Breaking down the Dallas Cowboys schedule
With the preseason upon us, it’s only a matter of time before the Dallas Cowboys kickoff their regular season against the San Francisco 49ers at AT&T Stadium for week one. With that being said, I started taking a closer look at the Cowboys schedule to figure out how things might go from September to December. Obviously injuries and other things happen, but it’s worth taking a look.
We start with September where Dallas immediately has to face one of the top teams in the league in the 49ers. This team was a couple of plays away from winning the Super Bowl in 2013 and almost got back to the Super Bowl last year. One could make the case that San Fran is the second best team in the entire league behind Seattle, and even though the Cowboys are at home I don’t see how they can stop Colin Kaepernick or get past 49er defense. After that Dallas will be on the road for two straight games against the Tennessee Titans and St. Louis Rams. Tennessee could be a scrappy team at home and St. Louis will have a tremendous defense this year, so these two games are in no way guaranteed wins. They close out September with a home game against the New Orleans Saints, and we all remember what the Saints did to Dallas the last time they met. I think we’re looking at a 1-3 month of September and that hot seat Jason Garrett is sitting on begins to really make him sweat.
October starts out with a home game against the Houston Texans, who won’t be as bad as last year but won’t be that good either. They’ll have to win that because the next week they hit the road to take on *gulp* the Seahawks. I have a feeling we’ll end up having nightmares about that game when it’s over. They then move on to two home divisional games against the Giants and Redskins to close out October. I think the Cowboys will win of those games, but lose the other to end October at 2-2.
November starts out with a home game against the Arizona Cardinals, a team that went 10-6 last year while playing in a very good NFC West. However, I think Arizona will regress in certain areas and I just don’t think they will be as good as they were last year. Dallas will then head to London where they will face a bad Jacksonville Jaguars team, which should be an easy win even on a neutral site. That takes Dallas into their bye week and after that they will hit the road to play the Giants for the second time. Following that they return home for a Thankgiving Day showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Giants could have a resurgent year this year and will be tough at home, but I think the Cowboys will take care of business against Philadelphia to cap off a nice 3-1 month of November.
This puts the Cowboys right around 6-6 when the dreaded month of December starts. Dallas’ struggles in December are well documented and it won’t be any easier this year with three of their four games on the road. It starts out with a road game against the Chicago Bears, which is something the Cowboys had to endure last year and it was a disaster. I don’t think they’ll get blown out, but I don’t see them winning in Chicago in December. They then head to Philly for their second meeting with the Eagles where I think Nick Foles and company will get the job done to drop the Cowboys to 0-2 in December. The next week will have Andrew Luck and the Colts come to Dallas. Indianapolis basically lives and dies with Andrew Luck, and Andrew Luck against the Cowboy defense probably means that they leave Dallas with a win. But, the Cowboys will finally get a win during week 17 against the Redskins to end their season at 7-9.
That’s right, I do not have the Cowboys even getting to 8-8 this season. This schedule is tough and there are so many question marks about this team including the health of Tony Romo and the defense. Plus injuries happen during a long football season and the Cowboys have no depth at almost every position. They are in no way prepared if someone goes down.