The hated Cowboys

11-5 sounds about right for them IF there's no sophomore slump for the two stars.

It will be interesting to see if Prescott has a sophomore slump, or if he ends up improving his game and becoming a great QB.  He had one of the better rookie years a QB has ever had, but now defenses have a full off-season of tape on him and maybe can find some flaws to exploit.  In the loss to the Packers, he looked like a typical rookie QB for much of that game but to his credit helped the Cowboys rally back to tie it late in the game.

Certainly, the Cowboys have big questions on defense similar to the Packers.  As a homer, I certainly am optimistic that the Packers have fixed some holes on their D, we'll just have to see if the Cowboys have done the same.

He had success because the whole offense had balance. Teams couldn't stack up against Prescott or Elliot, it's a credit to Jerruh and Stephen Jones and Garrett. Even if Prescott has a sophomore slump, I think there is enough from the running game that Garrett can give Prescott some easy timing throws to keep things moving. The defense is the only thing that will hold that team back. 

it's no credit to jerruh - manziel woulda been out there if his son hadn't stopped him.

Dallas lost two starters from the best OL in football. LG and a RT. 

Technically they only lost 1 starter, Doug Free. Ron Leary was filling in for starting LG La'el Collins. Sounds like Collins will be moving to RT though to replace Free which isn't a bad move. It will be easier to plug a young player in between Tyron Smith and Frederick than it would be to plug someone in at RT. 

In the loss to the Packers, he looked like a typical rookie QB for much of that game but to his credit helped the Cowboys rally back to tie it late in the game.

With a little help from Dom Capers.... 

GB lost two starters over the last 12month from the 2nd best OL in the NFL and we kind of expect them to not miss a beat.

I don't think anyone expected (or expects) GB OL to not miss a beat. I think everyone would prefer to have Sitton and/or Lang as starters. I think last years OL would have looked a lot worse if they lost Sitton and Bulaga at the same time (comparing losing LG and RT same year). Little different losing one a year before the other. 

I think everyone is quietly optimistic that Evans has some tread left. But no one really knows for certain how he's going to look this year. Interior of Sitton, Linsley, Lang is better than Taylor, Linsley, Evans though. I'm not arguing that. 

Brainwashed Boris posted:

Cowboys at 4-0 then they play the Packers on Oct 8th.

Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 8 vs. Green Bay Packers

Revenge game right?

Cowboys 2017 prediction

I like the prediction, but the writing is sophomoric.

If Tom Silverstein had submitted an article as poorly written as that to me when I was the editor of the Riverside Rocket in 1977 (and for the record he was my cub sports reporter), I can assure you, I would not have published it.

Just like everything else in this country, journalism has gone to Hell.

Well I will be Captain Obvious on what I think of the Cowboys.  I do think that Prescott might have a sophomore slump and I agree with fightphoe93 that DC's have had an entire offseason to prep for them.  I think they will do whatever they can to stop the running game and then dare Prescott to beat you.  But there is two wildcards to me with the Cowboys.  #1 Zeke is a DUM DUM (so DUM he doesn't deserve the b).  I live near Columbus and you hear all kinds of stuff about how he is a mental midget and you have to keep a close eye on him.  And #2 the Cowboys D has potential to be bad and can the offense keep up with scoring if the D doesn't hold up their end?  God I freaking hope not.  Oh and #3 I hate everything about the Dallas freaking Cowboys.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:
My hatred for the Cowboys burns with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns! 

However, they do remain dangerous on offense; the have the ability to hit the big play, and change a game dramatically in seconds. Their OL is good; not the best by any means, but a solid unit. We played them muuch better in Jan. as opposed to the Oct. regular season game, but they still rushed for nearly 6 yards/attempt and passed for over 7 yards/attempt, and amassed 400+ yards of total offense.

As it stands right now, the Pack and the Cowboys are very similar; potent offense/suspect defense. Whichever team fixes that first wins.

Timmy, if the Cowboys OL isn't the best, then who do you consider the best?  I think at worst they are a top 5 OL.  Just ask Demarco Murray who left Dallas to go to Philly and ended up busting after no longer being behind that line (though he has looked better in Tennessee).

I just think that line is so good they make anybody behind them whether it's a QB or RB look a notch or 2 better than they would behind an average line. 

They will have to replace Free, but honestly he was probably either the weakest or 2nd weakest starter on that line.  The 3 studs Smith, Frederick, and Martin are still there.

GB's OL had the best pass blocking OL in the NFL in 2016. Far superior to Dallas IMO. Garrett protected that line, and his young QB, with quick timing passes. Dallas has the top run blocking OL though. TN has a pretty good OL, they might be the best overall. 

Oakland is part of the "best OL" conversation. Lynch is going to like running behind that wall of slobs. 

My memory told me we handled their OL much better in the playoff game; as matter of fact, I wondered if fatigue had set in.
The stats from the box score says differently, so my eyes may have saw something different, but they looked much less dominating than they did in October.

Timmy, I agree with you that the Pack handled them better the second time around.   I think towards the end of the game the Cowboys were getting the upper hand which probably padded the stats, but at least the Packers played well defensively against them for a good 2/3 of that game. 

The first time they played them, they seemed to get off to a rough start defensively and were never able to catch them.  That said, had Clinton-Dix not whiffed on the somewhat easy sack opportunity on Prescott, they might have even been able to pull out a miracle comeback in the game at Lambeau.