The Dallas Cowboys survived a tough game against a depleted New Orleans Saints team. The Cowboys are 8-4 and are two games up in the division as they are about to face off with in four of the next five games. This is the teams’ chance to put the division to bed and begin preparing for the playoffs.
Entering the season this match up was about the excellent Washington defense trying to stop one of the best offensive units in the NFL. Washington’s defense started out poorly, but has been on the rise in recent weeks despite having to go without their premier edge rushers. For the season as a whole, they rank in the bottom of the league in third down conversions and passing touchdowns allowed, and a lot of that is due to the lack of sacks.
The question for Dallas is can they attack those weaknesses with the offensive line playing as poorly as they have been. If the Cowboys can’t run efficiently then the pass rush will impact quarterback Dak Prescott. If the OL does hold up, Prescott, who is 7-1 all time against Washington, could have a big statistical day. His lethal trio of starting receivers, who have only played 28 snaps together so far this season, will be tough to stop without a great pass rush.
For the Dallas defense, they are finally getting healthy. Their defensive line of Randy Gregory, Osa Odighizuwa, Neville Gallimore, and Demarcus Lawrence will play snaps together for the first time all season. The pass rush brought by that foursome could be as good as the Cowboys have had since the 1990s, though Gallimore and Gregory are expected to be on a snap count in their first games back.
This allows Micah Parsons to play more at linebacker, drastically improving the impact of that position, especially from a blitz standpoint. If the Dallas pass rush can get to Washington quarterback Taylor Henicke, he is mistake prone and the Cowboys could add more takeaways to their top-five turnover defense.
For many of the Cowboys fanbase, the Washington rivalry is still the top one for Dallas even though the Football Team hasn’t had the recent success of the Philadelphia Eagles or New York Giants. Here are how both fan bases can watch, listen, and bet on one of the best rivalries in sports history.
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