Joe Nicholson-US PRESSWIRE
The Dallas Cowboys will finally play at home this Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and there maybe no better time to play at Cowboys Stadium than this weekend. Maybe the home crowd will be able to give the Cowboys the extra juice they were missing against the Seattle Seahawks.
If Dallas is going to win this game they are going to need to focus on three key areas. The first key is to is play with intensity. Sounds pretty easy to do but that did not seem to be the case last week. It was clear they didn’t bring the energy needed to win last week in Seattle. While it was evident they brought their passion and focus against the New York Giants but they failed to do the same on the trip to Seattle.
That kind of effort will not work against the Tampa Bay. They play hard, fast and physical. We all saw what happened in the last few seconds against the Giants, they have zero quit in them. The Cowboys need to match that intensity for sixty minutes.
Another key to the Cowboys beating the Bucs is by utilizing their passing game. Eli Manning put up 510 yards on the Tampa pass defense last week and Tony Romo has the weapons to exploit the Bucs secondary too. It would help if the receivers caught the balls but I expect them to be much more focused this week and I don’t see Jason Witten dropping many balls.
Dallas needs to get Dez Bryant more involved this week as well. The receiver is a match-up nightmare and creates mismatches just by being on the field and the Cowboys need to get him the ball more.
It’ll be interesting for Cowboys fans to see Bucs safety Mark Barron this week, especially since he was one of the top targets for the Cowboys in the draft. However, he is a rookie and that is to Tony Romo’s advantage. Romo is one of the best quarterbacks in the league at moving the safety with his eyes and the use of the pump fake so I expect him the Cowboys to have success throwing the ball down the field.
The last key for the Cowboys will be their pass rush. They got zero pressure on rookie quarterback Russell Wilson last week because they played soft and didn’t blitz much. There is no excuse to have DeMarcus Ware dropping in coverage more than a few times a game but there he was last week out in space more times than we’d like to see. The mans specialty is attacking the quarterback, let him to do it.
Dallas’ secondary has played well through the first few weeks of the season so there’s no reason not to attack the Buccaneers subpar offensive line. Rob Ryan did not call an aggressive game last week and that needs to change if the Cowboys want to get a win this Sunday.
The Cowboys were physical in week 1 and got a win, while they were soft in week 2 and lost; see a pattern? As my cheerleaders in high school said, “be aggressive, be, be aggressive,” on both sides of the ball.
The Cowboys have been hearing all week about how soft they were in Seattle, about how they didn’t fight. Expect that to change against Tampa Bay. Dallas is going to be energized by the home crowd and will come out swinging. Their offense will put up points and their defense will be more aggressive than they were last week.
Dallas wins this game.
