Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys are looking for their third win of the season on Sunday afternoon, and to get it they’ll have to hand the Carolina Panthers their fourth loss – but first at home. The Panthers are 2-0 at home so far with a decisive 30-0 win against the Falcons, and last week’s 27-24 comeback against the Miami Dolphins. A win would be the third in three years on the road in Carolina for a Dallas team that’s played there under different circumstances each time, and now arrives off their best win of the season, also on the road, and best all-around game under new head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
The way the Cowboys played against the Jets was encouraging for the growth of a team looking forward to getting much healthier on both sides of the ball as the importance of their upcoming games increases. It also is directly encouraging for their matchup against the Panthers, as they’ll come into Sunday still a banged up team, but won in dominant fashion despite being banged up at the Jets.
Let’s take our weekly look at what the Cowboys need to do to string together consecutive wins for the first time in 2025, and what could kill their momentum from the Jets game and create another setback.
The Cowboys passing offense getting the ball to Jake Ferguson has always been a good barometer for how well the whole operation is going, and so far this season there has been a lot of Ferguson in year one of Schotty calling plays. Ferguson had the first two-touchdown game of his career last Sunday against the Jets. The Cowboys offense put on a masterclass of playing ball control to protect the lead, running the ball out of tight formations, using play-action off of this on Ferguson’s second touchdown, and using motion to create big throws to Ryan Flournoy and George Pickens when needed. All of these things bode well for a Cowboys offense that will see a Panthers defense with Jaycee Horn at cornerback, who can present a similar challenge against Pickens that Sauce Gardner did for the Jets.
This isn’t to say Pickens won’t be able to make the type of downfield play the Cowboys receivers made against the Panthers last year, with Jalen Brooks catching his only career touchdown from Cooper Rush, but it’s much more likely another big game is in store from Ferguson. Last week against the Panthers, Dolphins TE Darren Waller caught all five of his targets for 78 yards and a touchdown. The previous week in a Panthers loss at the Patriots, Hunter Henry caught both of his targets for 39 yards. Cardinals tight end Trey McBride led the team in targets, catches and yards, in a 27-22 win against the Panthers in week two.
Carolina has improved against the run from the start of the season, but have yet to...
