Cowboys Week 4: Five Things

The Cowboys head into New Orleans coming off their first loss of the season and here’s the five things they need to do to win this game.

The Dallas Cowboys lost their first game last week and after much reflection and quite a few disagreements among the Cowboys faithful, Week 4 is upon us. As the Cowboys head to New Orleans to face the Saints, there are still questions on whether Drew Brees will play. I don’t think it matters if he does or doesn’t, the Cowboys still have to do these five things to win on Sunday night:

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1. Pressure, Under Pressure – The Cowboys have to find a way to get pressure on whoever the quarterback is. While next week Greg Hardy will make his debut, it’s time for some unsung players to step up and start making plays. The more this happens, the better shot the Cowboys have to win this game. Either quarterback for the Saints can make some plays when there is no pressure.

2. Throw the Ball – Simple enough here. One of the issues last week was that the Cowboys were playing the short game even after the Falcons decided to shut it down. We don’t know if it was entirely the coaches or if Brandon Weeden was making some bad or different reads, but they need to push the ball down the field more. There is still enough speed on this team with Lance Dunbar, Terrance Williams, and Cole Beasley to get some great match-ups and they have to figure out how to use them.

3. Set Up The Pass, Run It – One thing Dallas did well last week, at least for a while, was run the ball. Again, once the Falcons decided to shut that part of the game down the Cowboys did not adjust and the running and passing games suffered for it. This offensive line can manhandle just about anyone in the league, but even they can’t block eight guys coming downhill all the time. Using the run properly will set up the pass which will back off the safeties for more runs. Now, they just have to do it.

4. Don’t Shoot Your Foot – The one thing plaguing the Cowboys has been not only penalties, but really poorly timed ones. They have killed drives and pushed themselves out of field goal range on a few occasions. This has to be fixed or they will find themselves once again “behind in the chains”.

5. Keep The D Fresh – The defense broke down last week. We can all agree that by the end of the game they were exhausted. While that doesn’t help how they bent and broke in the early 3rd quarter, the fact the offense couldn’t stay on the field didn’t help. This defense right now doesn’t have the manpower to play another 20 plus minute half and expect anything different as an outcome. The offense has to keep the chains moving and allow the defense to catch their breath and have a chance.

So this week the five things are fairly straight forward. The New Orleans Saints don’t have a

Julio Jones

, so I don’t think they have to worry about another 100-plus yard receiver killing them. They will have a chance to prove last week as an outlier, and that they can survive until

Tony Romo

and

Dez Bryant

return. For the song of the week, we will keep it in line with No.1 on this list: Queen – Under Pressure

Next: Cowboys: Don't Expect Drew Brees On Sunday

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