelli previously and leads
the team with 1.5 sacks.
Middle linebacker Sean Lee is on injured reserve,
and Rolando McClain has that role now. McClain was the eighth overall pick in
the 2010 NFL Draft, selected by the Oakland Raiders. He was released by the team
in 2013, and McClain signed with the Baltimore Ravens. A month later McClain announced
his retirement and didn't play at all last year. The Cowboys made a deal with
the Ravens for McClain and so far it has worked out surprisingly well for them.
McClain leads the team with 2 interceptions. The secondary, Brandon Carr, Orlando
Scandrick, Sterling Moore and Barry Church have played at their best by far in
the last two games. Considering the year they were coming off of, and the players
they lost to free agency and injuries, you have to give Marinelli a lot of credit
for them being ranked 15th in total defense. Giants
offense
Things did not go well last week
to say the least. A few times Eli Manning held the ball too long, but overall
he was let down by his offensive line. Justin Pugh, with a solid year under his
belt, played as poorly as a surprised rookie who was suddenly called into the
game not knowing what to expect. In fact the whole line behaved as though they
were fearful of what the Eagles were going to do next. It makes you wonder how
prepared they were for that matchup, and now they will be up against a defense
that is not playing over its head.
To make matters worse, Manning lost a big
key to his offense when Victor Cruz went down and out for the season, and once
again, running back Rashad Jennings will miss this game. Andre Williams, assisted(?)
by the line, was not that effective and they will have to show more to help keep
pressure off Manning so he can pass down the field to Odell Beckham Jr. Preston
Parker probably will be playing in Cruz's position in the slot, and all this puts
Rueben Randle on the field as the number one receiver in terms of experience. Giants
defense
They already know the game plan
will involve a lot of DeMarco Murray runs coming their way. He's had 43 more attempts
than any other runner and has been very effective. The Seahawks were giving up
an average of just over 62 yards a game on the ground this season and held
Murray to 2 yards or less on six of his first 11 carries and he still ended up
with 115 rushing yards and 1 touchdown. Murray also caught all six passes Tony
Romo threw to him for another 31 yards. Middle linebacker Jon Beason brings a
lot to this defense and he was just back last week after missing a few games.
It would be great if he's back at full strength to help the run defense. Safety
Antrel Rolle might have to assist as well. The Cowboys will be without starting
right tackle Doug Free, but they do have good support in that area.
Aside
from that, it's not easy to get to Tony Romo when he passes the ball. Defensive
end Jason Pierre-Paul had a tough assignment last week up against Jason Peters.
Now left tackle Tyron Smith is next up, so no break for Pierre-Paul. In the secondary
Cornerback Rodgers-Cromartie is a question mark with his right side injury, if
he even plays. Zack Bowman and Jayron Hosley have been getting more valuable experience
with their playing time. The defense can't
let down for a minute this week against the run or the pass. Overall
When
a team shakes off an embarrassing home opening loss and goes on to win five straight
games for the first time in their head coach's tenure, the last one in Seattle
upsetting the defending Super Bowl champions, you have to take them as serious
contenders. They must be doing something right and in the Cowboys case it looks
like everything. Last week they beat the Seahawks by blocking and running the
ball. The defense contained quarterback Russell Wilson and they even stopped the
run.
The Giants on the other hand started off with two losses, but were slowly
putting things together held back with slight misgivings creeping in here and
there. Then last week in Philadelphia, misgivings were all over the place. It
started with the back and fourth between the players on both teams and continued
into the game. How a Giants offensive lineman can bring himself to blatantly spear
another player on the ground after the whistle, cost the team dearly when they
needed to rebound, and then unremorsefully say, "That's football... That happens
all the time." Doesn't he and the others know who their head coach is?
Where
is the Tom Coughlin we used to know and love, or - something like that? I seem
to remember a while back when a player commented after a loss we were 'out coached'
and there was hell to pay. Maybe some of that happened last week as well. The
Eagles, playing above their skill levels, sure seemed to know what to do while
the Giants, playing way below theirs, seemed to have no clue. Maybe the 'out coached'
thing is about all that's off limits on this team at this point.
The Giants
are about to face a very dangerous team, one really much better than the Eagles,
and they're about to fall off a steep division cliff in the process if they fail.
Will we see some of the old 'do it against all odds' Giants spirit resurface?
Will some of the old 'no-nonsense just play football' coach Coughlin (like me
or not) show it's face at a time when the team needs it, when all its mental fortitude
is required to recover from from losing one of it's favorite teammates to a horrible
season ending injury? I know what I'd like to see, but your guess is as good as
mine. NFC East
On Sunday, before the Giants play against the Cowboys,
the Redskins (1-5) host the Titans (2-4 ) at 1:00pm. The Eagles (5-1) are on their
bye week. The Cowboys and Redskins are favored to win in these games.
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Notes.Cowboys
went 13-3 to finish the season with the NFC's best record the last time they won
five straight. Cowboys have scored only
20 first-quarter points in these first six games. Cowboys
Tony Romo has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 34 consecutive games. Cowboys
Tony Romo with this game, will pass Roger Staubach's number of starts in team
history with115
It would be the second-most behind Troy Aikman (165).
Next Games
Nov 3- Colts at Giants.
Giants Tickets
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Nov 9- Giants at Seahawks.
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