Dallas Cowboys vs Houston Texans: Know Thy Enemy

What We’ve Seen from Texans and Possible Defensive Gameplan Against Cowboys

Opponents’ Points Per Game: 23.9

Opponents’ Passing Yards Per Game: 209.2

Opponents’ Rushing Yards Per Game: 169.1

Opponents’ Total Yards Per Game: 378.3

Opponents’ Third Down Conversion Percentage: 32.8%

Opponents’ Red Zone Conversion Percentage: 51.3%

Texans Defensive Strategy vs Cowboys

The Texans’ defense has been beaten and battered throughout the season thanks to their offense’s inability to put points on the scoreboard. They have a young secondary and a veteran pass rusher in Jerry Hughes, who continues to get pressure off the edge, but … that’s pretty much it. Teams have been able to run all over this defense, which is currently giving up 4.9 yards per carry and 169 yards per game. When they aren’t able to stop the run, quarterbacks are hitting them for big plays in the passing game completing 61% of their passes thus far.

If the Texans want to have any chance of stopping or even slowing down this explosive Cowboys offense, then they are going to need to stop Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard, which is going to be tough to do. They’ve also had problems with mobile quarterbacks, and Dak Prescott could use that to his advantage and buy time for his receivers to get open for deep shots downfield. The Houston defense is caught between a rock and a hard place this week, and I don’t really see how they will be able to slow down Dallas.

Cowboys Offensive Strategy vs Texans

It’s simple. Run the football against a Texans team giving up a league-worst 169 yards on the ground per game on average. I was amazed that the Cleveland Browns decided they wanted to throw the football early in the game against the Texans last Sunday. They eventually came to their senses and ran the football, ending the day with 174 yards on 38 carries. Dallas shouldn’t need to figure that out this week, and instead must focus their initial game plan around feeding Elliott and Pollard the football as much as possible in this game.

The Texans have proven that they aren’t able to stop the run, so why break from what has worked for every other team they’ve faced this season? The running game will open up the passing game, and CeeDee Lamb and company will have opportunities to make plays, but the Cowboys aren’t going to need to force the issue and have Prescott throw the football all game.

At most, Prescott should only need to throw the football on 25 plays on Sunday. Run the football and win the game, Kellen Moore.

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