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Dallas Cowboys: Week 2 – Five Things

By Daniel Ruppert

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After a week 1 win, here are the five things the Dallas Cowboys must do to win in Philly.

The Dallas Cowboys were able to walk away with a Week 1-win against the Giants. While the running game wasn’t what was expected, if you include the screens and wheel-routes it was quite effective. There wasn’t enough pressure on Eli Manning, and with Randy Gregory out the pass rush looks like it has taken a massive hit. All of this seems to pale in comparison to the loss of Dez Bryant.

What are the Cowboys to do?

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Well, here are the five things they must do to win in Philly:

1. Test the Secondary – The Falcons tested the Eagles secondary and Julio Jones had a monster day. Now, I am not going to say that Terrance Williams is as good as Julio Jones, but when looking at the Eagles secondary it’s clear that it’s very suspect. One of the weakest positions is the slot corner. This could be a huge day for receiver Cole Beasley and running back Lance Dunbar. Cornerback Byron Maxwell doesn’t look as good as his contract, which could mean more options for quarterback Tony Romo. The offense could be even more lethal if Tony can spread the ball around to all of his options.

2. Pressure Up The Middle – The weakness on the Eagles line is the guards and center. What they thought would be one of the best lines in football looked shaky and sloppy. If the Cowboys can place some well timed blitzes or stunts up the middle it could cause Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford to make mistakes. Bradford hasn’t played in over 600 days in a meaningful game until week 1. Any pressure in his face will continue his shaky start to the season.

3. Play the Clock Game – While the Eagles love to hurry up on offense, the Cowboys can make long slow drives which keeps the opposing offense off of the field. Wearing out the defense by keeping them on the field longer has been one way to beat the hurry up offense of the Eagles. Also, Philadelphia head coach Chip Kelly isn’t the best at clock management, so any advantage you can get by having him waste timeouts or by putting him in pressure situations will help with keeping his offense out of rhythm.

4. The Short Game – One of the things the Giants did against Dallas was to play the dump and chase game. The Cowboys are a team that likes to keep everything in front of them. This causes teams to dump the ball off or throw short routes. The Cowboys have to find a way to slow this down. Whether it is relying more on the linebackers to step up into the flats, or more disruption in the pocket, they have to be able to slow the dump and chase game.

5. The Run Games – The Cowboys have to stick to their run game unless they fall too far behind and have to play catch-up. While they didn’t have the best run game against the Giants, the screens and wheel routes were lethal. If they can continue that and add more to the straight run game it will keep the Dallas offense on the field. On the opposite side, the Eagles run game hasn’t been as stellar as many thought it might be. Darren Sproles might be their best running back option. If you can stop the Eagles three-headed monster at running back, then stopping the Eagles altogether will be easy.

So, there are the five things the Dallas Cowboys must do to walk out of Philly with a win. I don’t think the Eagles are as good as many thought they would be, so this is a very winnable game. For the song of the game, I went with something suitable for this rivalry-game: Black Sabbath – War Pigs.

Next: Dallas Cowboys: Where is the Running Game?

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