Packers look to squash hapless Cowboys: Dallas Cowboys vs. Green Bay Packers preview
At the beginning of the season, many would have thought this might be a preview of the NFC championship. Both teams were popular Super Bowl picks, but only one looks like a possibility right now. The Packers have overcome some big injuries and are starting
to look like the team everyone thought they’d be. The Cowboys look lost and it appears they’re playing for the number one draft pick in 2011.
The Packers can win their third game in a row on Sunday night, after winning a defensive slug-fest in the Meadowlands with a 9-0 victory over the Jets last week. The Cowboys are coming off their fourth straight loss, losing 35-17 to Jacksonville. The Packers
will look to keep their focus and drop the Cowboys to 1-7.
"It's important to stack success," Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy said. "The hardest thing to handle in my opinion in the NFL is handling success, and by no means do I think winning two games is a success, but it's definitely in the right direction."
The Cowboys simply have to improve on…everything. They can’t seem to do anything right, despite having all the talent in the world to do it. They’re off to their worst start since 1989, when they went 1-15. While they’re a lot better than the 1989 team was,
you still wonder whether these Cowboys will find a way to win another game this season.
"Running, blocking, tackling, catching, covering, throwing -- we're not as good as we were," coach Wade Phillips said. "Every detail has to be covered. We have to be more precise in some of these things."
Dallas will still be without Tony Romo, who is out with a broken collarbone for at least another month. Jon Kitna will get his second straight start of the season. He played pretty well at times last week, throwing 34-of-49 with 379 yards and a touchdown.
He did throw four interceptions, but three of those bounced off the hands of his receivers.
The Cowboys virtually have no running game. Marion Barber and Felix Jones have been non-factors for the Cowboys and that has made life difficult for their quarterbacks all season.
Now they’ll be in tough against Green Bay’s defence. The Packers’ win last week was the first shut-out of the season in the NFL, and the Cowboys turned the ball over several times against one of the league’s worst defences last week. The Packers’ defence
is fourth overall in points allowed, averaging 17 points per game.
"The guys we got, man, you can't say enough about those guys stepping in, especially guys that haven't been here too often for stepping in and playing the way they did," quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.
While the Packers’ offence didn’t look much better than New York’s offence last week, now they’re up against a defence that’s given up 33.5 points per game in their last four losses. That looks a lot less daunting than the Jets’ elite defence, so expect
the Packers to score early and often.
Let’s not kid ourselves; the Cowboys are done. They don’t respect their coaches and they’ve given up on themselves. The Packers are getting healthy and they believe in what they’re doing. Expect the Packers to put the final nail in the coffin on the Cowboys’
play-off chances.
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