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9-1. 9 straight regular season wins, a franchise record. 8 straight games over 400 yds of offense to tie the record. We've got the two best rookies in the draft on the same team, give them co-rookie of the year award. Both guys have to be legitimately in the MVP discussion as well. Freaking amazing season so far.
1) Really bad start offensive and defensively. 4 straight series end in punts. Then we have a 1st and 30. Last week we overcame 1st and 25 and scored a TD. This week against the #1 defense in the league we overcome 1st and 30 and score a TD. Brice Butler's great catch turned the game around IMO. First 4 series we punt every time. Last 5 series we go TD, FG, TD, TD and FG against #1 defense. The 3 second half drives were perfection. 10 plays 92 yds TD, 5:49 off clock. 13 plays 88 yds and 7:54 off the clock. Final drive after Baltimore cuts it to a 7 pt game 13 plays, 72 yds and 6:26 off the clock. Total domination on our last 5 series offensively.
2) Prescott overcame some big time early pressure and a few misfires to have arguably the best game of his magical season so far. Just spectacular in the 2nd half. Another 300 yd game. 3 more tds with no picks. Threw some absolute perfect passes at the most key times. I think he firmly inserted himself into MVP talk with yesterdays game. For the season he now has 17 TDs, just 2 picks, a QB rating of almost 109, a completion % of almost 68% and an outstanding yds per attempt of 8.35. And he's a freaking rookie 4th rd pick.
3) Zeke had 26 yds rushing at half time, ended up with 97 rushing after a productive 2nd half and added 4 catches for 30 yds too. Baltimore has an excellent run stopping front 7, and he still had a really good game. And had another highlight film hurdle move too.
4) Back to back big games from Dez Bryant and he seems to be rounding into 2012-2014 form. He needs 522 yds in the last 6 to hit 1000 despite missing 3 1/2 games with the fractured knee thing. Teams are loading the box to stop Zeke and Prescott is now finding Dez with regularity. Eventually teams will revert back to some of the junk coverages they play to slow down Dez, and we should see even more running lanes to roll through. I wont be surprised if Zeke hits a 200 yd game somewhere in the last 6.
5) We've played 4 games since the bye week. We've gotten 1 turnover defensively. This makes the accomplishments of Prescott, Zeke and the offensive team even all the more impressive to me. They arnt getting tons of turnovers and short fields to work with. It seems like virtually all our drives are 60-70-80 yards.
6) Announcers mentioned it yesterday, but you could make a case for all 5 of our OL to make the probowl. Certainly 4 of the 5. Smith, Fred and Martin are all legit 1st team all pros this year (and Smith isn't even 100%)
7) There's so much good going on with the team right now, but I do wonder how many more near perfect games they can play offensively to carry the load. Bailey and Jones are excellent at what they do, but otherwise we don't get much from our special teams. The defense has one really good stat going for it (points allowed, tied for 5th at 18.7) but the lack of turnovers, pressures and sacks is alarming. The somewhat concerning yds per attempt rushing allowed and then seeing virtually every pass defense stat there is having us at the bottom of the league are causes for major concern. At some point you'd think they have to start getting some plays from the defense to make a serious run in January.
8) Draft tidbits. The Browns picked 8 (EIGHT) players before we picked Dak Prescott. The Browns could have done what we did and had both Elliott and Prescott had they not traded down, and so could the hated Eagles after they made their big trade up with the before mentioned Browns.
9) I've given up wondering why Lance Dunbar sees the field on offensive snaps. I do think something must be up with Alfred Morris though, yesterday Dunbar even got some run plays called for him. I wonder if Morris has some sort of injury. If McFadden gets healthy quick, I wonder if he assumes the backup to Elliott role and maybe Morris gets IR'd or something. He isn't running like he did in preseason and first couple games of the yr at all.
10) Gavin Escobar was a completely forgotten man, but he had a pretty good game yesterday. Had 2 catches for 21 yds and would have had a TD had Prescott thrown that one ball in the endzone a little higher. Seemed like he was moving around really good downfield too. Could be interesting target down the stretch for us because teams have to pay so much attention to Zeke (and now Dez is looking like Dez again too and Witten has 19 catches in the last 3 weeks).
11) I don't know what the price tag will be, but it wont hurt my feelings anymore if JJ Wilcox gets a 2nd contract from us. I don't think he's a legit every week starter, but he does bring the wood and he came pretty close to having two picks yesterday. Did miss one tackle badly but otherwise he had another nice game. As a 3rd safety, we could probably do worse.
12) We only have 7 turnovers as a team, have a 9-1 record and lead the league in scoring differential (+98). You'd think we'd be + a ton in turnover differential, but we're only +3 because we've only forced 10 turnovers in 10 games (only 1 in last 4). Just think about how potentially overwhelming this team COULD be if we had a defense that even got into the middle of the pack in terms of getting turnovers and pressure on the QB.
13) I think its worth repeating. Last week we overcame 1st and 25 to score a TD on the road, yesterday we overcame 1st and 30 vs the league's #1 defense and scored another TD. Nothing seems to faze Prescott and this offense.
14) If we finish 5-1 we have home field advantage throughout the playoffs regardless of what Seattle does the rest of the way. 4-2 would get it done if Seattle loses once and the Giants don't win out.
I worry about Thursday's game vs Washington because their offense seems to be a huge mismatch for our defense. Can our O keep doing what they doing for one more week? I think the game could be similar to the Steelers game two weeks ago and end up with both teams in the 30's and might come down to who has the ball last. After that, the Vikings, Giants, Lions and Eagles offenses are not overly challenging (even for our mediocre defense) and unless we start having tons of turnovers, these are games we should definitely be in all the way. The Tampa game 12/18 does worry me though because of what their offense can do.
1) Really bad start offensive and defensively. 4 straight series end in punts. Then we have a 1st and 30. Last week we overcame 1st and 25 and scored a TD. This week against the #1 defense in the league we overcome 1st and 30 and score a TD. Brice Butler's great catch turned the game around IMO. First 4 series we punt every time. Last 5 series we go TD, FG, TD, TD and FG against #1 defense. The 3 second half drives were perfection. 10 plays 92 yds TD, 5:49 off clock. 13 plays 88 yds and 7:54 off the clock. Final drive after Baltimore cuts it to a 7 pt game 13 plays, 72 yds and 6:26 off the clock. Total domination on our last 5 series offensively.
2) Prescott overcame some big time early pressure and a few misfires to have arguably the best game of his magical season so far. Just spectacular in the 2nd half. Another 300 yd game. 3 more tds with no picks. Threw some absolute perfect passes at the most key times. I think he firmly inserted himself into MVP talk with yesterdays game. For the season he now has 17 TDs, just 2 picks, a QB rating of almost 109, a completion % of almost 68% and an outstanding yds per attempt of 8.35. And he's a freaking rookie 4th rd pick.
3) Zeke had 26 yds rushing at half time, ended up with 97 rushing after a productive 2nd half and added 4 catches for 30 yds too. Baltimore has an excellent run stopping front 7, and he still had a really good game. And had another highlight film hurdle move too.
4) Back to back big games from Dez Bryant and he seems to be rounding into 2012-2014 form. He needs 522 yds in the last 6 to hit 1000 despite missing 3 1/2 games with the fractured knee thing. Teams are loading the box to stop Zeke and Prescott is now finding Dez with regularity. Eventually teams will revert back to some of the junk coverages they play to slow down Dez, and we should see even more running lanes to roll through. I wont be surprised if Zeke hits a 200 yd game somewhere in the last 6.
5) We've played 4 games since the bye week. We've gotten 1 turnover defensively. This makes the accomplishments of Prescott, Zeke and the offensive team even all the more impressive to me. They arnt getting tons of turnovers and short fields to work with. It seems like virtually all our drives are 60-70-80 yards.
6) Announcers mentioned it yesterday, but you could make a case for all 5 of our OL to make the probowl. Certainly 4 of the 5. Smith, Fred and Martin are all legit 1st team all pros this year (and Smith isn't even 100%)
7) There's so much good going on with the team right now, but I do wonder how many more near perfect games they can play offensively to carry the load. Bailey and Jones are excellent at what they do, but otherwise we don't get much from our special teams. The defense has one really good stat going for it (points allowed, tied for 5th at 18.7) but the lack of turnovers, pressures and sacks is alarming. The somewhat concerning yds per attempt rushing allowed and then seeing virtually every pass defense stat there is having us at the bottom of the league are causes for major concern. At some point you'd think they have to start getting some plays from the defense to make a serious run in January.
8) Draft tidbits. The Browns picked 8 (EIGHT) players before we picked Dak Prescott. The Browns could have done what we did and had both Elliott and Prescott had they not traded down, and so could the hated Eagles after they made their big trade up with the before mentioned Browns.
9) I've given up wondering why Lance Dunbar sees the field on offensive snaps. I do think something must be up with Alfred Morris though, yesterday Dunbar even got some run plays called for him. I wonder if Morris has some sort of injury. If McFadden gets healthy quick, I wonder if he assumes the backup to Elliott role and maybe Morris gets IR'd or something. He isn't running like he did in preseason and first couple games of the yr at all.
10) Gavin Escobar was a completely forgotten man, but he had a pretty good game yesterday. Had 2 catches for 21 yds and would have had a TD had Prescott thrown that one ball in the endzone a little higher. Seemed like he was moving around really good downfield too. Could be interesting target down the stretch for us because teams have to pay so much attention to Zeke (and now Dez is looking like Dez again too and Witten has 19 catches in the last 3 weeks).
11) I don't know what the price tag will be, but it wont hurt my feelings anymore if JJ Wilcox gets a 2nd contract from us. I don't think he's a legit every week starter, but he does bring the wood and he came pretty close to having two picks yesterday. Did miss one tackle badly but otherwise he had another nice game. As a 3rd safety, we could probably do worse.
12) We only have 7 turnovers as a team, have a 9-1 record and lead the league in scoring differential (+98). You'd think we'd be + a ton in turnover differential, but we're only +3 because we've only forced 10 turnovers in 10 games (only 1 in last 4). Just think about how potentially overwhelming this team COULD be if we had a defense that even got into the middle of the pack in terms of getting turnovers and pressure on the QB.
13) I think its worth repeating. Last week we overcame 1st and 25 to score a TD on the road, yesterday we overcame 1st and 30 vs the league's #1 defense and scored another TD. Nothing seems to faze Prescott and this offense.
14) If we finish 5-1 we have home field advantage throughout the playoffs regardless of what Seattle does the rest of the way. 4-2 would get it done if Seattle loses once and the Giants don't win out.
I worry about Thursday's game vs Washington because their offense seems to be a huge mismatch for our defense. Can our O keep doing what they doing for one more week? I think the game could be similar to the Steelers game two weeks ago and end up with both teams in the 30's and might come down to who has the ball last. After that, the Vikings, Giants, Lions and Eagles offenses are not overly challenging (even for our mediocre defense) and unless we start having tons of turnovers, these are games we should definitely be in all the way. The Tampa game 12/18 does worry me though because of what their offense can do.
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