Tag: 2021 week 11

QTNA: Which offense will be more creative? Which Cowboys an Chiefs will step up from shadows?

The Chiefs have held the mantle of most-creative offense for a long time, will that title be turned over on Sunday? 10 questions about Week 11 with @goldmctNFL of @TheChiefsWire. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys have come out on the better end of the equation more often than not when it comes to playing the Dallas Texans, err the Kansas City Chiefs. With a 7-4 advantage in the head-to-head battle, the organization has a special place in their hearts for the matchup. How much of that is relevant to Sunday’s tilt? Probably none at all. These are an entirely new set of players from when the teams have met in the past.

This is the first time Patrick Mahomes and Dak Prescott will square off, with the former becoming the gold standard for the new generation of quarterbacks. The latter has been setting the standard for 2021 though, and getting them on the same field has to have the executives at CBS Sports salivating. To help put the game in context of what a victory or loss means for each side and to glean some insight into what will contribute to the result, we gathered some assistance.

The incomparable Charles Goldman, managing editor of Chiefs Wire provided some key enemy intel ahead of the 2021 Week 11 matchup.

Cowboys vs Chiefs: Final Week 11 injury report

Amari Cooper placed on COVID list, the latest on Tyron Smith’s availability, and more in the final injury report for Dallas vs Kansas City. | From @AsaHenry_55

The Dallas Cowboys travel to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs in one of Week 11’s most highly anticipated matchups. Each club released their final injury report’s after practice Friday, and both teams have important players that have already been ruled out or are listed as questionable to suit up Sunday.

Amari Cooper was placed on the Reserve/COVID list late this week, and the star wide receiver is set to miss the matchup with Kansas City, as well as the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving game against his former team, the Raiders. A noticeable loss for Dallas ahead of what should be a high-scoring affair, Cooper’s snaps will be allotted to Michael Gallup, who returned from a calf strain a week ago, and the trio of Cedrick Wilson, Noah Brown and Malik Turner, who all showed their abilities during Gallup’s eight week absence.

Left tackle Tyron Smith is listed as questionable with an ankle injury that has kept him out since Week 8. Head coach Mike McCarthy told the media this week, “We’re hopeful he (Smith) can go on Sunday.”

Should Smith return to action, Dallas would have their starting tackles for the first time since the opening week as La’el Collins has reclaimed his right tackle spot following his suspension. However a report from early Sunday morning indicates Smith will not give it a go.

With Connor McGovern getting the nod at left guard over Connor Williams, many believe the Cowboys could be playing their five best offensive lineman for the first time all season.

Kicker Greg Zuerlein practiced in full after being activated from the COVID/Reserve list. Lirim Hajrullahu handled the kicking duties during the Cowboys Week 10 blowout win.

Two rookie cornerbacks were noted on the injury report. Kelvin Joseph (non-injury related) has been downgraded to out, and will not travel with the team, and Nahshon Wright (hamstring) was limited in practice and is questionable.

To add depth to the secondary and special teams the Cowboys’ elevated two players from the practice squad, CB Kron Brown as a standard weekly call up and CB Deonte Burton as a COVID replacement.

Dallas is still without defensive ends DeMarcus Lawrence (foot) and Randy Gregory (calf). Lawrence is due back in the next few weeks to a return after missing the last eight games with a broken foot. Gregory strained his calf in practice and the earliest he could return is Week 13. Tarell Basham, Dorance Armstrong, and Chauncey Golston will continue to fill in the majority of the vacated snaps.

The Chiefs injury report features three players whose status is up and the air, and one player that has already been ruled out.

Starting right tackle Lucas Niang (ribs) is out, which should help mitigate the fact that Dallas is without two top pass rushers.

Starting cornerback L’Jarius Sneed (knee) is questionable, as is backup safety Armani Watts (illness).

Running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire was activated from the injured reserve on Saturday, and is questionable, although he was able to get in some full practices during the week.

Report: Cowboys LT Tyron Smith not expected to vs Chiefs Sunday afternoon

The Cowboys may be about to play Terence Steele, Connor McGovern and Tyler Biadasz together on the left side of the line. Youth is served. | From @KDDrummondNFL

There was plenty of hope that Dallas would have the starting lineup they were intented to have for the first game this season on offense. Then, on Thursday, wideout Amari Cooper tested positive for COVID and will miss both Sunday and Thursday’s contest. Another hope was that left tackle Tyron Smith – who has missed the last two games with an ankle injury – would be available to play.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, that won’t happen either. The report is that after ramping up activity during practice this week, he is still not ready to undergo a full game and Dallas will go again without him, Terence Steele, who had started Weeks 2 through Week 6 at right tackle while La’el Collins was injured, will start once again on the left side.

It is expected that Connor McGovern is going to make his first start of the season at left guard, as a talent replacement for fourth-year starter Connor Williams. It will be interesting to see if this plan takes hold as there would now be a lot of inexperience from the center left, as Tyler Biadasz is just in his second season. Steele is a 2020 UDFA and McGovern redshirted 2019 with a pectoral injury.

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Inside the Numbers: How advanced stats see Cowboys-Chiefs Week 11 matchup

Which team’s more toxic, explosive? Which defense more successful? Who’s better per play and when opponent strength is considered? Breaking down acronym soup. | From @ProfessorO_NFL

The NFL’s Week 11 slate features a matchup of two explosive offenses as the Dallas Cowboys travel to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Kansas City Chiefs.  The Cowboys enter the game with a 7-2 record and are coming off of an impressive, 43-3 home win against the Atlanta Falcons. The Cowboys scored on the opening possession and never looked back, putting up 431 yards of offense and winning both the turnover battle and time of possession by wide margins.

The 6-4 Chiefs had a dominant performance of their own as they beat down the Las Vegas Raiders, 41-14. Any win over a divisional opponent is a good one, but doing so in a lopsided affair, is even better. The Chiefs gained over 500 yards of total offense and won their turnover battle and time of possession as well.

With both teams coming off of highly productive weeks, this game does not lack in storylines.

Notably, quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Dak Prescott will play each other for the first time in their careers. Both QBs are MVP candidates and together have combined for 45 touchdown passes. Head coach Mike McCarthy and Andy Reid have plenty of experience against each other going back to playoff matchups in their previous roles with the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers.

Both teams have young linebackers who are off to terrific starts to their careers in Micah Parsons and Nick Bolton. They each feature explosive wide recievers (Tyreek Hill, CeeDee Lamb, Michael Gallup and Amari Cooper) matched with strong tight end play by Travis Kelce and Dalton Schultz.

Let’s open up the Advanced Stat Notebook to see how both teams have performed this season using advanced analytics. Here’s a review of four key metrics to see if DVOA, ANY/A, Toxicity and EPA give the Cowboys reasons to feel confident about picking up win No. 8 on the season.

Cowboys Wire Pod: It’s time to start putting some respect on Mike McCarthy’s tenure

Atlanta might not have been the toughest opponent, but the team’s response speaks volumes to the coaching staff. How will Chiefs game go? | From @KDDrummondNFL and @RyanO_Leary

In last week’s episode, K.D. Drummond and Ryan O’Leary discussed the abysmal performance of the Dallas Cowboys in their Week 9 loss to the Denver Broncos. Was it a sign of things to come? Had sloppy practice habits crept into an organization full of themselves?

The test was going to be how they responded in the follow up game against Atlanta. That would determine the job that has been done by head coach Mike McCarthy in transforming this club. Well, test passed and with flying colors. The guys discuss the Atlanta game, talk about whether or not to believe in the next opponents’ three-game win streak and what way to go when it comes to betting on the Cowboys-Chiefs in Week 11. Another jam-packed episode is on tap!

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Top 30 Cowboys players rankings for Week 11 proves depth perception is no mirage

A look at the Top 30 individual players for the Cowboys going into Week 11’s tilt against Kansas City. It’s power rankings Tuesday. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys front office has been in their bag. While the results hadn’t shown it true in the previous two campaigns, in 2021 the job they’ve done to assemble the 70-some-odd players who are in rotation is front and center. Dallas now sports a 7-2 record through nine game after their dominating 43-3 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Once again, the Cowboys played without several of their star players and once again, the backups proved to be more than capable.

Depth is a key ingredient to a championship run, and it is showing itself week in, week out for Dallas. On Sunday, they played without their offseason projected starting defensive line. 3T Neville Gallimore hasn’t taken a snap all year and Pro Bowl DE DeMarcus Lawrence hasn’t played since Week 1. Brent Urban didn’t win the job as expected, but he has been out of the rotation for a couple weeks and Randy Gregory just went on the shelf for three weeks. It didn’t matter.

Just like moving along without Michael Gallup, La’el Collins and for single games Dak Prescott and Zack Martin, this team is able to play peak football almost every time out there. The one time they didn’t, in a Week 9 blowout loss, they came back the next week and had their best performance in years.

Depth is the reason.

There’s so much depth on the roster, a leading defensive player of the year candidate is barely squeezing into the top 10 this week. We haven’t done a player power ranking since Week 5, so it gives a great look into how things have changed from the quarter mark to halfway into the season.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from the Sooners’ 27-14 loss to Baylor

What stood out in this week’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from the Oklahoma Sooners 27-14 loss to the Baylor Bears?

In one of the worst performances of Lincoln Riley’s career on the offensive side of the football, the Oklahoma Sooners laid an egg against the Baylor Bears, easily the best team they’ve played thus far.

It was the lowest point total for the Oklahoma Sooners in Lincoln Riley’s tenure. Though they’re 9-1 in 2021, things feel different with this team compared to Sooners’ teams of the past few years.

Though it wasn’t fun to write, let’s dig into this week’s “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”

The Good: Brian Asamoah

At least through the first three quarters, the Oklahoma Sooners defense played one of its best games of the year. While the Baylor offense was able to make plays throughout the game, the Sooners defense made strong stands, like the fourth and 2 early in the game, to keep Baylor at bay.

The defense was led by Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Brian Asamoah who had his best game of the season. Per Pro Football Focus, Asamoah finished the day with seven solo tackles, four assisted tackles, five stops, a pressure, and a forced fumble. Most importantly, he didn’t miss a tackle, and though he allowed a 23-yard reception according to PFF, his other reception allowed only went for two yards. Asamoah was the Sooners best player on Saturday on either side of the ball.

Unfortunately, the offense couldn’t help out much on Saturday as they struggled to find any consistency throughout the game.

Up Next: Caleb Williams is Human

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Where are the Oklahoma Sooners headed in ESPN’s latest Bowl Projections?

Where are the Oklahoma Sooners headed in ESPN’s latest bowl projections after their 27-14 loss to the Baylor Bears?

It certainly didn’t take much for the Oklahoma Sooners to lose the faith of the voters in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25. Of course, the votes might have gone differently if the Sooners weren’t dominated in all three phases on Fox’s national broadcast.

Though it was a tight game through three quarters, Baylor’s running game eventually wore down the Sooners’ defense, who didn’t have much of an answer in the fourth quarter. That’s less of an indication of where the defense is and more related to the offense’s inability to sustain drives against a physical Bears’ defense.

Like in the polls, where Oklahoma dropped from four to outside the top 10, ESPN didn’t think much of the Sooners’ loss to Baylor either in their latest bowl projections (ESPN+).

Though Oklahoma still has a lot to play for, they have a bit of an uphill battle to get back into the College Football Playoff. Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach of ESPN thought the Oklahoma Sooners were the team that hurt its cause for prominent bowl positioning the most.

Here’s where the ESPN analysts project the Sooners to head for their bowl game and what they had to say after Oklahoma’s loss to the Baylor Bears.

Bonagura – All-State Sugar Bowl vs. Ole Miss

Oklahoma is really the only option here. The Sooners’ loss at Baylor validated the committee’s assessment of them and removes them from the playoff discussion. It was a long time coming after several unconvincing wins this year, and it makes it tougher for Oklahoma fans to enjoy the ongoing meltdown in Austin. – Bonagura, ESPN

Schlabach – Cheez-It Bowl vs. Pittsburgh

The CFP selection committee didn’t like Oklahoma that much to begin with, so it’s really not going to like the Sooners after their 27-14 loss at Baylor on Saturday. The Sooners can still get to the Big 12 championship game, but it’s hard to imagine them getting into the playoff. The Bears limited OU to 260 yards of offense, the fewest in Lincoln Riley’s five seasons as head coach. The Sooners also lost in November for the first time in his tenure and saw their 17-game winning streak end. – Schlabach, ESPN

The season is far from over for the Sooners, but after their 9-0 start, a spot in the Cheez-It Bowl or even the All-State Sugar Bowl to finish instead of the College Football Playoffs would be a massive disappointment for Oklahoma.

Relative to expectations, the 2021 season has been a disappointment thus far. Oklahoma’s going to need a lot of help from the Big 10 and the Pac-12 to give them a shot at playing for something meaningful in December and January. Like Schlabach mentioned, the College Football Playoff committee wasn’t a fan of the Sooners, to begin with, and this reinforces their belief that Oklahoma’s record wasn’t all that impressive.

The Sooners can still improve their standing if they can find a way to win the Big 12 and get some help from the rest of the nation, but it’s looking like the best-case scenario for the Sooners might be a New Year’s Six bowl game.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.

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Loss to Baylor a setback for the Oklahoma Sooners but they still have a lot to play for

It was a disappointing loss for the Oklahoma Sooners, but there’s still a lot to play for this season.

In the aftermath of the Oklahoma Sooners 27-14 loss to the Baylor Bears, it felt as if the season was over. Though that was never the reality, it was the first time an Oklahoma Sooners team was dominated by a Big 12 opponent in the Lincoln Riley era.

Sure, they’ve lost games in his tenure — Riley still hasn’t made it through the Big 12 unscathed — but this is the first time the Sooners have been beaten by more than a score in conference play under Riley. It was the first loss by more than a touchdown to a Big 12 opponent since the Baylor Bears beat the Sooners back in 2014. That one was much more lopsided, though, as the Bears won 48-14 in Norman.

In his weekly look at the “Winners and Losers” from the college football weekend, Paul Myerburg of USA TODAY Sports had this to say:

Oklahoma’s playoff odds took a potentially fatal blow with the loss to Baylor, though enough chaos could unfold in the next three weeks to get the Sooners into the top four at 13-1 and atop the Big 12. The conference championship remains in play, though that would demand beating Iowa State, Oklahoma State and possibly the Cowboys again. The team that was flattened by Baylor probably isn’t running the table, unfortunately. The loss represents a major setback for the Sooners and young quarterback Caleb Williams, who looked mortal for the first time in his freshman season. – Myerburg, USA TODAY Sports

It was a devastating setback to a promising season that had the potential to go undefeated. But the Sooners still have a shot at defending their Big 12 title if they can rebound with wins over Iowa State and Oklahoma State to close out the regular season. And while it may seem like the College Football Playoffs are out of the question at this point, if the Sooners can close the season with three straight wins and win the Big 12 title, they’ll have a chance.

Of course, at this point, it would take a lot of help for the Sooners to work their way back into the top four.

It’s been a wild roller coaster of a season for the Oklahoma Sooners in 2021. While things look rough now, there’s still a lot of football to be played. We’ll learn a lot about the Oklahoma Sooners this week. Will they bounce back to play good football against a tough Iowa State team with something to prove themselves? Or will they come out of the gates unprepared for a physical football game?

We’ll find out this Saturday at 11 a.m.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions.

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8 Takeaways from the Oklahoma Sooners 27 to 14 loss to the Baylor Bears

The Oklahoma Sooners were outplayed in every phase of the game in their 27-14 loss to the Baylor Bears, falling to 9-1 on the season.

It was a disappointing performance for an Oklahoma Sooners team looking to make its annual “Championship November” push for the Big 12 title and potentially a place in the College Football Playoff.

Both goals are technically still in play, but they just became a lot more difficult to grasp moving forward.

The Sooners were outplayed in just about every facet. Even though the defense played a great game through the first three quarters, the inability of the offense to sustain a drive meant the Sooners’ defense was forced to stay on the field longer than it should, and the Bears pounded away on the ground.

A lot went wrong for Oklahoma on Saturday, and now they head back to Norman looking to make corrections before hosting a hot Iowa State team looking to get back into the Big 12 title picture themselves.