Predicting every game of the Cowboys' brutal upcoming schedule

Week 16: Cowboys @ Dolphins

After a narrow win in Buffalo, the Cowboys will be back on the road in Week 16. This time, they take on another AFC East foe, the Miami Dolphins. Winners against the New York Jets on Black Friday, Miami is now 8-3 and in control of the AFC East. Dallas just did them a favor with a win in these predictions, keeping their lone challenger at bay — it would have been nice if Miami did the same for the Cowboys when they played the Eagles but that's a different story.

Miami has been one of the more dangerous teams in the NFL but their knock has been when they play good teams (even if the national narrative says only Dallas struggles against the top-tier squads). Their three losses have come against the Bills, Eagles, and Chiefs. The only time they have defeated someone who appears to have playoff hopes was when they dropped 70 on the Broncos — which was before they started to turn things around.

With that being the case, the Cowboys have a real shot in this one. The problem is that this offense is run by Mike McDaniel, who was under Kyle Shanahan for years. Shanahan, the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, has always been an issue for the Cowboys. That will be the case for McDaniel as well as he can dial up a game plan to frustrate Dan Quinn's defense.

On offense, Dallas will be able to put points on the board but the deciding factor is the home field advantage for Miami. It would be ideal for the Cowboys to win every game from this point on but it feels as though there will be one loss during this two-game stretch on the road. And right now, Miami feels like the team that will hand them that highly disappointing defeat.

Score Prediction: Dolphins 35, Cowboys 31
Record 11-4