(Photo: Pittsburgh Post Gazette)
Intriguing Game- NFL, Week Five
Dallas Cowboys at Pittsburgh Steelers
Cowboys: I wasn’t impressed with them last Thursday night in East Rutherford. In all actuality, it was a sloppy football game on both sides, but the visitors prevailed. The win in week one against the Cleveland Browns was good, but what have they done since? For years, I’ve been trying to figure out this group and there’s never an in-between with them. When they’re good and showing potential, they can be one of the best in the league. However, when they’re bad, they struggle and it shows. They can never put together a string of consistency. One big win follows with a dud or back-to-back duds just as we’ve seen this year. When the Dallas Cowboys have it together, their identity is running the football. That Offensive Line is overpowering the Line of Scrimmage and they’re running the ball at will and downhill. While Dak Prescott is a good Quarterback, he’s not the type to win you a shootout and I don’t care how much money you pay him, you can’t put him in the Mahomes, Allen, and Burrow bracket (those are the three that can win you a shootout on Any Given Sunday). One thing I’ve come to notice this year is how much they’re struggling to run the football. They are also struggling to stop the run. Look what Alvin Kamara did against them in week two and a week later against the Baltimore Ravens, Derrick Henry was finally able to get it going. This is shocking to me because Dallas has always had one of the best defenses in the league. I’ve often labeled them as having a championship-caliber defense with the offense being the problem. On Sunday night, they will make a trip to Pittsburgh.
Steelers: Welcome to the National Football League where “the impossible” happens. On paper, they should’ve beat the Indianapolis Colts. After all, they are a much better team. However, football games are not won on paper and at the end of the day, you still have to step on the field and execute, plain and simple. As always, I have a few takeaways from last week. The first is the Steelers’ defense looked soft and give credit to the Colts gameplan for running it right at them. That’s the key to playing a stingy defense is to come with a physical nature and once you give a team a taste of their own medicine, You should know the saying by now: “The bully doesn’t like to be bullied”. My second takeaway was they were still celebrating the hard-fought win over the Los Angeles Chargers and they simply overlooked the Colts. In this league, you must put the previous wins behind you and try to get another one! Just because you maybe better than a team, that doesn’t mean you just show up on the field. You still have to put together 60 minutes of your best efforts and they simply didn’t execute. They came back and found a way to climb into the game, but it was too late and they suffered their first loss of the regular season. T.J. Watt was also neutralized in this game and couldn’t do much of anything, Despite the loss, they’re still atop this AFC North. Baltimore has won their last two games, the Bengals are finally in the win column, and the Browns, well… They’re still in Cleveland. The Steelers return home for a Sunday night showdown with America’s Team.
Cowboys X-Factor: Jake Ferguson– After CeeDee Lamb, this has become Dak’s other target. Every Quarterback happens to have a safety valve and that’s what Jake serves as for number four. My favorite part of his game is when the ball immediately hits his hands, he takes a hit and still maintains possession. That’s a different type of toughness on display. Jake is a three-down Tight End. The running game benefits from his blocking and obviously, the passing game is also better with him in the lineup. This is the best Tight End the Cowboys have had since Jason Witten.
Steelers X-Factor: Najee Harris– Alvin Kamara turned the clock back on Dallas in week two and Derrick Henry ran crazy against them in week three. Do you get the trend I’m pointing out here? The Cowboys are struggling to stop the running game. Whenever I think of Steelers football, defense, and a solid ground attack always come to mind. Najee struggled last weekend against the Colts but was serviceable as a receiver. I feel he’s still trying to find his footing in the NFL and for that to happen, the Steelers need to feed him the ball more.
Final Thoughts: We have two of the legendary teams in the NFL here. Some legendary names have played for each of these teams. Mean Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Lynn Swann, Drew Pearson, Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith, Terry Bradshaw, and Jerome Bettis just to name a few and all of those names I mentioned are Hall of Famers. Let’s fast-forward to this upcoming matchup. Both of these teams I feel are trying to discover what their identities are offensively. Micah Parsons isn’t expected to play in this game after suffering an ankle injury against the Giants. DeMarcus Lawrence is expected to miss the game with a foot sprain and there’s no Brandin Cooks either. The Cowboys enter this one banged up. On the other side, the Steelers are looking to bounce back after losing their first game of the year and I expect their defense to come out and play with a vengeance. Justin Fields had his best game of the year and I expect the Steelers offense to play with all the confidence in the world and look to build off that performance. For Dallas, they must protect Dak at all times. That’s always going to be a priority when you face T.J. Watt. They must also try to stop the run which has been their glaring weakness. This game will come down to field position. I like the Steelers to bounce back and get the victory.
Prediction: Steelers 22, Cowboys 17
