The Landry Hat
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Here’s the Dallas Cowboys best chance at victory Monday night…

By Tyrone Starr

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Here is how the Dallas Cowboys can finally win a game without Tony Romo under center Monday Night.

Since the debacle of another Thanksgiving day whooping, the Dallas Cowboys will have had eleven days of rest and preparation for their last chance at saving their 2015 season.

You would hope that they will have something cooked up to change their fortunes in what has been the most difficult season to watch unfold in over a decade.

They need to do something different because whatever has been the plan is simply not working.

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  • 25th in sacks
  • 26th in red zone touchdown scoring percentage
  • 27th in passing yards
  • 28th in interceptions
  • 29th in scoring offense
  • 32nd in fumble recoveries
  • 32nd in overall turnovers
  • 32nd in turnover differential

That’s just flat embarrassing.  Everyone in the locker room, everyone in the organization needs to take this pathetic play personally and do whatever it takes to purely, simply make plays.

That needs to start Monday night as the take their act on the road to visit the division leading Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football.

So what can the Cowboys possibly do different in order to actually succeed for once minus their leader, quarterback Tony Romo???

Blitz.

Blitz early, blitz often, bring waves and waves of pressure.

It’s not really in the Cowboys repertoire to be a heavy blitzing team.  They bring it on occasion, depending upon their opponent, but by and large, the Cowboys are not would you consider a blitz happy team.

This week, that needs to change.

When scouting the Washington Redskins, primarily their quarterback, Kirk Cousins, you don’t have to look too long to find a glaring weakness in his game.

Like a lot of quarterbacks, he does not like to be pressured.  Unlike a lot of quarterbacks however, his performance is greatly affected by the blitz.

When you give Cousins time to survey the defense and go through his progressions, he’s really, really good.  Fourteen touchdowns, only five interceptions and a completion percentage just under 75%.

Bring the heat, however, and those numbers get all kinds of ugly.  Only two touchdowns, with the same amount of interceptions and a completion percentage under 40%.

Simply put, when you don’t send pressure, Cousins is good. When you do, he’s not.

As mentioned earlier, the Cowboys are pretty anemic when it comes to getting the opposing quarterback down on the ground.  The offseason addition of defensive end Greg Hardy has largely been disappointing.  While he does lead the team, I’m pretty sure that everyone was expecting more than just 4.5 sacks at this point in the season.

Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli likes to constantly rotate linemen, so bringing constant waves of pressure should fit that deployment just fine.  The addition of Morris Claiborne to the defensive backfield should also help the Cowboys feel more comfortable sending droves of defenders after Cousins.

Additionally, an ineffective Washington offense will mean less time on the field for the defense and could result in decent field position for the Cowboys offense.

With receiver Dez Bryant labeling himself the healthiest he’s been all year, the extra time off from the Thursday game last week and additions to the offense such as deep threat wide receiver Brice Butler and more from running back Robert Turbin, the offense could finally awaken and upgrade some of their own putrid output.

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It all starts with the defense, however.  When you’re rolling with a backup quarterback, especially one previously incapable of leading the team to victory, the defense is what needs to be asked to do the heavy lifting.

Can they?  Yes.

Will they?  Who knows.

One thing I do know though, there is no other option.

Prediction: Cowboys 16, Redskins 21 

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