Blogging The Boys
The last time the Dallas Cowboys took the field, they lost in week nine on Monday Night Football at home to the Arizona Cardinals. Now coming off the bye, the Cowboys are right back to closing out the week of games on Monday night, against a Las Vegas Raiders team that will also have some extra rest with their last game coming on Thursday. The Cowboys looked bad on both sides of the ball for far too much of the game against the Cardinals. As exciting as some of their new trade acquisitions and injury returnees are for the outlook post-bye on defense, the Cowboys offense and team as a whole really needs to re-establish their core players as ones they can consistently count on starting at the Raiders. Las Vegas’ issues were mostly on offense going into a mini-bye of their own, scoring just seven points in a dreadful start from Geno Smith at the Broncos to lose 10-7.
Brian Schottenheimer’s team does not have much benefit of the doubt left at their disposal when it comes to confidently winning games they “should” win. Although they are better statistically compared to the Raiders, the records say the Cowboys have just one more win at 3-5-1 compared to 2-7 for Pete Carroll’s team. Carroll has also won four of his last six games against the Cowboys, all with the Seahawks.
While his Raiders have yet to take on much of the identity of those perennially-contending Seahawks teams, Carroll’s hiring alone was supposed to add a layer of legitimacy the Las Vegas franchise has not had towards their football operation. Carroll will want nothing more than to show they’re taking a step in the right direction in this way with a win in the Raiders final primetime opportunity of the season against the Cowboys and his former offensive coordinator in Schottenheimer.
What do the Cowboys need to do to prevent this from happening and earn yet another shot at trying to win consecutive games for the first time all year? Let’s take a closer look.
With the Cowboys coming into this game off their first back-to-back losses of the year, the idea of any opponent being a “get right” game for them is a bit laughable for sure. Their most recent loss made Cardinals backup QB Jacoby Brissett look like a top-end starter, so much so that he’s remained the starter in Arizona over Kyler Murray. With the Raiders offense struggling so much, particularly in pass protection, and the Cowboys defensive line getting even more reinforcements with Quinnen Williams at the trade deadline, the Cowboys do stand a good chance to dictate this game by making the Raiders one-dimensional and playing to this new defensive strength up front.
The Cowboys offense should cherish the opportunity to make every point they score against the Raiders really matter and complement their defense in a...
