Blogging The Boys
It’s easy to talk about how a team might respond following a loss, but what about a tie? How does a team feel after pouring their heart and soul into a game for four quarters, and then overtime, just to come away with nothing to show for it? The Cowboys are about to find out.
They travel up north to face a winless Jets team, hoping to avoid a similar fate to when they traveled up north to face a winless Bears team. Like Week 2, Dallas is favored, but do our writers feel confident that this one will turn out different? Let’s take a look.
Contain Justin Fields
The Jets turned a new page at quarterback, signing former first-round pick Justin Fields, who is himself looking to turn a new page. So far, he’s been the primary source of offensive production for the team: he’s tied for ninth in the league in yards per pass attempt, and he trails Jalen Hurts by just one yard for the lead in quarterback rushing. As a whole, Fields is seventh among quarterbacks in overall success rate.
Fields is at his best when using his physical traits – lightning fast speed and a cannon for an arm – to break defenses. The Cowboys haven’t mad much problem being broken by any quarterback this year, and they’ve been especially susceptible to mobile quarterbacks. Keeping Fields in the pocket and limiting big plays will be key to minimizing his impact, which would seriously hinder this offense.
Stay ahead of schedule
So far, the Cowboys offense hasn’t had much trouble moving the ball. They’re in the top five in a ton of different categories, and they actually got better (statistically, that is) without CeeDee Lamb this past week. Now, they’re facing a Jets defense that has done little to slow any offense this year.
That said, defensive coordinator Steve Wilks is a tough man to scheme against. Brian Schottenheimer faced off against Wilks back in 2018, when it was Seahawks vs Cardinals, and his Seattle offense averaged -0.041 EPA/play in those games; they averaged 0.093 EPA/play the rest of the year. A big part of that is Wilks’ deep bag of exotic blitzes he likes to unleash on third downs. The Cowboys’ best bet is to avoid third down altogether by staying ahead of schedule and converting early in the series.
Now onto the predictions from your BTB writers…
Tom Ryle (2-1-1):
Which team will we see? I’m thinking they are a bit cautious but can still get it done on offense, while the defense gets just enough stops.
Cowboys 27 Jets 20.
Matt Holleran (3-0-1):
With all the injuries Dallas is dealing with on the offensive side of the ball, the Cowboys are going to need some unexpected heroes to step up if they want to win this game. To that point, I see Jaydon Blue and Ryan...
