CFZ Thoughts/Opinions about this week's important matchup

[Cowboyny]

Yes, we are in that "must game", not for the playoffs, but if the Cowboys want any chance of winning the division and landing that #1 seed, they must beat the Eagles on Sunday night. Eagles will be an angry team and they know, win Sunday, they lock up the NFC East and have an inside track of getting that 1st rd bye.

Offense

-Eagles Defensive Strength is their DL and deep rotation. Cannot allow them to wreck the game like they did in the 1st matchup. Not just Steele, the whole line needs to play well.
-Dak needs to attack the middle of the field, their biggest weakness is at the LB/Safety positions in coverage. Lamb/Ferguson need to have huge days in this area.
-Stay patient and take what is giving, do not force passes as the Eagles do have a ton of veterans who have seen everything.
-Make them pay playing two safeties back, must successfully run the football against light boxes, We saw a little last time, but penalties derailed it.
-Yes, penalties have to be much, much better in this game, cannot expect to be consistently be successful third and longs, especially against their front.
-Have to do a better job inside the red zone, the Eagles offense is too good to be kicking FG's.

Defense

-Really do believe the 49ers showed the league the blueprint how to stop Jalen Hurts. Stay disciplined in your rushing lanes and force Hurts to pass inside the pocket. Quinn has to forget about those twists/stunts this game, which tend to leave huge holes to run through.
-D'Andre Smith is the key player to stop this week, both the run and the pass. He is the player that they always go to when they are struggling. Might be a good game to play Parsons off the ball, pick spots to blitz, but also to cover Swift in the passing game.
-After the last two weeks, you will definitely see the Eagles isolate Bland in coverage. If he does struggle again, must roll safety protection. This would be a great game to play more zone, but the Cowboys have been more of a man coverage team all year long.
-Dallas Goedert is returning this week, he is Hurts safety value moving the sticks.
-Red Zone defense, Eagles also have struggled scoring TD's this season, Cowboys can give up the yards, but must make them kick some FG's.
-Cowboys need to force a turnover as this will be a back and forth game, kind of like Seattle.

Special Teams

-Both have money FG kickers with range
-Where the Cowboys have the advantage is their return game

 

[big dog cowboy]

Very good write-up!!!

I would just add Hurts just needs to throw the ball to Bland early and often.

 

[Aven8]

Buffalo is actually the team that showed the blueprint on how to stop Philly the week before. They just didn’t have the players to finish it.

 

[CCBoy]

There really is a special bond between CeeDee and Dak now. That will write all over the outcome of Sunday's win for the Cowboys!

Remember influences by Pearson and Irvin and their quarterbacks? It's ..... back!

Philadelphia will depend a lot on how mobile Hurts actually is this Sunday.

Brown and Smith have to be hampered by the Dallas secondary.

 

[Whirlwin]

Best way to beat the Eagles, run the damn football. Second best way through deep and often.

 

[baltcowboy]

This game will be decided in the trenches. You protect Dak, the Cowboys will score 30+. The defensive line has to pressure Hurts. The Eagles don’t run the ball as well as they did last season. Swift is like Pollard, you can’t give him a million carries.

 

[Cowboy_svt]

we held their run game in check last time, need to keep it up.
The issue was them basically playing for short yardage to get into that 4th & 1 or 3rd and short areas where we couldnt stop them.
Our secondary wasnt lit up, but on a lot of 3rd and longs we couldnt get pressure nor defend the pass. Jordan Lewis was beat i think everytime on 3rd down, he showed some spark last week, lets hope hes doing better from his injury.

Dak was our mvp last game, and we wouldve won were it not for some very odd calls/nocalls, but regardless agreed on oline, they were terrible that game. Would like to see them use some of our bigger backs to wear down the eagles line then switch some reps to pollard on the outside since their DEs and LBs arent good vs the run.

Also our safeties need to step up, i dont think ive seen a single positive play from them in the secondary, now not sure if thats scheme or what. Would like us to play more zone if we can, hurts this season has been better vs Man than zone.

 

[CCBoy]

we held their run game in check last time, need to keep it up.
The issue was them basically playing for short yardage to get into that 4th & 1 or 3rd and short areas where we couldnt stop them.
Our secondary wasnt lit up, but on a lot of 3rd and longs we couldnt get pressure nor defend the pass. Jordan Lewis was beat i think everytime on 3rd down, he showed some spark last week, lets hope hes doing better from his injury.

Dak was our mvp last game, and we wouldve won were it not for some very odd calls/nocalls, but regardless agreed on oline, they were terrible that game. Would like to see them use some of our bigger backs to wear down the eagles line then switch some reps to pollard on the outside since their DEs and LBs arent good vs the run.

Also our safeties need to step up, i dont think ive seen a single positive play from them in the secondary, now not sure if thats scheme or what. Would like us to play more zone if we can, hurts this season has been better vs Man than zone.

3rd downs are important for the Dallas defense!

 

[DeaconMoss]

All you need is a group of linebackers highlighted by Fred Warner and greenlaw to stop the eagles. Oh yeah and 2 guys like Deebo and CMC that can lineup anywhere on offense. Dallas has no guys like these 4 on the roster.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

As stated a few times in other threads, I'm confident we will win on Sunday but it won't be enough to win the division. Also, keep in mind, that Hurts is playing on an injured knee, and for that reason, I do not see him trying to run as much........not to mention, we have way more speed than most teams.

 

[817Gill]

Buffalo is actually the team that showed the blueprint on how to stop Philly the week before. They just didn’t have the players to finish it.

They put up damn near 40 on em lol how is that the blueprint?

 

[Cowboyny]

There really is a special bond between CeeDee and Dak now. That will write all over the outcome of Sunday's win for the Cowboys!

Remember influences by Pearson and Irvin and their quarterbacks? It's ..... back!

Philadelphia will depend a lot on how mobile Hurts actually is this Sunday.

Brown and Smith have to be hampered by the Dallas secondary.

Defense has to stop their run somewhat to have a chance of getting off the field. If the Eagles see many 3rd and shorts, we are in trouble.

 

[Cowboyny]

Best way to beat the Eagles, run the damn football. Second best way through deep and often.

Disagree, about deep shots, their scheme is all about keeping everything in front of them, they will not abandon shell coverage too often. Has to take what is given and go on long, time consuming drives that hopefully lead to 7 points.

 

[Cowboyny]

This game will be decided in the trenches. You protect Dak, the Cowboys will score 30+. The defensive line has to pressure Hurts. The Eagles don’t run the ball as well as they did last season. Swift is like Pollard, you can’t give him a million carries.

Disagree, have to keep Hurts inside that pocket, getting pressure is a plus. Eagles still have a great rushing offense, Swift isn't like Pollard at all, he has big play abilities that we haven't seen Pollard have all season long.

 

[Cowboyny]

we held their run game in check last time, need to keep it up.
The issue was them basically playing for short yardage to get into that 4th & 1 or 3rd and short areas where we couldnt stop them.
Our secondary wasnt lit up, but on a lot of 3rd and longs we couldnt get pressure nor defend the pass. Jordan Lewis was beat i think everytime on 3rd down, he showed some spark last week, lets hope hes doing better from his injury.

Dak was our mvp last game, and we wouldve won were it not for some very odd calls/nocalls, but regardless agreed on oline, they were terrible that game. Would like to see them use some of our bigger backs to wear down the eagles line then switch some reps to pollard on the outside since their DEs and LBs arent good vs the run.

Also our safeties need to step up, i dont think ive seen a single positive play from them in the secondary, now not sure if thats scheme or what. Would like us to play more zone if we can, hurts this season has been better vs Man than zone.

Have to play well on the early downs, so they don't have run/pass options on third down.

 

[Cowboyny]

As stated a few times in other threads, I'm confident we will win on Sunday but it won't be enough to win the division. Also, keep in mind, that Hurts is playing on an injured knee, and for that reason, I do not see him trying to run as much........not to mention, we have way more speed than most teams.

He is still running and running well on that bum knee. Forget about our speed, they did to get him down in space. Our defenders tend to run themselves out of plays, this cannot happen sunday.

 

[Aven8]

They put up damn near 40 on em lol how is that the blueprint?

As I said they just didn’t have the players to finish it. But they kept him in the pocket and it almost worked. Sometimes the better team wins and Philly is clearly better than Buffalo

 

[Cowboyny]

One thing I forgot to add, watch out for those QB sneaks when they spread the defense out. They use this a lot on 3rd and long situations.

 

[baltcowboy]

Disagree, have to keep Hurts inside that pocket, getting pressure is a plus. Eagles still have a great rushing offense, Swift isn't like Pollard at all, he has big play abilities that we haven't seen Pollard have all season long.

We just watching two different teams. The Eagles running game did nothing against us the first game. Hurts hurt us with his arm unti we started pressuring him in the 4th. Swift did nothing.

 

[CCBoy]

Defense has to stop their run somewhat to have a chance of getting off the field. If the Eagles see many 3rd and shorts, we are in trouble.

Both their run and 3rd down percentages are a factor for this game and momentums for both sides of the field.

For me, this a focus point during the game:

The last time the Cowboys and Eagles squared off against one another in Week 9, RT Terence Steele had one of his worst performances of his entire professional career. He gave up 12 QB pressures, seven hurries, and four sacks. While he's performed much better since then, you can bet Philadelphia's going to do their best to have a repeat performance in this Week 14 grudge match. The Eagles will surely test him early and often, and if he ends up struggling, Dallas would be wise to get him a little help if/when needed. If No. 78 holds his own, Dak Prescott should shred Philadelphia's secondary.

https://www.bloggingtheboys.com/202...hups-jake-ferguson-terence-steele-daron-bland