The case against and for the Cowboys winning the East

[TheMarathonContinues]

When we first faced them last season we were playing our best football. We played them in week three and were hitting on all cylinders. The Cowboys aren’t the same team they were then until proven otherwise. They’ve come down and aren’t as talented. It’s going to be difficult for the Cowboys to shake off what happened in the playoffs last year. They could very well enter the 2022 season with a hangover. Philly was playing better football at the end of last season than we were. The arrows appear to be pointing down on the Cowboys. We’ll see how it plays out this season.

Cowboys play got worse because their quarterback play got worse. Let's call it what it was. The Cowboys weren't the same after Dak's calf injury. Not saying that's because of injury but that's when his play got worse and so did the teams. The defense played well enough to win out. Offense didn't.

I also think its worth noting they had injuries last year and they rarely missed a bit. Dak got hurt and they were able to win with Cooper Rush. And as crazy as it sounds.....I think the Cowboys have the better coaches as well.

By no means would it shock me if the Eagles are a better team. They've had a great offseason. But the Cowboys as a whole were superior to them. I don't think they take a step back personnel wise. On paper? We do. For sure. But no one can convince me we can't get similar play from guys here that we got from Gregory(missed games and had 6 sacks), Amari Cooper(rarely showed up in the big games) and Conner Williams.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Nah, I'll take their tight end. Better blocker, faster, and had to try to be productive with a lesser QB. They know how good he will be, that factored into trading away Ertz.

LB, secondary, QB, RB, punter is us. They have O Line, D Line, TE, WR, kicker. But their WR's are mitigated if Hurts doesn't improve. That factor alone has me still saying that we are the team to best in the division. But if Hurts makes a Josh Allen-like improvement, it's bye bye division.

I think Goedert is getting by based on name. They let Ertz go because Ertz wanted to leave. Even in the offseason he didn't want to play for Philly. Schultz production probably would've been better if he didn't have Lamb, Pollard, Zeke and Amari getting touches. Player for player give me Goedert no doubt but in regards to production? Seems like a wash at best.

 

[Redline360]

Washington: Question will be if Wentz can finally get his head on straight or did the eagles just destroy him mentally for good. Will the defense bounce back? Either one or none of those things happen and would take a miracle to pull off both.

Giants: Have or have had argurably one of the worst OL for several years running. Feel bad for Jones playing behind that OL and seems to be "decent/good" when he has time to throw. If they ever put a good OL together they can be the team to watch out for.

Eagles: Don't understand the Hurts love. Honestly think the Eagles would be better off with Minshew. Hurts is jot the answer imo

Giants get the OL together and Minshew plays I think the division would be closer than expected. Cowboys shouldn't have an issue winning again as long as we stay healthy

 

[KJJ]

Cowboys play got worse because their quarterback play got worse. Let's call it what it was. The Cowboys weren't the same after Dak's calf injury. Not saying that's because of injury but that's when his play got worse and so did the teams. The defense played well enough to win out. Offense didn't.

I also think its worth noting they had injuries last year and they rarely missed a bit. Dak got hurt and they were able to win with Cooper Rush. And as crazy as it sounds.....I think the Cowboys have the better coaches as well.

By no means would it shock me if the Eagles are a better team. They've had a great offseason. But the Cowboys as a whole were superior to them. I don't think they take a step back personnel wise. On paper? We do. For sure. But no one can convince me we can't get similar play from guys here that we got from Gregory(missed games and had 6 sacks), Amari Cooper(rarely showed up in the big games) and Conner Williams.

The QBs play got worse after an injury and it coincided with the OL and running game getting worse. We all know that Dak’s game fell off but it’s not like everyone else was playing well around him. The team was able to win with Cooper Rush because we were playing our best football of the season. The receiver that helped us win that game is no longer here. This is a topic that can go on and on and I don’t care to keep arguing it with a fan who doesn’t think Dak is the answer at QB. It’s a waste of time! It’s not like anyone is going to change your mind.

 

[dreameaglegreen]

Nah, I'll take their tight end. Better blocker, faster, and had to try to be productive with a lesser QB. They know how good he will be, that factored into trading away Ertz.

LB, secondary, QB, RB, punter is us. They have O Line, D Line, TE, WR, kicker. But their WR's are mitigated if Hurts doesn't improve. That factor alone has me still saying that we are the team to best in the division. But if Hurts makes a Josh Allen-like improvement, it's bye bye division.

I think you make a fantastic point. What does it matter if the eagles (arguably) have the best receiving core in the division, if hurts can't get them the ball. I do think the eagles will win the division based on 3 things.

1. Strength of schedule-- Cowboys play a first place schedule (I think that factors in why a team hasn't won the division in back to back years)
2. 2nd year improvements- It took Sirianni half a year to figure out the teams identity. We are a run 1st team and picking up aj brown fits perfectly into that
3. Off season- The eagles added while the cowboys lost. We got h.reddick and aj brown while the cowboys lost Cooper and Gregory

The cowboys have the best qb in the division right now, and Vegas has them as the favorite to win it, but history says the best qb doesn't win it every year, and I think history will repeat itself

 

[john van brocklin]

They say records are made to be broken and the longest time without a repeat division winner is the NFC East. The Eagles were the last to repeat in 2004 when they won it for the 4th time in a row.

Since 2004, no East team has repeated and the Cowboys have won 6, the Eagles 5, the Commanders and Giants 3 each with the Giants being the most distant winner in 2011.

Since 2017, no East champ has advanced beyond the division round and the last 3 lost in the Wild Card round. There have been 2 NFL champs in this time frame, the Giants in that 2011 season and the Eagles in 2017.

So, does the NFC East Curse remain for another season with another division champ and if it does, which NFC East team wins it in 2022? Or will the Cowboys break the 17 year Curse and repeat as East champs?

This post is not about the against or for, this thread is.

The boys have lost talent the egirls have gained talent
Is it enough for a change at the top?
We shall see.

 

[Blackrain]

Eagles had a great offensive line last year and it still meant nothing for Hurts. You can't make a quarterback a great player. You just can't. You can give him all the weapons in the world....but at the end of the day Jameis Winston will continue to be Jameis Winston and Jalen Hurts will continue to be Jalen Hurts. You can't hide bad QB play.

Agreed but some quarterbacks mature into quite serviceable players ,bus drivers, or just plain guys that are good enough you can win with.
We watched Dak work on his game every year and improve steadily we have to just hope that Hurts does not do the same thing.

I believe if Hurts improves his game the eagles will give us a hard way to go

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Agreed but some quarterbacks mature into quite serviceable players ,bus drivers, or just plain guys that are good enough you can win with.
We watched Dak work on his game every year and improve steadily we have to just hope that Hurts does not do the same thing.

I believe if Hurts improves his game the eagles will give us a hard way to go

I agree. I’m not saying Hurts won’t or can’t be better. I’m just saying giving him weapons won’t improve him. He still needs to do the work. And he may. He’s a good dude. I’d be rooting for him if he wasn’t a Eagle. He has the hunger and drive to be a better quarterback for sure.

 

[baltcowboy]

An argument can be made for all the NFC East teams to win the division except for the Giants so I will also list the negatives of each team.

Cowboys positives are they clearly have the best quarterback in the division and the best defense. The negatives are Tyron and Zach are getting older. Zeke is on his last leg and they don’t have a good defensive tackle. The Joseph situation worries me as well. He is kind of in limbo because the league can suspend him or the cops could arrest him at anytime.

Philadelphia has the best offensive line in the division and one of the best defensive lines. The Eagles have an under dog narrative going and that is always good for a place like Philadelphia. They have the best receivers in the division as well. The negatives are the quarterback is a poor man’s Lamar Jackson that the Cowboys and the better NFL teams know how to stop him. I don’t think you can teach a running back how to throw the football. I don’t think the Eagles running attack is good enough to back teams out of their coverages. The Eagles have the worst running backs in the division if you take out the quarterback. The Eagles back seven is not good. Besides Slade I don’t see any talent in the secondary. The linebacker core will depend on a 3rd round pick who is small and banged up.

The Commanders are the ultimate wild card. They might have the best defense in the division when everyone is healthy. They have the best front four in the division by a mile. The issue with the Commanders is I think they have the worst coaching staff and front office in the East. This Daniel Snyder situation is a mess. Then they brought in Carson Wentz. This is not going to end well.

The Giants on the other hand our a true rebuilding team. They appear to have picked two studs with their picks. I would build off of those two and hope they are bad enough that they can draft a stud quarterback. The Giants should have traded Barkley. Some dumb team would have given them a 3rd round pick for him. Keeping Jones was smart. He is a bad quarterback and he will help with the rebuild by losing.

 

[blueblood70]

They say records are made to be broken and the longest time without a repeat division winner is the NFC East. The Eagles were the last to repeat in 2004 when they won it for the 4th time in a row.

Since 2004, no East team has repeated and the Cowboys have won 6, the Eagles 5, the Commanders and Giants 3 each with the Giants being the most distant winner in 2011.

Since 2017, no East champ has advanced beyond the division round and the last 3 lost in the Wild Card round. There have been 2 NFL champs in this time frame, the Giants in that 2011 season and the Eagles in 2017.

So, does the NFC East Curse remain for another season with another division champ and if it does, which NFC East team wins it in 2022? Or will the Cowboys break the 17 year Curse and repeat as East champs?

This post is not about the against or for, this thread is.

No reason to think we cant win the nfc east we may not slket through 6-0 and destroy them like last season but we can still win it.. i rather it be more competitive whomever comes out the other side will be stronger for it..

 

[DandyDon52]

There has to be consequences for having done a bad job of preparing for the next season while your opponents improved.

good point
thing is last season the other teams were so bad it is hard to see them as good enough to win the div.
But phil did make the playoffs, and got knocked out by TB who was in the NFC champ game, so maybe they were better than they seemed.

Giants do have new HC and staff, so that will make for a better team, the other guy was awful ! which= awful team.

Reds were meh last season, and I dont have a clue about them , hard to read, but wentz may help them, but I think heinke did a good job
last season, considering the team sucked, and coaching was also bad. So wentz will have to deal with same things heinke did.

dallas should win again, but history says they wont. I think I will go with history, and dallas winds up being a WC.

 

[jterrell]

For:
Dallas still has the most talent and the best overall coaching staff.
Dallas has the best QB.
Dallas drafted only 24th but had a very deep draft with a ton of picks to provide depth for the rookie class.
Dallas has young defensive superstars in Trevon Diggs and Micah Parsons to balance out a roster with Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb on the other side.
The NFCE is still arguably the weakest division with every other team wondering if they have a franchise QB or being pretty certain they do not.

Against:
Dallas has to be better in the trenches on both sides.
Dallas has to stop the run enough to get the ball back to its offense and keep its defense fresh.
Dallas loses free agents and replaces them with mid round players which seems quite unsustainable.

 

[G2]

For such a weak division Dallas had a larger point margin of win over every non division team vs the NFCE except a win from the Rams and one by the Bears.

 

[speedkilz88]

I agree. I just think Lewis is the better slot corner.

My whole point is that they have chosen Brown every single time. They don't care what you think.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

My whole point is that they have chosen Brown every single time. They don't care what you think.

When did Dan Quinn choose Brown over Lewis?