Tag: 2021 week 12

Oklahoma Sooners vs. Oregon Ducks: Sooners Wire Staff Predictions

Get ready for Wednesday night’s matchup between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oregon Ducks with our Sooners Wire Staff Predictions.

The Oklahoma Sooners will take on the Oregon Ducks with an opportunity to end the 2021 season on a high note after a dramatic regular season and an even more dramatic coaching transition. With all that behind the Oklahoma Sooners, they’ll get back to the business of football against an Oregon Ducks team that also saw a coaching transition.

Oregon, much like Oklahoma, saw their season hit the skid when they lost a game in November and were unable to bounce back from that loss to stay in the College Football Playoff race.

Though they’ve dealt with similar situations, it feels as if the Oklahoma Sooners are coming into this matchup reenergized with momentum from the return of Bob Stoops, the hire of Brent Venables, and a 2022 recruiting class that returned to the top 10 after dipping to 27 after Lincoln Riley’s departure.

With that, let’s take a look at this week’s Sooners Wire Staff Predictions!

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What We Learned: Injuries caught up to Cowboys, troubling Thanksgiving trend

The Dallas Cowboys learned they need to get healthy, and that the special teams are playing better than the offense or defense currently. | From @CDPiglet

The Dallas Cowboys lost for the third time in four games and everything has gone wrong for them at the wrong time. Quarterback Dak Prescott hasn’t been the same since missing time with a calf injury. The offensive line gets a new starting five weekly it seems, and the defensive line is out so many players their best edge rusher is actually LB Micah Parsons. The Cowboys are now in a race with the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC East, and it’s time for them to turn it around.

Unfortunately this has been a trend for Dallas under Prescott. Dallas has never made the playoffs when they had a losing record during the three-games-in-11-days stretch culminating in the Thanksgiving holiday.

In 2016, and 2018 Dallas swept all 3 games in that time period and won the division twice. In 2017 they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles and the then San Diego Chargers by a combined score of 65-15. In 2019 the Cowboys were swept by the New England Patriots, the Buffalo Bills, and the Chicago Bears. In 2020, an Andy Dalton lead Dallas team beat the Minnesota Vikings before losing to the Washington Football team by 25, and the Baltimore Ravens by 17. They were home watching the playoffs all three of those seasons.

If the Cowboys can’t fix this trend, they will be watching the playoffs from home yet again, and it will have been 26 years since the Cowboys had made an NFC Championship Game, let alone the Super Bowl.

A team can learn a lot from their first losing streak of the year, and here are some examples of what we learned about this team.

Week 12 Rooting Guide: Rams-Packers? Cowboys now look to avoid most difficult playoff road

A look at NFL tiebreaker rules, common opponent + conference records and how Dallas will want Week 12 action to go. The Cowboys care about 8 Sun/Mon games. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Slow your roll. The Dallas Cowboys aren’t out on the No. 1 seed in the NFC. It certainly feels like it, as the team has lost three out of their last four and two in a row. The latest defeat, Thursday evening at home to the Las Vegas Raiders for their third straight Thanksgiving Day game L, stung a bit, pun intended.

Old nemesis DeSean Jackson opened the scoring Thursday with a deep pass touchdown and it felt like deja vu all over again. Dallas’ back seven was an absolute mess and they may have been the healthiest and most complete unit on the team, only missing Donovan Wilson.

Still all hope is not lost, but they have made things more difficult on themselves. They are now two games in the loss column behind the NFC pace setter, and a game behind three other teams, one of which they’ve lost to already. They certainly can make up ground. The Kansas City Chiefs and the New England Patriots are the hottest teams in the league after miserable starts (and Dallas has split road games against) and are on the precipice of the No. 1seed in the AFC.

Dallas’ road to redemption will be hard, but not impossible, with all NFC games remaining in their final six weeks. Dallas has just one NFC loss so far, setting themselves up to win many tiebreaker scenarios should they win out and finish as the hottest team in the NFC.

That journey is taken one game at a time however, and they will sit back on Sunday and watch many of their competitors take the field in an effort to make the Cowboys’ journey more difficult. The Cowboys no longer control their own destiny as they did earlier in the week, so it’s legit time to start rooting for some teams to lose. Here’s a look at the slate on Week 12 action that impacts Dallas’ playoff seeding.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Prescott’s 4th quarter not enough to overcome Cowboys’ defense, penalties

Dak Prescott tried to rescue the Dallas Cowboys from a bad defensive performance and a lack of discipline losing to the Las Vegas Raiders. | From @BenGrimaldi

The Dallas Cowboys provided another subpar effort in the 36-33 overtime loss to the Las Vegas Raiders and the outcome left many Cowboys fans regurgitating Thanksgiving dinner. The flag fest masquerading as a pro football contest surely gave most watching a case of agita.

The Cowboys have now lost three out of four and are suffering from their first back-to-back losses of the season. What once was thought of as a comfortable lead in the NFC East is now just two games in the loss column as the Philadelphia Eagles have been playing their best football.

Even though the Cowboys will be getting several injured players back in Week 13, the bigger issue is the team didn’t play well for the entire month of November.

Before turning the page to December, here’s a look at the good, the bad and the ugly against the Raiders.

Report Card, Snap Counts Week 12: Cowboys lost their way against Raiders

Dropping three of their last four, the Cowboys had a rough Thanksgiving, thanks to the Raiders. Find out snap counts and position grades. | From @Zeke_Barrera

The Dallas Cowboys lost on Thanksgiving Day for the third consecutive season, this time to the Las Vegas Raiders, falling 36-33 in overtime. Dallas hasn’t had much to be thankful for in their annual holiday game, with just a 2-6 record on Thanksgiving dating back to 2014.

With their six-game winning streak way back in the rearview mirror, the Cowboys suddenly find themselves in a precarious spot, losers of three of their last four, with their division lead dwindling. Dallas was able to get their offense going, but their defense was unable to contain the Raiders offense, leading to the most points they’ve allowed since giving up 41 to the Washington Football Team… last Thanksgiving.

Here’s how the Cowboys graded out in Week 12, along with the playtime percentage breakdown.

Flag Football: Cowboys fall to Raiders in OT on yet another yellow hankie, 36-33

The Cowboys clawed back, but the penalties that haunted them early stayed throughout and reared their ugly head in an OT pass interference. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Third and 18.

The Dallas Cowboys defense had a chance to get off the field in overtime, and Anthony Brown struck again. Somehow, the No. 2 cornerback was his with his fourth defensive pass interference call of the game, all on third downs and what looked like an upcoming chance to win it turned into an almost assured defeat in the matter of one face-guarded slight contact penalty.

Thanksgiving was not kind to the Cowboys as they took on the Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday. Trailing for much of the game, Dallas stormed back to tie the game twice with less than three minutes remaining to send the game to an extra stanza. Unfortunately Dallas gave up 166 penalty yards on the day, and the last several were egregious. The referees were looking to get some camera time and the most penalized team in America gave them the opportunity. In the end, Dallas falls 36-33 to drop to 7-4 on the season.

Dallas has lost three of their last four games and all to AFC West opponents.

Playing without four of their top 10 players, the team didn’t look sharp for much of the contest, despite still seeming to have a talent advantage over the Raiders. One of the healthiest position groups was the secondary though, but they played like a bunch of backups. Penalty-laden coverage, bad angles, too much cushion gave Derek Carr a chance to pass for 373 yards plus all of the DPI yardage tacked on.

It overshadowed a mostly beautiful game by Dak Prescott, who finished with 375 yards, two touchdown throws and no picks for a 106.2 rating in a game without Amari Cooper or CeeDee Lamb. The run game was mostly inefficient and when it mattered most, Prescott missed an open Noah Brown to convert a third down in overtime, leading to the Raiders’ winning possession.

The Cowboys will likely get three of their stars back with both receivers on schedule to play Thursday night against the New Orleans Saints along with defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, who started practicing for the first time since Week 2.

The loss keeps the NFC East in question, as the Philadelphia Eagles have been hot at sit at 5-6 ahead of a matchup with the New York Giants on Sunday.

WATCH: Cowboys’ Tony Pollard hits 100-yard kickoff return TD

For the first time since 2008, the Dallas Cowboys took a kickoff the length of the field.

The Dallas Cowboys saw their deficit rise back to 11 points midway through the third quarter. The Las Vegas Raiders looked like they had taken control of the game again. And then, Tony Pollard happened.

Pollard, who led the league in kickoff return average on the season, caught the ball at his own goal line and saw the field unfold in front of him, Cutting to the left sideline, he beat the Raiders who appeared to have the angle on him, made a referee faceplant and continued in for the record-tying score.

It’s the first full field-length kickoff return for Dallas since Felix Jones in 2008. CeeDee Lamb returned an onside kick for a score last season against San Francisco.

The Cowboys made the extra point, but a leverage penalty gave them another chance. They went for two but failed, keeping the score 24-19 in favor of Las Vegas.

WATCH: Cowboys’ Kelvin Joseph, Raiders’ Teamer ejected for fighting

The Cowboys and Raiders enjoyed a dustup after a punt and two key figures were sent to the showers.

The Dallas Cowboys have had to fight the referees and the Raiders all day long, but coming out of the half they had to actually fight.  After a three-and-out forced Las Vegas to punt, the kick sailed out of bounds after bouncing right inside the sideline. Play over, right? Wrong.

Special teameers Kelvin Joseph and Roderic Teamer got tangled up and kept tussling past the bench and into a rail. Before long, both teams were involved in a scrum off the side of the field. When the dust settled, both of the key combatants were called for unsportsmanlike conduct and had been tossed from the game.

During the scrum, field judge Tom Hill was hit on the face, causing a small cut on his chin. On replay it appeared that Joseph was on the receiving end of the aggression and was defending himself, but it doesn’t matter his day is over.

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QTNA: Can Raiders’ offense, Waller, present Cowboys problems sans Ruggs?

How will the Cowboys deal with Waller? What can the Raiders’ D do to slow down Dallas’ offense and does the AFC West have a cheat code?

The Dallas Cowboys and Las Vegas Raiders both have offense problems. Over the last three games, the teams have only combined to surpass 20 points once, leading to a combined 1-5 record. The circumstances as to the malaise are decidedly different, however. The Raiders have lost their head coach and their big deep threat forever. Dallas is dealing with temporary absences due to COVID and injury.

On the opposite side of the line of scrimmage sit defenses charged with continuing the negative trends for the guys with the ball. How will it all shake out? We tapped Raiders Wire managing editor (and rumored Cowboys fan) Marcus Mosher to have a quick chat behind enemy lines about Thursday’s big game. As Dallas looks for their eighth win on the season and avoid a bona fide slump, here’s what to expect.

How to watch, wager, live stream, listen to Cowboys-Raiders in Week 12

Here’s what you need to know going into the Cowboys-Raiders matchup. A game preview, Ref assignment, TV coverage and streaming info. | From @CDPiglet

The Dallas Cowboys faceoff against the Kansas City Chiefs was the most anticlimactic game of the season. Instead of a redo of the 2018 Chiefs at Los Angeles Rams 51-54 match up, the fans got a stinker. The score ended up 19-9 in favor of Kansas City, but the game wasn’t even that competitive.

Scoting only three field goals, the Cowboys offense was made to punt six times, five of them being on 3-and-out drives. They also turned the ball over three times: two interceptions and a lost fumble.

The abysmal performance by the Cowboys offense wasted a great game from the Dallas defense. They held the Chiefs to under 20 points in Arrowhead, even with them having 13 drives to try and score. After 16 points in the first three possessions, Kansas City managed only three more in its final 10 drives.

Dallas will need to bounce back like they did after their loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to start the season, and the blowout loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 9. They will be without Amari Cooper for the second straight contest, but hope to have left tackle Tyron Smith and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb back in the lineup.

The Raiders defense should be no match for a pissed off, mostly complete Dallas offense. They just gave up 23 to the woeful New York Giants, then 41 to a struggling Kansas City offense, and 32 to a Cincinnati Bengals team coming in on a two-game losing streak. If healthy this could be a “40 burger” game, but even without Tyron Smith or CeeDee Lamb, the Cowboys should put up enough points.

The Raiders offense started quickly under interim coach Rich Bisaccia, putting up over 30 points the first two games, but have struggled out of the bye week. They haven’t scored more than 16 points in the last three weeks.

There is a unique situation of Raiders defensive coordinator Gus Bradley being the former mentor to Dan Quinn from their time on the Seattle Seahawks. Quinn has switched his game up so much since then, the advantage may go to Dallas’ offense if Quinn is sharing secret tendencies of Bradley’s scheme instead.

He showed against the Chiefs he hasn’t veered from his tried and true formula, failing to alter from his Cover 3 mandate.

This stretch of 3 games in 12 days is the toughest for the Cowboys, and after a bad start, the team needs to step up and show the league who they are by bouncing back and winning a home game versus a 5-5 Las Vegas team.

Here is how to watch, listen, and bet on the Thanksgiving Day traditional Dallas Cowboys game.