America's Blog: Cowboys Cruise Versus The Ravens To Move To 9-1 And Dez Is BACK
Heading down the stretch run of this seemingly magical Dallas Cowboys season, I figured it was about time to throw out a pithy blog to sell more #21 Savage shirts start covering America’s Team a little more actively to document this unreal year. The bandwagon is getting overcrowded in full force with the team moving to a 9-1 record with a few high profile wins in a row but this blog isn’t going to be for those people. This blog is for the Cowboys fans out there who maybe made a choice somewhere in their lives to root for the Cowboys only to spend almost 20 years suffering from mediocrity. This blog will be for the Cowboy haters to come and say how they’re excitedly waiting for their shot at taking America’s Team of destiny out in the divisional round. But more than anything this blog is going to be about keeping an eye on the Cowboys as their year, for better or worse, is shaping up to be one of the most interesting in the NFL. This…is America’s Blog.
Story of the Game: Dallas 27, Baltimore 17
Fundamentally you can’t stop Ezekiel Elliot. He finds lanes, the offensive line creates room in almost any situation, and he’s just a monster of back. But the Ravens holding him to 97 yards on 25 carries and no TDs is about as close as you can get to containing him. Fortunately, Dallas knew the score coming in and that the Ravens, Football Outsiders’ number 1 rushing defense on DVOA, would do their best they could to keep Zeke from eating.
Dez Bryant came into the game with a 40 point advantage over returning Baltimore corner Shareece Wright and, for the first time this season, Dez fully took advantage of the matchups:
Dak Prescott has a penchant for spreading the ball around (he completed passes to eight different receivers this week) but the more he and Dez can build chemistry down the stretch, particularly on fades and routes in tight spots, the better prepared this team will be when the defenses get less forgiving. Since Dez’s return from injury, he’s had 17 rec, 328 yards, along with 4 TDs and looked a lot more like the #1 WR the Boys will need when the yards get tougher to find.
America’s Stat of the Week
Zeke broke Tony Dorsett’s 40-year-old Cowboys rookie rushing record with his 97 yards, putting him at 1,102 yards on the season.
America’s Feel Good Story of the Week
Dez’s two TD game wasn’t only his best game this year, it happened to come just a day after Dez’s father’s funeral. The Dallas News had this touching story:
Owner Jerry Jones said Bryant attended the funeral Saturday in East Texas and still managed to keep his mind on football when needed.
“It just shows you the Dez when we talk about focus,” Jones said. “It shows you what he loves the most. He loves his teammates and loves being on that field. I’m just glad that when he had to deal with such a tough personal tragedy, he had the team and had his playing to go to, and that’s what he did.”
The whole article’s an interesting read on the team’s chemistry right now; Dez handling the death and giving credit to Zeke bodes well for keeping Dez from becoming Distracting and Pissed He’s Not Getting The Ball Dez as the season goes on.
Bad Idea of The Week
Baltimore’s Terrance West mocking Dez’s X celebration after his lone TD:
Always nice when a back getting nine touches and 50 total yards tries to show up one of the NFL’s top receivers while he’s mourning his dead dad. Stay relevant, Terr bear.
America’s Tony Romo Update
Safely on the sideline, safely wearing a headset, safely not ruining the season. Pls save your joke tweets America:
Next up for the Boys: Washington at Dallas (-6.5)
Dallas stays home for the annual Thanksgiving game for a tilt with Kirk Cousins and the surging Redskins. They’re a team that can put up points through the air with Cousins getting all sorts of chips on his shoulder lately and a ton of capable receivers, including Jordan Reed who should FEAST against Dallas’s awful TE defense. Add in Robert Kelley and his ungodly 137 yard, 3 TD performance vs Green Bay last night and they’re easily the most terrifying non-Dallas team in the East right now. Washington should have an extremely hard time stopping the run versus Dallas with their DVOA 30th ranked rushing defense and issues covering both #1 and #2 receivers but expect nothing less than a shootout once the tryptophan hits. If I were a gambling man, I’d take the over and a Washington cover but my Cowboys heart says we walk out with a 34-28 win.
Leave some constructive feedback in the comments, I’m going to try to hone in a format that’ll work for this every week for the rest of the season. Either way, buy a shirt tho, there are mouths to feed:
