Over at the
NFL-Giants Blog, they recently asked a fellow Cowboys Blog questions heading into Monday Night's division game. Here are some responses I found interesting and something we should look out for heading into the game tomorrow night.
On the stout Cowboys run defense, but subpar pass defense: "The Cowboys run defense has been phenomenal, no team has been able to establish any kind of consistent running game against Dallas. Fred Taylor had 74 yards in the first game of the season and that's been the high-water mark for opposing running backs. On the other hand, the Dallas secondary is no push-over, for the most part they've been solid. Jacksonville was able to get something established in the air in the first game, and the Eagles shredded our pass defense for huge plays. But even the Eagles game was deceiving, because a couple of the big plays in that game can be traced back to our starting FS, Pat Watkins, who is a rookie and played an awful game. So if you want to attack Dallas in the air, going after our rookie FS Pat Watkins and our SS Roy Williams, who is excellent against the run but ordianry at best in coverage, may be the place to start."
On the Cowboys offensive line: "...they are an erratic group in pass blocking, but are very good in run blocking...what the game film shows is that they weren't [against Philly] getting beat physically, they were getting beat because of mental errors...In the running game, they are actually quite good."
I'm looking forward to this game very much so because I feel one of these teams probably won't be in the playoffs. And head-to-head match-ups and tiebreakers are so important in the NFL. And being that this is in Dallas, the Giants winning would have a huge impact later on. The two match-ups I feel as being most important is the Giants Pass Rush vs. Cowboys o-line in the Dre Bledsoe factor. And then the Run Games. Whichever team is even the slightest bit slow in the run offense, look for them to be a little off throughout the game.