One of the highlights of Week 10 is the duel between the two NFC top teams of the past regular season, Atlanta Falcons (4-5) and Dallas Cowboys (5-3). The development of both teams since last season has been steadily diverging, but special circumstances are now bringing them close to eye level. The Sunday meeting on Sunday is also a particularly explosive one, thanks to the initial situations on both sides.
The Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons were the top NFC playoffs in the pre-season. The cowboys then flew out at home against the Packers in a dramatic way, the Falcons season ended much more dramatically in Houston, Texas.
But the parallels between these two teams end with this, because since the beginning of this season the trends have been extremely divergent.
The Falcons began to pick up where they left off in the fourth quarter in the Super Bowl and rushed from victory to victory, promptly scoring 3-0. Even without the offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and others, Atlanta’s success story continued.
Since then, however, the machinery has come to a serious halt. The offense stagnated, the defense did not hold its own any longer and suddenly the balance was 1-4. As a tabular lineup, Atlanta are already two games behind the Saints in NFC South and one and a half behind Carolina.
The situation was different for the cowboys, who lost twice at home after the 2-1 start and each of them got 35 points from the rams and packers. The shock was limited, however, and finally a 3-0 series followed, with statement victories in Washington and against the Chiefs. But they are also lagging behind in the East: up to the high-flying Eagles there are already two and a half games.
But apart from that, everything was fine for the Texans. So almost everything, because a Damocles sword hung over the team all the time – the almost endless story about Ezekiel Elliott’s lockdown.
This sword has now fallen – at least for the moment. After all, Elliott hasn’t missed a serious match since his debut in 2016 – he was spared from the Eagles in Week 17, but it was clear for Dallas.
Now Elliott, who finished second in the Rushing Yards (783) and also scored the most Rushing Touchdowns (7), will probably miss six games. Six games in which Offensive Coordinator Scott Linehan’s offensive team has to find a new centrepiece. Alfred Morris and Darren McFadden have enough experience as starters, but none of them bring Elliott’s top class.
So now the focus is on quarterback Dak Prescott, who seems to have made a step forward this season and concentrates more on his role as a pocket-passer, but is also more selective and effective.”I think he has improved in all areas,”said head coach Jason Garrett praising his QB:”Much has to do with the experience he has gained. He plays these games and does a lot of good things to build on,” Garrett admitted:”But he also does some things that we or he didn’t really want to do. But he learns from that too.”
But Prescott is not going to be easy, because with Left Tackle Tyron Smith (back, groin) and Wide Receiver Dez Bryant (knee, ankle) two more key players are threatening to fail.
However, Prescott is not doing much better than his opponent, last year’s MP Matt Ryan. This is threatened by the failure of superstar receiver Julio Jones, who has to contend with ankle problems and is spared during training.
However, it has to be mentioned that the Jones is not playing the big season. With only one touchdown overall, his production is still very limited. Nevertheless, he leads his team loosely in receiving (658 yards). And he’s sure to have Garrett’s recognition anyway:”I think he’s a rare player. He’s physically rare. He’s so big and strong. He’s fast and agile. He’s explosive, a great route runner and an incredible fighter.”
Atlanta’s last chance to do all this against Carolina and in many other games didn’t help Atlanta either. We have a lot of work to do,”said Falcons-Head coach Dan Quinn, commenting on the Panthers’ success,” and we are delighted to have improved aggressively in the Red Zone. But at Third Down? We’ve improved defensively, but we still have a lot of work to do on the offensive.”
A lot of work seems to be the keyword for this season in Georgia. The finesse with which the offensive machine Atlantas played last year was probably still somewhere in Texas. A lot of things are piecemeal, although this is not necessarily evident from the figures. Atlanta is still in the top 5 in the yards per game, but currently only rank 17th in the point average: 21.3 points – exactly seven less than the cowboys (with Zeke).
Defensive, on the other hand, they are not even one point cut apart – moreover, there are only three yards per game between the two. If you now subtract Elliott, they could almost stand at eye level. Pure speculation, of course, after all, there is no useful data to support how many points or victories Elliott is actually worth. But the empiricist will probably find out in the next six weeks.
The bottom line is that on Sunday there will be two teams facing each other, the development of which has been almost inverted since the end of last season. But due to special circumstances, however, they both seem to have arrived at the same level again. For the neutral spectator, it is certainly appealing – next to the big names, of course.
However, due to the respective starting positions, there is no time to lick the wound or to catch a breath. Victories have to be won and this match may well be groundbreaking for the rest of the season.