Dallas at New England

The battle of the Bills with the victor possibly gaining the upper hand in the coach of the year award. As a Cowboys fan, I never really thought anyone could compare to what Parcells has done to this team, but Belichick has done a good job with his team considering the injuries and schedule they started off with (I still think Parcells has the edge though. May be blinded, but that's my opinion). Back when they scheduled this game, it was just thought to be another of those Parcells reunion games, but instead they're getting a battle between two 7-2 teams...and a Parcells reunion game.

The Cowboys have won two out of their last 3, but they could have easily lost all 3 had their defense not been so dominant. I want to say they've scored like 10 points a game in each, and that puts some pretty high standards on the D. In Parcells mind, good teams should score like 21-24 ppg and give up only like 14-17 ppg (IIRC). We obviously got the D part covered, but scoring has been a problem with the team, as it was last year. The offense may put up a lot of yards, but they can't seem to sustain drives or have a high red zone TD%. I don't think the Pats, or just about any other team Dallas plays for the remainder of the year, will allow Dallas to only score 10 points and still win the game. Plus, the Bills seemed to find a flaw in the D by doing some short middle passes, and they nearly burned us on our blitzs. And this brings about another point. The Pats block pretty well, have good WRs, and Brady has a pretty quick release. All of these will make it hard to blitz him with everyone and not get burned badly.

QC has been struggling lately. IIRC, teams are now covering the receivers and trying to get him to make accurate passes, different from the "blitz QC and make him make a mistake" approach. Carter has made improvements this year, but now he has to be able to get those passes exactly where they need to be. Of course, this could be easier with a better running game. Dallas isn't bad at the running game in YPG, but that's mostly because Dallas runs it more than every other team. While it is good to dominate the possesion time and get some good field position, I think we are going to need more out of the backfield. Whether it is Troy Hambrick learning some moves, Aveion Cason gaining 50 poinds, or Adrian Murrell going vintage, we need somebody to get something. Even Anderson could do something.

Not any major injuries for either team IIRC. Dallas basically had only Steele, Ryan Young, and Joey Galloway hurting. I think Young has practiced for two weeks, so maybe his tendinitis is going away. Joey had some problems with his leg, and he is kind of iffy, but I think I got the impression that he should play. Then again, I never seem to be right in my injury predictions. NE had had some injuries to several players, but I think just about everyone on their injury report should play.

BTW, NE will be playing in new silver jerseys, meaning Dallas will be wearing their blue jerseys. I think this is the second time all year, with TB being the first. Hope that isn't a bad sign.

I guess we'll be in the chat at gametime, though instead of snacks, I'll probably be eating dinner...and maybe doing a homework assignment I forgot about....since I was so happy that Houston beat Toronto 400-4. Ok, maybe not...