Dallas Cowboys: Fantasy football matchups for Week Eight
By Carl Daley
The Dallas Cowboys players will have a favorable matchup in Week Eight. Here are the best fantasy options for the Cowboys in this weeks contest.
The Dallas Cowboys are heading into Week Eight looking to score a big win against their hated rivals the Washington Redskins. Last week the Cowboys destroyed the San Francisco 49ers to even out their record at 3-3, this week they will be facing a banged up Redskins team that will struggle to contain the powerful Cowboys offensive attack. Here are some of the most reliable fantasy options for the Dallas Cowboys in Week Eight.
Dak Prescott (Quarterback): Dak Prescott has a pretty decent matchup this week as he will take on the Washington Redskins defense. Washington has allowed the 10th fantasy points to quarterbacks and that alone would be pretty good however they have allowed less than two touchdown passes per game so far this season.
Prescott is on a roll, recording three touchdowns per game for the last three weeks. If Washington cornerback, Josh Norman is out still with a rib injury this matchup only gets better.
Prescott should continue his streak of throwing three touchdowns a game and could get into the end zone with his feet. Washington will seemingly have their hands full trying to stop Ezekiel Elliott so their defense could easily lose track of Prescott who loves to make plays with his feet.
Dak has had over 30 fantasy points over the last two weeks and Washington is hurting on both sides of the ball. The Dallas Cowboys franchise quarterback should continue his streak of productive performances.
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Ezekiel Elliott (Running Back): Washington’s defense is hurting and to be honest, they may not have the manpower to stop Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys high powered offense.
Washington has given up the 13th fewest fantasy points to running backs this season however Week Seven was full of injuries to plenty of defensive starters which can only mean good things for Elliott.
Owners of the Cowboys star running back can expect a monstrous performance from the best running back in the NFL. He should tear through the Redskins defense as they are dealing with too many injuries to overcome.
Elliott is coming off of the best game of his career and will look to keep that momentum going for Dallas. He has had back to back 100 plus yard games and continues to be a threat in the passing game.
Elliott should be integral in the game plan if the Dallas Cowboys are going to pull off a win. Washington should struggle with short screens and defending the middle of their defensive line, Zeke will exploit both of those issues.
Dez Bryant (Wide Receiver): The reality is that both Josh Norman and Bashaud Breeland are currently dealing with injuries, those are Washington’s best defensive backs. Not to mention that a wave of injuries suffered against the Philadelphia Eagles also predominately took out the depth that this secondary had in place.
Now it is possible Dez will be going up against the Redskins fourth or fifth corner on the depth chart, and that is good news for the Dallas Cowboys. If Norman cannot go, then Bryant becomes a WR1 with a fantastic matchup.
Norman being off the field almost guarantees him a touchdown. Washington will not be able to stop any of the Cowboys wide receivers if their top two cornerbacks are out and that could mean staying away from man-to-man coverage and pulling defenders out of the box to double or even triple team Bryant.
Zeke being available for this game makes that even more difficult, so realistically there will be times on Sunday when Bryant is one-on-one with a fourth or fifth string cornerback and that should allow him to see a ton of production come his way.
Cole Beasley/Terrance Williams/Brice Butler (Wide Receiver): If Josh Norman and Bashaud Breeland cannot play, all of these guys are flex options. Butler and Beasley have been a lot more productive than Williams and will seemingly get more targets.
I like Butler this week as he should surprise some of the Redskins defenders with his speed and strength. Butler has also been one of the better deep threat options that the Cowboys have had all season.
Beasley is an in between the tackles kind of player who converts third downs and runs a lot of slant routes. I haven’t seen enough deep targets for him to warrant a start this week but he does have chemistry with Dak and has already had a two-touchdown game this week.
Williams is clearly the odd man out as he has been one of the Dallas Cowboys least effective wide receivers this season and has seemingly been surpassed on the depth chart by Butler.
Next: Should the Dallas Cowboys trade for a running back?
Jason Witten (Tight End): Witten is coming off of a fantastic game where he scored one of the craziest touchdowns of the season, hauling in an awesome one-handed (one armed) catch.
Witten was being held on the play and even though no penalty was called he still managed to bring in the touchdown. He has had great back-to-back games for a tight end this season and has seen 14 targets over the last two weeks.
Witten has a fantastic matchup so it should be exploited by the Cowboys this weekend. He is one of the more predictable touchdown scorers on this offense and should find his way into the end zone again.