Cowboys: Upcoming Seattle Having Serious Issues

By Christian Blood | Oct 19, 2015

The Dallas Cowboys play the New York Giants on Sunday, but the week after brings the defending NFC Champions, who happen to be 3-3.

The Dallas Cowboys are done with the bye week and appear to be as well-situated as possible entering the remaining four games until starting quarterback Tony Romo can return from a broken collar bone. It’s Matt Cassel’s show for the next month, a time frame which includes a home date with the defending NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks a week from this coming Sunday.

I know, I know.

It’s never a good idea to look beyond any opponent. It’s not like the New York Giants are a team that one should ever overlook or underestimate. Big Blue is next on the schedule and obviously came very close to handing the Cowboys an opening night loss at AT&T Stadium last month.

Then again, since I’m not playing in any of these games, I figure it’s safe to expand upon a little factoid that hasn’t gone unnoticed around the NFL.

The Seahawks, who have had an impressive run over the last couple of seasons while appearing in back-to-back Super Bowls, appear to be more vulnerable now than they have been in quite some time. Seattle has gone 3-3 after six games the last two seasons – but now they’re 2-4 following an unlikely loss to quarterback Cam Newton and the undefeated Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Perhaps that doesn’t matter to the Cowboys, who became just the second team to win at CenturyLink Field during the Russel Wilson era just over a year ago. Further, this year’s rematch between 2014 division champions takes place in North Texas, not the Pacific Northwest.

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Either way, the Panthers have become the third team to defeat the Seahawks at home during Wilson’s time with the team, a feat that just doesn’t happen very often.

Now, maybe the fact that Seattle still ended up finishing 12-4 and right back in the Super Bowl last season minimizes the early season struggles of 2015, which the Cowboys hope to capitalize on regardless of the outcome against the Giants next weekend.

Perhaps what sticks out here is the fact that the Seahawks seem to be having repeated difficulties maintaining leads late in football games. Is that ‘Legion of Boom’ secondary losing a step that was absolutely present the last two or three seasons? Is a defensive front four that was among the best in the NFL, especially when playing in Seattle, showing signs of age or lack of depth?

Right now it’s hard to say what exactly is making the Seahawks more human during the first half of a second consecutive season. I don’t advise placing any bets against this team from this point forward, but there’s definitely some dents in the armor that could possibly illustrate a gradual downfall for arguably the top team in the NFL the last couple of years.

For those who can remember, were the 1995 Cowboys, winners of Super Bowl XXX, as good as the 1992 and 1993 world champions that preceded them?

Not even close.

As mentioned before, it’s that Seahawks defense is looking rather leaky late in games.

According to Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports, Seattle has given up rather large leads twice this season and might be poised to continue that trend given the way that opportunity for victory is slipping through the defense’s fingers as of late.

"The Seahawks dropped to 2-4 after blowing a 17-point fourth-quarter lead to the Cincinnati Bengals last week and the 13-point fourth-quarter lead to the Panthers on Sunday. The latter is Seattle’s first defeat at CenturyLink Field since last year’s Week 6 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Including the Super Bowl, the Seahawks have now lost five of their last seven games, including four fourth-quarter collapses."

Good news for a Cowboys offense that figures to have wide receiver Dez Bryant back in time for this Week 8 rematch that should represent the second start for Cassel?

Perhaps.

But again, Seattle is far from a team void of talent, despite recent free agent losses and the law of watered-down mediocrity in today’s NFL.

Could the Cowboys be in position to win back-to-back games over the next two weeks for the first time since the season began?

Next: Scouting Matt Cassel: What To Expect From The New Cowboys QB

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