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Bleeding Green Nation already took some time to chat with Blogging The Boys in order to preview this big Week 6 Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys Sunday Night Football matchup and you can read that here. Today, we’re back with three reasons why each team might lose. This exchange allows us to show what the other side is concerned about.
Read on for why the Cowboys could lose, as written by my NFC East Mixtape co-host, RJ Ochoa. To see why I think the Eagles could lose, stay tuned to BTB.
1) The Cowboys’ offense needs to be halfway legitimate and are unable to do so.
This may sound obvious, but the flaw with the current Dallas Cowboys is that in-your-face so it makes sense. Cooper Rush has done a wonderful job of keeping things on track throughout this four-game winning streak and by that I mean he has made the few throws that he has had to and not turned the ball over.
But the throws he has had to make have been few and far in between. Dallas has not trailed in many of their games and when they have things have turned around rather quickly (Tony Pollard scored a 57-yard touchdown last week right after LA went up 10-9). It is true that Rush has authored some game-winning drives, but he has not put up 30 points or anything similar in a game where he had to and we all know that NFL games can often turn into those kind of back and forths.
The formula for Dallas winning right now involves keeping everything in front of them so to speak. If they get behind the eight ball and need to try and go shot for shot they don’t seem to have the horses to be able to do that.
2) Cooper Rush plays well enough but has his pass-catchers fail him.
While there is an obvious ceiling on Cooper Rush’s capabilities he has made some plays that ultimately do not exist in the history books thanks to the other people involved. CeeDee Lamb has had a couple of drops as of late and Michael Gallup joined him with one last week.
The point here isn’t that Cooper is infallible and is being weighed down by those around him, but it is obvious that he is the weakest link in those connections. Dallas is fortunate that they have not lost games where they have made these errors but the responsibilities of those around Rush should all rise given that he is limited in the obvious ways. To Cooper’s credit he has found Lamb and Gallup in different moments and the Cowboys have to make sure that they capitalize on those because if they don’t then they are squandering those precious opportunities.
3) Things do not go Dallas’ way with regards to turnovers and/or pivotal plays*.
Dallas is 2/2 on fourth down over these four games and has zero turnovers by way of their quarterback. Rush came close to throwing two interceptions against Washington two weeks ago and put the ball on the ground twice against the Rams (both of which Dallas recovered). The Cowboys defense is incredible as everyone well knows but they have not had a lot of short fields to defend.
This isn’t to say that Micah Parsons and Co. cannot do that but obviously room for error shrinks in situations like that. For what it’s worth both the Commanders and Rams began possessions on the Dallas side of the field in recent weeks and neither scored (Washington turned it over on downs while Los Angeles missed a field goal).
Can the Cowboys be 100% successful on the absolute money moments yet again? Maybe. Some would say probably. But if they cannot then this mountain to climb becomes all the more steep.
Check out more Eagles-Cowboys talk on the latest NFC East Mixtape episode:
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