Yakuza Rich
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 18,043
- Reaction score
- 12,385
DALLAS COWBOYS (-5) VS. ARIZONA CARDINALS
AT PHOENIX UNIVERSITY STADIUM
OCTOBER 12, 2008 4:15 PM EST
After a tough loss to the divisional rival Commanders, the Cowboys came back and played a streaky contest against the winless Bengals. No, there weren’t naked people running across Texas Stadium, but the Cowboys actual play was streaky as they ran out to a 17-0 lead against the Bengals, then managed to get the game to a 17-16 lead with the Bengals possessing the ball, and then finally turning on the faucet again and scoring at will.
The Cardinals have been streaky as well. After starting the season 2-0, they wound up losing to the Commanders. The following week they were down 34-0 at halftime to the Jets, then started to make a comeback before finally getting blown out. And then last week they blew out the then undefeated Bills 41-17.
This ought to be a heated contest as both teams could use the victory and Cowboy fans…despite Cardinals ownership’s attempts to thwart them…should be in full force in Arizona.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON OFFENSE
After only running Marion Barber eight times against the Commanders, the Cowboys almost forced him a little too much against the Bengals as he carried the ball 23 times. Barber had moderate success, but it was Felix Jones who carried the ball 9 times that was wildly successful against the Cincinnati defense.
The gameplan now seems to try and bump Owens at the line of scrimmage, but to make sure that you have safety help over the top. Whether we like it or not, Owens is the guy who really makes the offense go. Now, getting Jason Witten going early is nice and can make for an effective offense, but when Owens is going early on…regardless of what the others are doing…this offense is extremely explosive. The Philadelphia game was a good example as Owens only caught 3 passes, but he got going early. And that tells me that when Witten gets going early the opposing team makes adjustments to account for him. But when Owens gets going early, the opposing team has to make *drastic* changes to account for him and that opens things up for the rest of the offense. Expect Roderick Hood to be put on Owens a lot since he’s their best corner and the corner opposite of him is Eric Green, who doesn’t have enough speed to stick with him. It’s either him or rookie Dominique Rogers-Cromartie and guarding Owens is a tough task for any rookie.
Dallas may have a tough go at it in the passing game as Hood on Owens is a pretty good matchup and so are the safeties (Antrel Rolle and Adrian Wilson) on Jason Witten. Although it appears that the Cardinals aren’t too nutty about Wilson’s cover skills as they have been taking him out of their nickel packages for Aaron Francisco. Don’t be too fooled by their poor pass defense stats, while I wouldn’t call them the ’02 Buccaneers, their pass defense stats are a bit skewed by the Jets game.
The Cards switch off between the 4-3 and the 3-4 and like to blitz a lot. Defensive tackle Darnell Dockett is probably their best player on the front seven and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cards play a lot of 4-3 in order to get Dockett on the left guard as Corey Procter hasn’t been that good and Montrae Holland struggled last week. If Kosier does play Sunday, then they may go to more 3-4, but I still expect a lot of 4 man lines. Bert Berry would be the team’s top pass rusher, usually from the weakside, but he’s been injured and may not make the game. From there, Clark Haggans is their best pass rusher, a speedy but undersized strongside linebacker in the 3-4 that Colombo will likely be responsible for.
I expect Dallas to continue to run the ball with more of an emphasis and hope that they can balance out the offense a bit better. I actually didn’t think Romo played all that bad in the Commanders game, but I thought he was noticeably off with his passes in the Bengals game. So getting Romo back on track will have a lot to do whether or not they’ll be able to balance out the offense. As I’ve pointed in the past, the defense performs remarkably worse at home then it does on the road. Romo actually has been pretty steady whether it’s at home or on the road. His QB rating is lower on the road, but only very slightly that it’s pretty much negligible.
They’ll probably continue to run the fake slant/draw running play which I don’t particularly like because I don’t think it really fools the defense that much. They actually had a lot more success running to the outside than the inside last week. I think they are getting more comfortable with Felix Jones, so expect to see about 8-10 touches again from the rookie. With the 3-4 scheme, that should make things a little easier to run on the inside, but more difficult to run to the outside.
Lastly, I think they’ll want to get Owens involved more and they’ll probably run a ton of motion with him to get him on more one-on-one matchups and to avoid the bump at the line of scrimmage.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON DEFENSE
With Arizona, their offense has been a pass happy offense for quite a few years. They like to use a deep pass pattern scheme and with head coach Ken Wisenhunt being a former Steelers assistant, they try to run the ball. Problem is that they are not adept at running the ball and with their defense struggling they wind throwing quite often.
Don’t expect their to be press coverage all of the sudden as Wade is going to try and take away the big play from the Cardinals deep pass offense. Watch out for Pacman Jones, he seems to be getting better and better and be on the verge of making a big play. However, Dallas needs to get better play from Anthony Henry who is really struggling lately. Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick will likely get targeted as they are playing alright, but they’re rookies who seem to get fooled about once a game.
I’m assuming Anquan Boldin will be out. The focus will likely be on Larry Fitzgerald. Both Boldin and Fitz are by no means burners, but are very powerful wide receivers that use their strength to get open. Fitz is probably the faster of the two and is terrific in jump ball situations, something Dallas will have to be careful of. I’m actually more leery of Steve Breaston, an athletic #3 WR whom they could use to target Henry or Jenkins or Scandrick with.
Most of the running will be done by Edgerrin James. He’s lost his explosiveness a long time ago and is more or less an inside runner who is good at blitz pickup. Dallas struggled a bit with their blitzes last week as it seemed the Bengals picked them up with ease. If there’s one thing about Wade, it seems like when the blitz isn’t working one week, he seems to at least fix it the next week and the team gets much better pressure. It would be nice if we could make those adjustments mid-game.
The Cardinals have the third highest QB rating in the league, led by Kurt Warner. He’s still very accurate and good with the deep ball. The knock against Warner has always been that if you knock around a few times he gets rattled pretty easily, he also has a problem with sacks and fumbles. I’d like to see Dallas move Ware over to the weakside and get him one-on-one with Levi Brown, who is more of a run blocker than a pass protector and struggles with speed. I think Arizona LT Mike Gandy can hold his own against Ware. It would be nice to see somebody besides Ware or Ratliff getting pressure on the QB and it may be time to get Anthony Spencer much more playing time as right now Greg Ellis is on pace for only 6 sacks this season.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Steve Breaston is their returner. He’s quite talented, but his stats are mediocre (6.9 on punt returns, 21.6 on kickoffs). Dirk Johnson is a mediocre punter. Pacman Jones seemed to get out of the “try and make the defenders miss and run backwards” returns and instead “look for a crease and hit it” type of returns last week. Neil Rackers has a great leg, but tends to struggle with accuracy and can miss some easy ones. Although he’s playing the Cowboys this week, which means he won’t miss from inside 75 yards.
Arizona has been great on kickoff coverage, 3rd best in the NFL. However, there are 25th in punt return coverage, allowing 12.3 yards per punt return. That means that Pacman Jones could make a big play, but I would count against Felix Jones or Miles Austin doing something on a kickoff.
OUTLOOK
It’s a national, evening game that should have a lot of Cowboys fans in Arizona. This equates to Troy Aikman doing the announcing and taking any chance he gets to knock Dallas because he doesn’t want to be a homer. This also equates to a volatile game as the presence of Cowboys fans on the road tends to incite the fans of the home team even more.
That being said, Dallas has been through this twice already in volatile stadiums like at Cleveland and at Lambeau. The Cardinals offense scares me a bit, but until the Cowboys lose decisively on the road, then I will pick against them.
YR’S PREDICTED SCORE: DALLAS 34 ARIZONA 20
YAKUZA
AT PHOENIX UNIVERSITY STADIUM
OCTOBER 12, 2008 4:15 PM EST
After a tough loss to the divisional rival Commanders, the Cowboys came back and played a streaky contest against the winless Bengals. No, there weren’t naked people running across Texas Stadium, but the Cowboys actual play was streaky as they ran out to a 17-0 lead against the Bengals, then managed to get the game to a 17-16 lead with the Bengals possessing the ball, and then finally turning on the faucet again and scoring at will.
The Cardinals have been streaky as well. After starting the season 2-0, they wound up losing to the Commanders. The following week they were down 34-0 at halftime to the Jets, then started to make a comeback before finally getting blown out. And then last week they blew out the then undefeated Bills 41-17.
This ought to be a heated contest as both teams could use the victory and Cowboy fans…despite Cardinals ownership’s attempts to thwart them…should be in full force in Arizona.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON OFFENSE
After only running Marion Barber eight times against the Commanders, the Cowboys almost forced him a little too much against the Bengals as he carried the ball 23 times. Barber had moderate success, but it was Felix Jones who carried the ball 9 times that was wildly successful against the Cincinnati defense.
The gameplan now seems to try and bump Owens at the line of scrimmage, but to make sure that you have safety help over the top. Whether we like it or not, Owens is the guy who really makes the offense go. Now, getting Jason Witten going early is nice and can make for an effective offense, but when Owens is going early on…regardless of what the others are doing…this offense is extremely explosive. The Philadelphia game was a good example as Owens only caught 3 passes, but he got going early. And that tells me that when Witten gets going early the opposing team makes adjustments to account for him. But when Owens gets going early, the opposing team has to make *drastic* changes to account for him and that opens things up for the rest of the offense. Expect Roderick Hood to be put on Owens a lot since he’s their best corner and the corner opposite of him is Eric Green, who doesn’t have enough speed to stick with him. It’s either him or rookie Dominique Rogers-Cromartie and guarding Owens is a tough task for any rookie.
Dallas may have a tough go at it in the passing game as Hood on Owens is a pretty good matchup and so are the safeties (Antrel Rolle and Adrian Wilson) on Jason Witten. Although it appears that the Cardinals aren’t too nutty about Wilson’s cover skills as they have been taking him out of their nickel packages for Aaron Francisco. Don’t be too fooled by their poor pass defense stats, while I wouldn’t call them the ’02 Buccaneers, their pass defense stats are a bit skewed by the Jets game.
The Cards switch off between the 4-3 and the 3-4 and like to blitz a lot. Defensive tackle Darnell Dockett is probably their best player on the front seven and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cards play a lot of 4-3 in order to get Dockett on the left guard as Corey Procter hasn’t been that good and Montrae Holland struggled last week. If Kosier does play Sunday, then they may go to more 3-4, but I still expect a lot of 4 man lines. Bert Berry would be the team’s top pass rusher, usually from the weakside, but he’s been injured and may not make the game. From there, Clark Haggans is their best pass rusher, a speedy but undersized strongside linebacker in the 3-4 that Colombo will likely be responsible for.
I expect Dallas to continue to run the ball with more of an emphasis and hope that they can balance out the offense a bit better. I actually didn’t think Romo played all that bad in the Commanders game, but I thought he was noticeably off with his passes in the Bengals game. So getting Romo back on track will have a lot to do whether or not they’ll be able to balance out the offense. As I’ve pointed in the past, the defense performs remarkably worse at home then it does on the road. Romo actually has been pretty steady whether it’s at home or on the road. His QB rating is lower on the road, but only very slightly that it’s pretty much negligible.
They’ll probably continue to run the fake slant/draw running play which I don’t particularly like because I don’t think it really fools the defense that much. They actually had a lot more success running to the outside than the inside last week. I think they are getting more comfortable with Felix Jones, so expect to see about 8-10 touches again from the rookie. With the 3-4 scheme, that should make things a little easier to run on the inside, but more difficult to run to the outside.
Lastly, I think they’ll want to get Owens involved more and they’ll probably run a ton of motion with him to get him on more one-on-one matchups and to avoid the bump at the line of scrimmage.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON DEFENSE
With Arizona, their offense has been a pass happy offense for quite a few years. They like to use a deep pass pattern scheme and with head coach Ken Wisenhunt being a former Steelers assistant, they try to run the ball. Problem is that they are not adept at running the ball and with their defense struggling they wind throwing quite often.
Don’t expect their to be press coverage all of the sudden as Wade is going to try and take away the big play from the Cardinals deep pass offense. Watch out for Pacman Jones, he seems to be getting better and better and be on the verge of making a big play. However, Dallas needs to get better play from Anthony Henry who is really struggling lately. Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick will likely get targeted as they are playing alright, but they’re rookies who seem to get fooled about once a game.
I’m assuming Anquan Boldin will be out. The focus will likely be on Larry Fitzgerald. Both Boldin and Fitz are by no means burners, but are very powerful wide receivers that use their strength to get open. Fitz is probably the faster of the two and is terrific in jump ball situations, something Dallas will have to be careful of. I’m actually more leery of Steve Breaston, an athletic #3 WR whom they could use to target Henry or Jenkins or Scandrick with.
Most of the running will be done by Edgerrin James. He’s lost his explosiveness a long time ago and is more or less an inside runner who is good at blitz pickup. Dallas struggled a bit with their blitzes last week as it seemed the Bengals picked them up with ease. If there’s one thing about Wade, it seems like when the blitz isn’t working one week, he seems to at least fix it the next week and the team gets much better pressure. It would be nice if we could make those adjustments mid-game.
The Cardinals have the third highest QB rating in the league, led by Kurt Warner. He’s still very accurate and good with the deep ball. The knock against Warner has always been that if you knock around a few times he gets rattled pretty easily, he also has a problem with sacks and fumbles. I’d like to see Dallas move Ware over to the weakside and get him one-on-one with Levi Brown, who is more of a run blocker than a pass protector and struggles with speed. I think Arizona LT Mike Gandy can hold his own against Ware. It would be nice to see somebody besides Ware or Ratliff getting pressure on the QB and it may be time to get Anthony Spencer much more playing time as right now Greg Ellis is on pace for only 6 sacks this season.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Steve Breaston is their returner. He’s quite talented, but his stats are mediocre (6.9 on punt returns, 21.6 on kickoffs). Dirk Johnson is a mediocre punter. Pacman Jones seemed to get out of the “try and make the defenders miss and run backwards” returns and instead “look for a crease and hit it” type of returns last week. Neil Rackers has a great leg, but tends to struggle with accuracy and can miss some easy ones. Although he’s playing the Cowboys this week, which means he won’t miss from inside 75 yards.
Arizona has been great on kickoff coverage, 3rd best in the NFL. However, there are 25th in punt return coverage, allowing 12.3 yards per punt return. That means that Pacman Jones could make a big play, but I would count against Felix Jones or Miles Austin doing something on a kickoff.
OUTLOOK
It’s a national, evening game that should have a lot of Cowboys fans in Arizona. This equates to Troy Aikman doing the announcing and taking any chance he gets to knock Dallas because he doesn’t want to be a homer. This also equates to a volatile game as the presence of Cowboys fans on the road tends to incite the fans of the home team even more.
That being said, Dallas has been through this twice already in volatile stadiums like at Cleveland and at Lambeau. The Cardinals offense scares me a bit, but until the Cowboys lose decisively on the road, then I will pick against them.
YR’S PREDICTED SCORE: DALLAS 34 ARIZONA 20
YAKUZA
