Will Sunday be more frustration for the Dallas Cowboys?

With the Dallas Cowboys facing an injured Detroit Lions squad, will they be able to earn a dominant victory or will it be three hours of frustration?

Week 11 has the Dallas Cowboys on the road, facing the Detroit Lions. By all accounts, this game should represent a very winnable situation for Dallas. Of course, we all know how those things go.

We are 56% of the way done with the regular season and yet, we have no idea if this team is good enough to play for a championship. To say that any version of the Dallas Cowboys over the last decade is the hardest to figure out truly says something.

Here is what we know about the 2019 Dallas Cowboys:

Quarterback Dak Prescott has cemented himself as a top ten quarterback in the NFL.

Receiver Amari Cooper is arguably a legitimate top-five player at his position.

Thanks to those two, the Dallas Cowboys have one of the best offenses in all of football.

Although their defense has been underwhelming, they are one of the best teams at getting off the field on third down.

Dallas has had the league’s third-easiest schedule through the first 10 weeks of the season.

The Dallas Cowboys have a point differential of +81.

They have been outscored in just 12 of the 36 quarters of football so far this season.

And with all of the above being true, this team is barely above .500 at 5-4. The Dallas Cowboys are tied with the Philadelphia Eagles, ahead of them solely because of their head-to-head victory, for first place in the NFC East.

So here they are, coming into Detroit, facing a wounded Lions squad. Quarterback Jeff Driskel is getting just his seventh start in the NFL. He has won just one of the prior six. Driskel will likely be handing the ball off to rookie running back Ty Johnson. Johnson has just 153 yards so far on 44 carries.

No Matthew Stafford. No Kerryon Johnson. It’s hard to see how the Lions will be able to compete with such a high-powered Dallas Cowboys offense. Unfortunately, this is the same feeling most people had when Dallas went to New York to face a winless Jets team. Dallas left New York with a 24-22 loss that day.

If the Cowboys want to change the trajectory of their season, the first thing they need to do is get off to better starts. The Dallas Cowboys have had a lead after one quarter in just three of their first nine games. Twice they have been behind by two touchdowns.

With a damaged offense, the Lions have no reason to jump out to a hot start in this game. The Detroit defense is not much better, either. Their pass defense is in the bottom five. Their rush defense is the sixth-worst in the NFL. There is simply no excuse from Dallas to fall behind early in this game.

In situations like these, there are two common ways that games stay too close for comfort. One way would be turnovers. Fortunately for the Dallas Cowboys, the Lions are equally bad at causing turnovers. Both teams are also equally good at protecting the football so this should not be an issue.

The other way games between mismatched teams can stay close are big plays. Detroit does have the ability to make big plays with receivers Marvin Jones, Jr. and Kenny Golladay on the outside. Between the two of them, they have 24 receptions of 20+ yards. Both of them had one such play last week with Driskel at quarterback.

The Cowboys will need to establish a consistent pass rush to keep the outside weapons from having a chance to wreck the game. Even with DeMarcus Lawrence and Robert Quinn coming after Driskel, this won’t be easy. Detroit’s offensive line has given up just 20 sacks all year.

All in all, the talent disparity should be enough to get Dallas to 6-4. For me, the question should not be if Dallas wins, but how they will perform. Will we see a wire-to-wire dominant game or will this be another nail-biting struggle? Sadly, I think the latter is what we see this afternoon.

Prediction: Cowboys 31, Lions 27