Blogging The Boys
Cowboys and Packers. The history between these two teams could fill several books. There is enough Green Bay-induced heartbreak for Cowboys fans to single-handedly keep the therapy industry afloat. As the next chapter in this storied rivalry approaches, though, there’s a new layer: Micah Parsons.
The star edge rusher is now a Packer, and when things kick off Sunday night, it will have been exactly one month from when the trade happened. The Cowboys are fighting for revenge, still bitter about that Wild Card loss that seemingly derailed the entire Mike McCarthy era, while the Packers are hoping to get yet another win over this franchise and simultaneously rub salt in the wound of Jerry Jones for trading away his best player over such a petty disagreement.
As of right now, the Packers are favored by 6.5 points, one of the larger spreads this week. Both teams are coming off a loss, so both will be motivated to bounce back. Do our writers think the Cowboys can shock the world on prime time? Let’s find out.
Communicate in the secondary
Easier said than done, apparently. Matt Eberflus runs a very simple scheme when it comes to the secondary: the entire thing is built out of zone coverage, with the goal to keep the receivers in front of you. Yet, week after week, the Cowboys have let guys get behind them for huge chunk plays. Everyone has been burned at one time or another, and communication seems to be lacking.
Brian Schottenheimer hinted at making some scheme changes to fix it. What those changes are remains unclear, but Dallas needs to figure it out fast. Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love excel at putting a secondary in conflict and ripping off chunk plays downfield. Eberflus knows this all too well, having faced the Packers twice a year as the Bears head coach. There’s really no excuse to not have a better game plan going into this game.
Establish the run
Javonte Williams is playing like one of the best runners in the league right now. No, seriously, he is. He’s eighth in both rushing yards and yards per carry and sixth in EPA per rush. He’s also third in yards after contact per attempt and leads the league in rush success rate. The only problem is Dallas was trailing so fast last week that they weren’t able to run as much as they wanted to.
This week, with CeeDee Lamb out, the Cowboys surely want to establish the ground game early. Williams has proven capable of doing that, and Miles Sanders is a serviceable change of pace back. But Green Bay has one of the best run defenses, so it’ll take extra effort – especially with Cooper Beebe and Tyler Booker both injured – to get the ground game going.
Now onto the predictions from your BTB writers…
Tom Ryle (2-1):
Let’s try a bit of a reverse...
