Dallas Cowboys should be thanking the Philadelphia Eagles

The Dallas Cowboys were pretty much penciled in to face the New Orleans Saints next weekend. But after an Eagles upset, did America’s Team catch a break?

Now that we know the Dallas Cowboys will be facing the Los Angeles Rams next Saturday in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, I can’t help but wonder if they caught a break thanks to their NFC East foes, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Going into L.A. Memorial Coliseum and playing the Rams seems like a better environment than going to play the New Orleans Saints in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. But it isn’t just the location that helps the Cowboys.

When you look at this Rams’ offense, you see a team that hasn’t been clicking the way they were at the beginning of the season. Whether it the loss of receiver Cooper Kupp (ACL) or the lingering knee injury for running back Todd Gurley, the Rams are going into this playoff game with questions looming. And they will need someone on offense to step up against a young and fast Cowboys’ defense.

On the other side of the ball, Los Angeles is going to have to find a way to stop Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott. The Rams come into this game ranked 23rd in allowed yardage to opposing running backs and dead last in rushing yards per attempt allow.

L.A.’s All-Pro defensive tackles, Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh, both love to rush the quarterback. But the Cowboys running attack will force them to slow down. That helps quarterback Dak Prescott.

The last thing that I believe helped the Cowboys this week is the fact that they aren’t facing off against Saints’ quarterback Drew Brees. While Rams quarterback Jared Goff has played well at times this year, he can still be tricked by defensive formations. That’s something you can’t really say about Brees who has seen every type of formation in the NFL.

So when you see a Philadelphia Eagles fan, thank them. Once they accept it, remind them that they are playing a New Orleans Saints team that beat them 48-7 back in Week 11.