NFL
By: Greg Rector
Indianapolis Colts (4-7-1) vs Dallas Cowboys (8-3)
Sunday 8:20 PM AT&T Stadium NBC
Dallas Cowboys fans are semi-pleased and awaiting the Odell Beckham decision. The Colts are playing in another primetime game? After falling to the Steelers 24-17 on Monday night Indianapolis travels to Dallas to face the Cowboys coming off the mini-break and the most watched NFL regular season game in league history, the 28-20 win over the Giants was seen by 42 million viewers on Thanksgiving Day. Let’s break this matchup down.
Colts Offense vs Dallas Defense
As Jonathan Taylor goes so goes the Colts’ offense. The strange days of not giving the football to Taylor and being rather ineffective when they did that we saw early on this season appear to be over. Under former coach Frank Reich, the Colts’ identity was missing in action. Under interim coach Jeff Saturday the Colts have returned to a run-first offense. The biggest issue for Indianapolis though has been the play of what was supposed to be a strength and that’s the offensive line. Simply put they have been a huge disappointment this season. That said the focus as I have said so often for the Cowboys’ defense has to be to contain Taylor and limit his yardage. We know what he is capable of and much like Saquon Barkley if you limit the Colts’ running back, you take away their biggest strength. Matt Ryan has been less than stellar as the Colts’ quarterback although the passing game again has been simplified under Saturday and has been somewhat more effective. This is where the best pass rush in the league (45 sacks), must make hay. Ryan is a fairly easy target as he doesn’t have the mobility to escape pressure. The Cowboys’ defense has to keep doing what they did against the Giants and what was so glaringly missing against the Packers. Staying disciplined in the rushing lanes and remembering to fill the gaps and set good edges to prevent easy runs for Taylor. The Colts’ receivers are not great separators either and that means the secondary may be able to jump a route or two in this game. The league’s number two overall defense despite struggling against the run has far too much speed for this Colts’ offense to deal with. Micah Parsons will definitely have the opportunity to have his seventh multiple-sack game of the season.
Dallas Offense vs Colts Defense
Oh, so about Tony Pollard being RB1 and getting the ball more than Zeke? Not so fast for that crowd. Ezekiel Elliott was stellar against the Giants and looked much more like the first three seasons of Zeke than he has in a long time. I have said it often, I don’t care who gets the most carries or snaps, I care about the end result. The Cowboys’ ground game has been effective and that opens up the efficient passing attack. When an offense is both effective and efficient good results tend to follow. Ceedee Lamb has looked and played much more like a true WR1 in the last few games. Dak Prescott though hasn’t forgotten to spread the ball around. Pay too much attention to Lamb and Prescott simply goes through his progressions, be that Dalton Schultz, Jake Ferguson, Michael Gallup, or even Pollard out of the backfield. It’s the efficient component that has been so important for the Cowboys. Even after throwing two interceptions against the Giants the Cowboys’ offense had their way on three straight scoring drives to put away the Giants. The Colts have been a middle-of-the-road defense and one of the main reasons is thanks to the struggles in most games offensively, this group stays on the field far too long. Kellen Moore has to avoid getting too cute with his play-calling. It happened only a couple of times against the Giants. He’s been much better lately and as long as he applies the Keep It Simple Stupid principle the Cowboys should yet again find success in both phases of the offense.
Prediction
The Cowboys strangely (insert snark/sarcasm emoji) had a slow start and were able to overcome it against the Giants, something that has haunted this franchise for a long time as we all know. The penalty parade though has to be focused on (13 against the Giants…grrr), especially the pre-snap penalties. AT&T is not Arrowhead or Lumen Field, crowd noise-wise. There’s simply no excuse at this point of the season to keep seeing it happen. Clean it up time on being better as the march to the playoffs is on. The one area that has been great to see is the Cowboys’ physicality, they aren’t beating teams simply through finesse. That has to continue this week. I have the Cowboys taking this game 31- 17. It’s a short week for the Colts and the Cowboys had the extra few days to get ready for them.
As always you can find me on Twitter @GregCowboys
