Beyond the obvious theme of the latest installment of Eagles-Cowboys, The Rivalry, the fact is that Saturday's NFC East battle is one that involves two very good football teams that have a lot of similarities: Star power across the board, high-powered offenses, defenses that take the football away, and aspirations that clearly extend beyond the regular season.
There is a lot on the line for this one, with Gardner Minshew starting at quarterback, having a chance to lead the Eagles to a victory that would clinch the NFC's top playoff seed and, with that, the NFC East title. This is a highly anticipated, nationally televised game that has some juicy storylines that extend beyond Minshew, making his first start of the 2022 season. Let's get into them right now ...
1. The Dallas offense is a handful
Since quarterback Dak Prescott returned to the lineup in Week 7, the Cowboys have been a potent offense. The Cowboys have converted 56 percent of the time on third down, lead the league in offensive points per game (33.9), and are second in yards per game (408.4). They've averaged 38.3 points per game in the last three weeks, so the Cowboys have something really potent cooking. The Eagles have been outstanding on defense this season – second in total defense, first in pass defense – but this is going to be a huge challenge.
Prescott has weapons in the passing game with CeeDee Lamb, who has 81 receptions for 1,087 yards and 6 touchdowns this season, Noah Brown (40-533-3), tight end Dalton Schultz (43-445-3), and a new addition, veteran T.Y. Hilton. The running game is lethal with Tony Pollard (969 yards, 9 touchdowns, 5.5 yards per carry) and Ezekiel Elliott (774 yards, 10 touchdowns, 4.1 yards per carry) providing some lightning and thunder. Dallas has veteran tackle Tyron Smith back and he played on the right side at Jacksonville and played well.
Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon will have a great plan, as he's had all season. But how much of this offense can you take away? Gannon noted that the Cowboys have stayed on schedule offensively, so a key will be finding a way to get Dallas behind the sticks in the early downs and then pressuring Prescott in passing situations. Which leads to ...
2. Philadelphia has five players with 6 or more quarterback sacks
This is really important, because offensive coordinators know they can't zero in on so many pass-rush threats. The Eagles have had great production from multiple threats all season and that's a must for Saturday's game. Prescott was sacked three times by Jacksonville on Sunday, but he's only been sacked 12 times in the nine games he has played. And while the sack total isn't the most telling stat for this game, pressuring Prescott is going to be vital.
The Eagles have generated a ton of pressure this season and they lead the league with 55 quarterback sacks. They're playing an offense that, despite giving the football away at key moments last week and in recent games, has been largely on point for long stretches of times. Philadelphia can't give Prescott a comfortable pocket and time to throw. The front seven has to win on Saturday. An interesting statistic to digest: Even with all of these points scored, Prescott has an interception percentage of 3.9 percent (for comparison, Jalen Hurts is at 1.2%) this year. That's way too high and out of character for him. He's thrown 7 interceptions in the last 4 games.
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December 24, 2022 at 03:24AM
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Spadaro: 6 storylines to follow vs. Cowboys - PhiladelphiaEagles.com
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