Flicken, Schenkies, Awards & Co. » Chris Jones Jersey

It is a heady moment for the Dallas Cowboys and their fans. Barring a complete collapse down the stretch and either Philadelphia or Washington winning out with their shaky-to-horrible quarterback situations https://www.dallascowboysfanshop.com/Maliek-Collins-Jersey , Dallas is going to the playoffs as the NFC East champs. And they look to be dangerous with a five-game win streak, a defense that is often suffocating, and an offense that roared to life late in the latest victory over the Eagles.But there is a potential problem. Outside of the stunning defeat of the New Orleans Saints, who have already clinched the NFC South and should soon lock up a first round bye, the Cowboys haven’t beaten any team with a winning record this year. None. As a matter of fact, of the teams they have played so far, only the Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans, and Tennessee Titans have winning records at this stage of the season. And Dallas lost to all of them.It is certainly good to be on the cusp of winning the division. It is nice to have ways to back into the crown even if they slip up in the final three games. But you have to worry about the lack of success against real contenders, especially since those Seahawks look to be the most likely opponent for the Cowboys in the wild-card round, albeit at AT&T Stadium, which has finally become a real home-field advantage this season.Beating a bunch of weak teams, especially by close scores game after game, is not a good sign for the postseason, where the grind of the regular season has winnowed those kinds of opponents out. A measure of caution must be taken as we look ahead. Getting to the playoffs after starting the season 3-5 is a significant accomplishment, especially with that one skin on the wall. But a one-and-done would leave a very bitter taste indeed, especially if it came against Seattle, a team that has ruined the postseason for Dallas before.It was not thought to be this way at the start of the year, given that the Cowboys had to face the defending Super Bowl champions twice, plus five other 2017 playoff teams in the Jaguars, Titans, Falcons, Saints, and Panthers, as well as two other teams that finished above .500 last year in the Seahawks and Lions. But five of those former playoff teams would not make the tournament if the season ended today. Admittedly, the Eagles and Washington would have winning records now if not for their losses to the Cowboys - but the fact remains that seven of the eight wins this season have come against teams that are literally losers. It should be no surprise that the schedule turned out to be much easier than it looked back in September. Strength of schedule predictions before the games are actually played are notoriously meaningless in a league where roughly half the playoff teams from each year fail to return the next (the current standings have a 50% turnover, right on schedule). This is a real danger sign for Dallas, who are still a flawed team despite the recent surge. Those victories have not been overpowering ones, none of them by more than eight points, with two by only a field goal, and of course it took overtime to drive a stake into the Eagles. Conversely, it must be mentioned that the Cowboys have only lost one game by more than one possession, the 14-point loss to the Titans. They were on the winning end of the only true blowout all year, the 40-7 crushing of the Jaguars that seemed to break the previous year’s AFC Championship loser. Close games are too much of a 50-50 proposition in the NFL, however, with games often being decided on a lucky bounce, a single big play Chris Jones Jersey , or even a bad call by the officials, who seem to be making an awful lot of those of late. What the Cowboys have not done since that win over Jacksonville is show that they can play a truly dominant game on both sides of the ball for a full sixty minutes. It took some real heroics and a little help from those aforementioned zebras to pull of the last win. Now the Cowboy face their last game against a team with a winning record this season, the Indianapolis Colts. And they are a very dangerous opponent that Dallas has to face on the road, which has been more difficult this year. Indy is fighting to climb into a wild card spot, and they have also had a remarkable comeback this season, getting to 7-6 after starting the season 1-5. Like the Cowboys, they used a five-game winning streak to get back on track. Andrew Luck has long been a superb quarterback held back by a lack of support from the rest of the team and injuries, but now they are finding ways to win again. The Cowboys are the underdog in this game, which is certainly not an unusual spot for them. To beat a team that is fighting for its playoff life (again) Dallas needs to get a complete performance from all three phases of the game and not depend on one unit or another to overcome the self-inflicted issues that have cropped up repeatedly of late. No sluggish starts, no turnovers lost, taking the ball away, doing significantly better in the red zone, not fading defensively down the stretch, getting some halfway decent field position from the special teams, limiting penalties - this is just a partial list of things the team needs to do. Last-minute heroics to stop a potent offense or put up a flurry of points late are exciting, but it would be nice to have a game that doesn’t threaten to give us all a heart attack. And we certainly don’t want to see the Cowboys get clearly outclassed, or barely edged, for that matter. It is not time to let up. It is time to show something more. This team has had grit and determination by the ton over the past five weeks, but now they need to bring consistency and execution to the table. The Colts are arguably one of their top three or four challenges this season. This game can tell us a lot about just how real Dallas’ chances are to make a run in the playoffs, because the schedule so far just hasn’t. It seems like only yesterday that the Dallas Cowboys season was on the brink of collapse as they were sitting with a 3-5 record and facing the defending champions, Philadelphia Eagles. Oh, what a difference a month makes.Fast forward to now and the Cowboys are enjoying a four-game winning streak. They’ve come away with big road wins in Philadelphia and Atlanta followed by two home wins against Washington and New Orleans. The Eagles on the other hand went through a two-game skid, losing to Dallas and then a 48-7 thumping in New Orleans, but they’ve since won two straight after beating divisional foes New York and then Washington on Monday night.The Redskins were in the driver’s seat after starting the season 5-2, but now have lost four of their last five games and are slowly falling out of the division race. Injuries to both Alex Smith and Colt McCoy have put their playoff hopes in the hands of third-string quarterback Mark Sanchez. It’s not looking good for them.All this equates to an important battle between the Cowboys and Eagles, where the outcome will tell us if the Cowboys have a fight on their hands or if they can distance themselves from the divisions toughest competitor. A win by the Eagles will put them in a tie with the Cowboys with a 7-6 record, however they’ll hold the tie-breaker by virtue of having a better division record. But a win by Dallas gives them a two-game lead as well as then owning the tie-breaker from sweeping them this season. The simplest way to put it is - the Cowboys can squash the Eagles divisional hopes by beating them on Sunday.With so much on the line, here are five things to watch when these two teams face off.1. Encore performance from the defense?It’s still hard to believe the Cowboys defense played so magnificently against the New Orleans Saints last week. The level of energy and physicality this group brought was a sight to be seen. Play after play, the defense was smothering their opponent, swarming to the ball, and hitting them every opportunity they got. It was one of the most complete games this unit has played in a long time, not just throughout all four quarters, but by everyone up and down the defense. It was outstanding.The question now begs - can they do it again?Last season, the Eagles were the league’s top offensive team, but that is not the case this year. This season, they are averaging around two touchdowns less than the Saints. And based on the 10-points Dallas held New Orleans to last week, the Cowboys defense should be able to hold the Eagles to minus four points on Sunday.The Eagles don’t pose the offensive threat the Saints do Terrance Williams Color Rush Jersey , but they’ve scored 25+ points in each contest during their current two-game winning streak. The Eagles must get their offense in a groove if they are going to make a run in the division. But will they be able to move the ball against this much-improved Cowboys defense?It should be interesting to see if the Cowboys can stack another stellar defensive performance on top of last week’s effort or if it was just a one-week showing that’s too tough to repeat. If the Cowboys defense continues to play at a high level, this division will be sewn up soon enough and a victory over the Eagles will just be another bump to get there.2. Everybody ErtzThe Eagles love going to their star tight end. The six-year veteran Zach Ertz leads the team in targets, receptions, yards, and touchdown receptions and to be honest - it’s not even close. He has 42 more catches than the next guy (Nelson Agholor), 456 more yards than the next guy (also Agholor), and has as many Eagles touchdowns as Agholor, Alshon Jeffery, and Golden Tate combined. He’s the star of this offense.Ertz has had four double-digit reception games as well as four 100+ yard games this season, including a 14-catch, 145-yard performance against the Cowboy in Week 10 (both were season highs for him). Teams haven’t been able to shut him down and the Cowboys certainly are no different.The Cowboys have had problems against teams with talented tight ends as Jordan Reed and Vernon Davis combined for 148 yards against them on Thanksgiving. While the defense has done well stopping everyone else, a star tight end remains an issue for them.Against the Redskins, we started seeing Byron Jones covering the tight end in the second half. It was a smart adjustment that worked out. Would the Cowboys consider having their star corner cover Ertz? With how both Anthony Brown and Jourdan Lewis have been playing recently, they might be able to loan out Jones’ services to go against Ertz. Or will we see Leighton Vander Esch slide back in coverage?Chances are, it will be a collective effort in stopping the Eagles top receiving threat and while they won’t stop him all the time, hopefully they can stop him when it counts the most.3. Attack through the airIt’s hard to advocate for passing the ball when Ezekiel Elliott has averaged 118 yards per game rushing during this four-game winning. Zeke’s been the meat and potatoes of this offense this season. But everyone knows this and the Eagles will have a plan in place to limit the damage Elliott can do. They all do.Stopping Zeke is easier said than done, but the Cowboy can attack the Eagles in different ways and one of those ways should be taking advantage of a beat up secondary. Last week, the Cowboys picked on Eli Apple as he was the weakest link. The Eagles have slew of guys that can be exploited. Cre’von Leblanc (no. 34), Sidney Jones (no. 22), and Rasul Douglas (no. 32) are corners the Cowboys should be able to attack. The table is set for Amari Cooper to have a big game as all of these corners give up too much space in coverage and you just can’t let Coop have that much separation. And it’s not just Cooper that could see a lot of action. Michael Gallup continues to improve and hauled in a career-high five catches last week. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but Gallup never had more than three catches in any of his previous 11 games. Gallup had 75 receiving yards against the Saints and we could be seeing more production from him going forward. There’s some yards to be had through the air and it’s up to Dak Prescott to make it happen.4. Avoid the Dak/FumbleWhile attacking through the air can open up the offense, it does have some drawbacks. Last week against the Saints, the Cowboys pulled off something they hadn’t done all season - win a game despite committing a turnover. In all the previous games this year, any type of turnover has been a kiss of death for this team. Thanks to a remarkable job by the Cowboys defense, they were able to overcome two fumbles lost, one by Cooper and one by Dak Prescott. Fumbles by Prescott are becoming a regular thing. Nobody has lost control of the ball more than Dak this season as he leads the league with 11 fumbles. There are several contributing factors for these. Sometimes the offensive line breaks down and Dak gets blindsided. Sometimes Prescott holds the ball too long. And then there’s also times where Dak will try to take off scrambling and the ball will just magically slip out of his hands.It certainly doesn’t help that Prescott has been sacked more than any quarterback in the league this year. After going down seven times last week, Prescott has now been sacked 45 times this season. Constantly getting sacked and frequently losing the ball is not a good formula for winning.Sometimes these sack/fumbles are costly like they were when Prescott lost the ball near the goal line in the Redskins game. Then again, sometimes Dak works himself out of it like what he did on the final drive against he Lions, making a heads up play to pick it up and throw the ball away.The ability to protect the ball will be a big factor in Sunday’s game. If the Eagles can get after Prescott and cause him to cough up the ball, that could be the winning ticket in leaving AT&T with a victory.5. Who wants it more?The last time these two teams met, things got a little chippy early.The energy during pre-game spilled over into the game as there were several big plays in the contest. From Zeke leaping over defenders to Leighton Vander Esch stopping runners in their tracks - the Cowboys were all over the place. Who knows, by all counts this single incident could be the turning point in the Cowboys season. From that point on, Dallas has been on a roll, but the intensity they’ve played with has been off the charts.Both teams will tell you they have a “backs against the wall” mentality and big dogs bite when they’re backed into a corner. The only question is - which team has the biggest bite on Sunday? The good news is that Jason Garrett’s group has been a model of consistency when it comes to fight. Playing smart and executing might be a different story at times, but the nature of intensity of which this group displays on the field is pretty consistent. Garrett’s team will be ready, but what about Doug Pederson’s squad?What will you be watching on Sunday?