The Cowboys may experience a slight bump in offense this week.
The Dallas Cowboys will be on national television in an island slot this week as they are set to host the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football. This means that Troy Aikman will be on the call, the first time this is the case this season, which should be interesting given that he has not been shy regarding his thoughts about this year’s Cowboys team.
Whether or not Aikman even has a chance to be critical of the Cowboys will depend on if the offense performs well or continues to flounder. These days the smart bet is on the latter, but you never know.
Something we do every week around here is take a look at the offensive projections courtesy of our friends at NFL Pro. You will be stunned to see that the Cowboys underperformed relative to their shy expectations last week.
- Projected Cooper Rush vs. Philadelphia: 195.4 yards, 1.1 pass TDs, 0.9 INT, 7.2 rush yards, 0.2 rush TDs
Actual: 45 yards, 0 pass TDs, 0 INT, 2 rush yards, 0 rush TDs - Projected Rico Dowdle vs. Philadelphia: 48 yards, 0.3 rush TDs, 2 rec, 14.4 rec yards, 0.1 rec TDs
Actual: 53 yards, 0 rush TDs, 3 rec, 3 rec yards, 0 rec TDs - Projected CeeDee Lamb vs. Philadelphia: 5.7 rec, 72.2 yards, 0.4 TDs
Actual: 6 rec, 21 yards, 0 TDs - Projected Jalen Tolbert vs. Philadelphia: 3.2 rec, 38.6 yards, 0.3 TDs
Actual: 3 rec, 14 yards, 0 TDs - Projected Jake Ferguson vs. Philadelphia: 4 rec, 41.9 yards, 0.3 TDs
Actual: 4 rec, 24 yards, 0 TDs
Interestingly, this season projections have been pretty on point for Rico Dowdle so take them how you will as far as fantasy or props are concerned.
What about this week against the Houston Texans, though? What is NFL Pro calling for?
Here you are.
Things are a bit more promising for Cooper Rush which speaks to some potential improvement from the offense overall, although they are down for CeeDee Lamb individually.
It is difficult to believe that the Cowboys could be as bad on offense on Monday night as they were last week, but to be fair we are talking about a team who has not scored a touchdown in their home building since September 22nd. If they do not score one on Monday then they will officially go over two months without doing so. That is pretty wild to think about in today’s NFL.
As far as the game is concerned, the projected advantages from NFL Pro suggest it is going to be a frustrating affair.
With the game being an island one, whatever happens is going to serve as some serious water cooler fodder over the week that follows. It is hard to imagine the Cowboys reaching a different level of chaos as far as general discussion is concerned, but this team continues to impress us in that regard.