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Week 9 is a big deal for the Dallas Cowboys. They’ve had a tough time lately, losing to both Detroit and San Francisco, with a break in between. Now, they face the Atlanta Falcons, and it’s like their season depends on it.
This game could be as spooky as Halloween if things go wrong.
Dallas often falls behind early, especially against strong teams. It’s almost expected now. Whenever they lose, it’s usually because they start off trailing. Last week, they were leading San Francisco at halftime but then allowed 21 points in the third quarter without scoring any themselves. Before that, they couldn’t catch up to Detroit after falling behind. If they keep making these mistakes, winning will be tough.
Against Atlanta, Dallas needs to take an early lead. That’s where they’re most comfortable. Falling behind to the Falcons, with Kirk Cousins throwing passes, would make it hard to recover.
Dak Prescott’s multiple-turnover games are a big problem. He’s thrown two interceptions in four games this year. Surprisingly, they’ve only lost three of those games. In a win over Pittsburgh, he threw two picks but was saved by the Steelers’ poor performance.
Even when Dak loses, he manages to make his stats look okay. But if you watch closely, you’ll see he’s not having a great season. Last year, he led the league in touchdown passes with 236.
This year, Dak seems to be playing like he did two years ago when he led the NFL with 15 interceptions. If he keeps this up, he might match or surpass that number. When an offense struggles, protecting the ball becomes crucial. If you’re not scoring touchdowns easily, your defense will have a tough time because the offense isn’t doing its job.
“I’ve got to be better. Simple as that,” Prescott said. “But you’re never going to knock my confidence. The majority of it is decision, so I go back and I guess a couple years ago, risk vs. reward. That’s something just watching the film this week, it’s just heavy on my mind.”
“You can’t dwell on it,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer stated. “We trust Dak. Dak’s going to make way more good decisions than bad decisions. You’ve got to go play the game.”
Kirk Cousins is on fire lately and could give Dallas a hard time.
Atlanta signed Cousins in the offseason, and he’s been impressive with two four-touchdown games against Tampa Bay. They’ll aim to keep that momentum against the Cowboys at home. Dallas needs to pressure Cousins early to shake him up. If he gets comfortable and starts picking apart the defense, it could spell trouble.
Cousins has a reputation for struggling in big games, but he’s still a talented quarterback who can surprise defenses. To stay competitive, Dallas must put pressure on him and disrupt his timing in the pocket.
“You go back and talk about turnovers and things like that, well, a lot of those things come from pressure on the quarterback,’’ Zimmer said. “We haven’t been getting much of those. Hits on the quarterback is typically what gets you turnovers. Sometimes, tipped balls. We haven’t been getting very many of those, either.’’
“He’s [Kirk Cousins] an experienced quarterback so you want to make him uncomfortable, with hits and sacks — especially on third downs,” says Cowboys linebacker and former Vikings teammate of Cousins, Eric Kendricks.
In short, Dallas has its work cut out for them against Atlanta.
