The two-Three Dallas Cowboys will host the 3-2 Arizona Cardinals in Week 6 on Monday Evening Soccer. It is going to be the Cowboys’ first recreation since beginning quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending ankle harm.
Dallas will likely be beginning veteran Andy Dalton at quarterback instead of Prescott. The Pink Rifle performed fairly nicely in Week 5 towards the New York Giants after changing Dak. He went 9-of-11 for 111 yards for a QBR of 108.7 within the Cowboys’ 37-34 win.
With the Cowboys-Cardinals recreation developing, listed here are 4 daring predictions from a Dallas perspective.
1. Andy Dalton will throw for 2oo-plus yards, two touchdowns
The Cardinals are giving up solely 222.Four passing yer per recreation on the season, which is fourth within the NFL. Whereas Arizona has had success stopping the go, search for Dalton to throw for no less than 200 yards on Monday evening and join on two landing passes.
With the Cincinnati Bengals, Dalton performed three video games towards the Cardinals. He threw for 731 yards and 6 touchdowns with out turning the ball over as soon as by the air.
Since he’s getting a full week of apply with the starters, Dalton will be capable to develop some chemistry with CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper earlier than the Cardinals come to city. Furthermore, the Cowboys are going to should put up main factors to win this recreation since they’ve arguably the worst protection within the NFL and Arizona has explosive gamers on offense in Kyler Murray, DeAndre Hopkins, Larry Fitzgerald and Kenyan Drake.
Dalton can nonetheless fling it downfield with the most effective of them. That is the perfect recreation for him to point out off that rocket arm on Monday Evening Soccer.
2. Ezekiel Elliott will rush for 2 touchdowns and catch one
The Cowboys must feed Elliott the ball greater than traditional towards the Cardinals since Prescott is out. Search for the star operating again to not solely rating two speeding touchdowns however catch one from Dalton as nicely.
Arizona is giving up 124.2 speeding yards per recreation on the season so far. The Cowboys, in the meantime, are averaging 106.6 as an offense. Elliott is at his finest when he’s getting used as a workhorse and getting as many touches as he can since he can put on down defenses together with his energy. The previous Ohio State star is actually motivated to placed on a present for the remainder of the season within the absence of Prescott, who’s one among Elliott’s closest pals on the crew.
The final time Elliott confronted the Cardinals was in 2017. He ran the ball 22 instances for 80 yards and one rating. Search for him to placed on a basic Zeke efficiency in Week 6.
Up to now on the season, Elliott has carried the ball 89 instances for 364 yards and 5 touchdowns.
3. Cowboys protection retains DeAndre Hopkins out of the endzone
Hopkins is among the most harmful wideouts in the complete NFL, and he has already developed an excellent rapport with Murray in his first yr in Arizona.
For the reason that Cowboys’ protection is putrid, most pundits consider Hopkins and Murray are going to wreck that secondary.
These are referred to as daring takes for a cause, although. So with that being mentioned, Hopkins — who has two landing catches on the season — received’t discover the tip zone towards Dallas, although he’ll in all probability rack up near 100 yards.
With the Houston Texans, Hopkins by no means scored versus the Cowboys within the two video games he performed towards them. He caught 15 balls for 214 yards.
4. Cowboys win a shootout to enhance to 3-3
The Cowboys and Cardinals each have explosive offenses, so search for this recreation to be a basic shootout at AT&T Stadium. Arizona’s protection might solely be giving up simply 20.Four factors per recreation, however the schedule hasn’t precisely been a assassin’s row.
Dalton will remind the complete NFL that he’s nonetheless one of many higher quarterbacks within the league after an terrible 2019 season with the Bengals. The whole crew will likely be hungry to win this recreation for Prescott.
The Cowboys are in all probability going to surrender loads of factors to the Cardinals since their protection can’t cease a chilly in the meanwhile, so Dalton and Co. must go toe-to-toe with Murray and Hopkins, one thing Dallas is able to doing regardless of the absence of Prescott.
The Cowboys are averaging 32.6 factors per recreation on the season so far. That was with Prescott main the best way, however Dalton is a veteran QB who is aware of the way to run an offense and put up factors. He has thrown for 204 touchdowns in his profession and over 31,700 yards.
Dallas is presently atop the NFC East standings. They’ve two division video games towards the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Soccer Workforce following the Cardinals recreation, so this is a crucial stretch for Jerry Jones’ membership.