Here are the things we’ll be paying the most attention to when Dallas and Cincinnati meet on Monday night.
The Dallas Cowboys will be back on Monday Night Football for the second and final time this year when they host the Cincinnati Bengals. The Cowboys are riding a two-game winning streak while the Bengals have lost three straight. The Cowboys also have a nice win streak against those striped helmet-wearing fellas, winning the last five contests against them. Cincy’s last win against Dallas was 20 years ago when Carson Palmer outdueled Vinny Testaverde.
But don’t let the record fool you. This will be a tough game for the Cowboys. Here are five things to watch when the Bengals head into AT&T on Monday night.
1. DOUBLE THE TROUBLE
The Cowboys have faced some great wide receivers this year, but never have they faced two of them on the same team. The WR duo of JaMarr Chase and Tee Higgins are remarkable as they both are in the top five in yards per game. Not only do they rack up the yards, but they find the endzone frequently. Higgins has a touchdown catch in each of his last three games, and Chase has six touchdown catches over his last three games. The duo is a problem.
Cincy features a dangerous passing attack as Joe Burrow’s 3,337 passing yards leads the NFL this season. The Cowboys might have Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland on the field together for the first time since Week 2 of last year. Diggs has missed the last two games with a groin and knee injury. The defense also lost depth corner Josh Butler for the season after he was injured on Thanksgiving, but they’ll get Amani Oruwariye back. Regardless of the arrangement of corners available, keeping the Bengals’ talented receiving duo in check will be a challenge.
2. CHASE IN SPACE
Last week, we discussed the importance of not allowing rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. to get loose in space and the Cowboys’ defense did a good job keeping his runs to a minimum. They will have a similar challenge this week against second-year back Chase Brown. Since taking over the starting job after Zac Moss got hurt, Brown has been a grinder, churning yards both as a rusher and receiver. He has 90+ scrimmage yards in each of his last four games.
Brown isn’t a back who will nickel and dime the defense to death, but he’s always a big play waiting to happen. He has a run of 20+ yards in six of his last nine games, including a 40-yard run against the Steelers last week. As a frame of reference, a Cowboys running back has only had a run of 20+ yards once the entire season, and it came from Rico Dowdle on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys will need to wrap up and not let the Bengal’s young back break off some big chunks.
3. BEWARE OF THE RUN STUFFS
Over the last two games, the Cowboys rushing attack has shown signs of life. Dowdle has had two straight games with at least 80 yards on the ground, including a career-high 112 yards against the Giants on Thanksgiving. The arrangement of Tyler Smith, Cooper Beebe, and Brock Hoffman has provided the Cowboys with some extra beef along the interior offensive line.
The Bengals’ defense will be a problem. They get after the ball carriers. They hit opposing rushers behind the line of scrimmage on 49.3% of designed runs between the tackles (data courtesy of NextGenStats). That’s the third-most in the league. Cowboys’ running backs are one of the weaker teams in yards before contact. Unless the Cowboys’ offensive line can pull off some better run blocking, we could see a lot of runs with little or no gain.
4. KEEP THE RUSH OFF OF RUSH
How far the Cowboys go in sustaining a viable rushing attack will loom large because failure to do so will result in a huge problem. With Tyler Guyton dealing with an ankle injury, we could see veteran Chuma Edoga start in his place at left tackle. Edoga has been fine in the short time his number has been called, but he’ll draw a tough matchup this week.
That’s because the Bengals’ defense features one of the league’s most underrated edge rushers in Trey Hendrickson. His 11.5 sacks lead the NFL this year and his 63 pressures are the second most in the league. He has more sacks than all of the other Bengals players combined. How the Cowboys handle Hendrickson and the Bengals pass rush could be the difference between a competitive game and absolute frustration. Quarterback Cooper Rush will have to come up with some plays in this one.
5. GOTTA TRY TO KEEP UP
The Bengals have a top-five scoring offense. They have scored at least 27 points in each of the last four games. The Cowboys have a bottom-five points-allowed defense. You don’t need to be a statistician to tell you that there’s a good chance that Cincinnati is going to score some points in this one.
While the Bengals do put up the points, their defense also surrenders a lot as well. They also have a bottom-five points-allowed defense. In fact, both Dallas and Cincinnati allow 28.3 points per game. The Bengals have been on the wrong end of some shootouts in recent weeks, but the Cowboy’s offense isn’t a unit that will light up anything. Dallas has found the end zone eight times over the last four games, but three of those have been courtesy of their defense or special teams. That’s 1.25 touchdowns from the offense during that four-game span. That’s not good.
The Cowboys have been able to keep things low-scoring during their two-game winning streak, but that’s not likely to happen this time. If they are to have a chance, they better come equipped with an offensive game plan to take some shots and keep laying up short.
