Blogging The Boys
The Thanksgiving game is already here! It feels like only yesterday we were buckling up for a season filled with excitement and mystery as we waited to see what type of football team the Dallas Cowboys would be. Now, after 12 weeks, we are again faced with excitement and mystery as we ponder whether or not this new and improved football team can make a run at the playoffs.
The Cowboys are coming off a big win against the defending Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles, and now have to turn around and face the AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs. Unlike the Eagles, the Chiefs are not sitting in great shape and need to win to keep up with the playoff race. The Cowboys know all about that as they are trying to revive their playoff chances by pulling off three straight. It should be a good game with plenty of things to keep our attention. Here are five things to watch when these two teams square off on Thursday.
Patrick Mahomes has an assortment of receiving weapons. The Chiefs’ five wide receivers with the most receiving yards are only separated by 140 yards. They include Marquise Brown (439 yards), Rashee Rice (394), Tyquan Thornton (372), Xavier Worthy (340), and JuJu Schuster Smith (299). At any moment, any one of these goods could be on his radar.
While there are plenty of options, there is no doubt about who the alpha receiver is since Rice made his return in Week 7. The three-year veteran is making up for lost time, commanding a team-leading 26% target share. He’s coming off an eight-catch, 141-yard performance on Sunday against the Colts. Rice is one of the more underrated wide-receiving talents in the league, and if the Cowboys’ secondary isn’t careful, he could be in for a huge day. Expect Mahomes to feed him early and often.
The Chiefs have a stingy defense. They’ve only allowed 201 points this season, ranking them fourth-best in the league. They are pretty balanced both against the pass and the run with good players all across the defense. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a very disciplined group that all rally to the ball and wrap up. This team rarely misses tackles as they only whiff on 9.2% of their tackles, third-lowest in the league. Defensive tackle Chris Jones leads the push up front, while squirrelly defenders like Leo Chenal and Chamarri Conner will chase people down. The Chiefs’ defense has held their opponents to less than 75 rushing yards in four of their last five games. Running the ball against them won’t be easy.
Additionally, it won’t change much when the Chiefs have the ball because running the ball against the Cowboys is no longer a walk in the park. Since Quinnen Williams joined the team, the Cowboys’ defense has allowed the fewest yards before contact to running backs. The three-DT front, combined with some reinforcements in the...
