Blogging The Boys
Every week, we gather to discuss the latest news about the Dallas Cowboys and seek our writer’s perspective on each headline. Welcome back to the roundtable. This week we have David Howman, Sean Martin, and Jess Haynie.
Mike: Limiting explosive plays is the first order of business. Stress the Raiders protection up front without sacrificing coverage, their offensive line has some good pieces but generally their pass blocking is middle tier and ranks 17th in pass blocking win rate. If the defense starts from there, then that up-tempo offense will suddenly find itself going three-and-out quickly and the time-of-possession becomes a massive headache for the Raiders.
Sean: We all know by now the Cowboys are getting help on defense going into this game, and most of it is in the front seven. Hopefully the extra bodies to rotate in and out can be a match for tempo offense. It may even play to the Cowboys advantage to stick with a few base coverage calls when the Raiders are going quick, to cut down on the blown assignments they’ve had.
Howman: The Raiders offense has been about as bad as the Cowboys defense this year, so this matchup figures to be the equivalent of two trash cans slamming into each other repeatedly. That said, I’m really curious to see how the additions of Quinnen Williams and Logan Wilson change that dynamic.
Jess: It’s a little scary, because a key to defending against tempo is fast recognition and communication. Not only have the Cowboys been bad about that already, but now you add new pieces at key spots. But Vegas’ offense has been terrible this year, so not sure that playing fast is doing them any favors. The extra rest from the bye week will definitely help, as part of tempo is testing your opponent’s conditioning.
Mike: The ultimate optimist would say 10, but we’re after realistic analysis here not pure, unwavering optimism. The team has to stack real results from here to Week 18, and they’re about to get into a heavy portion of the schedule. Offensively, things look good, could be a little a cleaner than how they started the season at sustaining drives and red-zone efficiency. Defensively, the run defense is bad, way too many chunk plays are allowed in the secondary, and the pressure rate needs increasing. The wild card though is both team health and trades. Getting key defenders back should stabilize weak areas of the defense as well as tackling problems. Then there’s the two huge additions on defense the team acquired before the bye. Factor all that in and let’s give it a 4/10 confidence score right now.
Sean: Very minimal confidence. The big picture team build under Schottenheimer has not been lost yet though, not at...
