Dallas Cowboys: Is it finally safe to believe in this team again?
By Tyrone Starr
Three straight wins against quality opponents have put the Dallas Cowboys in first place in the NFC East. Is it safe to believe in them again?
It took twelve weeks but the Dallas Cowboys are finally atop the NFC East. After three wins in a row against quality opponents, the Cowboys are riding high and feeling good. Fans are doing the same, believing in a team that has been seemingly best at stoking the flames of hope only to extinguish them with disappointment.
It is fair to wonder aloud, is it finally safe to believe in this team? Asking that question requires a thoughtful answer that has multiple components but is not especially complex. The answer is really comprised of four specific components, each of which makes up a whole.
The first question that needs to be asked is this. Are the Dallas Cowboys a good team? For the majority of the season, the answer would have been no. Up until three weeks ago, this was a team with obvious flaws. The offense was dragging down the entire operation.
The offensive line, once the backbone of everything the team was about was underperforming. Tyron Smith, the stalwart at left tackle has started to show signs of decline. Right tackle La’el Collins has been decent at best. Left guard was a mess.
As such, the Dallas Cowboys made two big moves. They fired their offensive line coach Paul Alexander and went back to their familiar roots replacing him with former tackle Marc Columbo and former position coach Hudson Houck. They also replaced rookie guard Connor Williams with veteran Xavier Su’a-Filo. Suddenly the run game has improved and the quarterback has been under less pressure.
On the perimeter, this team was void of playmaking ability. It is fair to say that receivers Cole Beasley, Allen Hurns and Michael Gallup are all slightly better than average. It’s also fair to say you can’t have three slightly better than average guys with no top notch threat. Enter Amari Cooper, via trade of a big time future commodity, and voila, your top notch threat appears. Now the offense can help the defense with the heavy lifting and this team suddenly looks, dare I say good.