bbgun

Administrator
Messages
15,006
Reaction score
2,091
ZFMRJSXZTVENHFQ7Z5TNB5XP2M.JPG


By Calvin Watkins
4:25 PM on Nov 17, 2019

DETROIT – Sometimes you’ve just got to win and forget about style points. Dallas did that Sunday afternoon from Ford Field with a 35-27 win over the Lions. With chants of “Let’s go, Cowboys" and “De-fense” ringing whenever the visitors were on the field, this was a much-needed win. Dallas was in a much-closer-than-necessary game against these Lions, who played without starting quarterback Matthew Stafford. Give the Cowboys credit for winning this road game despite another slow start by the offense and Amari Cooper playing nicked up. Dallas maintains its first-place advantage in the NFC East and will now prepare for a big game at the New England Patriots next weekend. With that, we look at five things from this game that interest us:

The wide receivers
It was Week 6 against the NY Jets when the Cowboys lost wide receiver Amari Cooper after three snaps with a quad injury, and they were faced with a similar situation against the Lions. Cooper has been playing with a bruised knee for about three weeks but he gutted through it. With Cooper dealing with health issues, the Cowboys’ other receivers responded this time. There was a Michael Gallup juggling grab among his nine catches for 148 yards, and Randall Cobb had four catches for 115 yards. Let’s not forget Cooper, who did have three catches for 38 yards, including a wonderful catch over Darius Slay in the fourth quarter. And as the Cowboys were trying to close the show, it was Gallup who made a 22-yard reception on a third-and-4 late in the fourth quarter.

About the defense ...
You want to believe in this Cowboys defense, but you really can’t. Once again, they couldn’t get the Lions off the field at critical moments until near the end, when Michael Bennett recorded a sack with about 2:45 left in the game. After creating seven turnovers over a two-game stretch, the defense has failed to force one the past two weeks. The defense did have three sacks, numerous pressures and forced the Lions to punt -- a surprise -- with 1:58 left, but overall this defense doesn’t scare anybody.

Opening-drive follies
The start of games have been, well, crappy for the Cowboys. Once again, the Cowboys got off to a slow start, this time thanks to an Ezekiel Elliott fumble on the second play of the game. This was worse than the first offensive play, when Lions corner Darius Slay knocked away a pass to Amari Cooper. It appeared the Lions were putting their best corner on Cooper until he got hurt, at which point Slay moved to Michael Gallup. In the past six opening drives, the Cowboys have three turnovers, a missed field goal, a punt and a touchdown. You could talk about field position and everything else -- the Cowboys had three drives start inside the 20 in the first half -- but how you perform with these possessions is vital to any success.

Amari Cooper and his health
This may become a thing, but Cooper is not well. He’s battling a bruised knee that limits his practice work and now his ability to make plays in games. He had three catches for 38 yards in the contest. There were times Cooper left the field just to get himself right, and it’s clear he’s not 100%. He should be given credit for playing through this health issue. After one first-half catch, maybe he should have gotten limited snaps in the last 30 minutes.

Issues on special teams continue
Kick returner Tony Pollard was hesitant on a return, Tavon Austin lost 6 yards on a punt return and the Lions had a 32-yard punt return. Pollard also let two squib kicks just roll into the end zone. He also let a kickoff bounce at the 4 before he was forced to return it. Hey, he did return it for 24 yards. As the Cowboys enter this critical stage of their season, it’s probably time to reevaluate who returns kicks and punts. Austin just isn’t reading his blocking like he should, and Pollard is either being told not to return kicks or just doesn’t know what to do. The Cowboys need to make some changes, but it’s hard to find replacements. Maybe Cedrick Wilson can return kicks and possibly Randall Cobb can take over punt returns. With Cooper’s iffy status due to his knee, it’s imperative to keep Cobb fresh for the offense rather than the return game.
 

MrB

Draft Pick
Messages
4,142
Reaction score
463
Gallup and Pollard are badass.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

theoneandonly

Quality Starter
Messages
5,258
Reaction score
531
Lions sent multiple guys to cover Cooper leaving one on ones all over the place. Thats a Belichick move, take away your best player, Lions dont have talent to make that work.
 
Top Bottom