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Cotton

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Packers' No. 1 run D faces toughest test yet in Cowboys' Ezekiel Elliott
1:13 PM CT
Rob Demovsky
ESPN Staff Writer

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- This is strength against the strength. The NFL’s top-ranked run defense against the league’s No. 1 rushing offense.

We’ll find out if the Packers’ run-stopping unit is for real when the Dallas Cowboys come to Lambeau Field on Sunday. Dom Capers’ run defense has allowed an average of just 42.8 yards per game, while the Ezekiel Elliott-led Cowboys offense has averaged 155.2 yards on the ground.

Here are seven Dallas players to watch on Sunday, courtesy of ESPN Cowboys reporter Todd Archer:

Offense

QB Dak Prescott: The quarterback has gone a rookie record 155 passes without an interception and is closing in on Tom Brady’s record of 162 passes to open a career without a pick. The Cowboys don’t press the ball down the field, but they are not being conservative with the rookie. He is just playing smart and knows how to avoid mistakes.

RB Ezekiel Elliott: He has put up three straight games with at least 130 yards rushing. A week ago, the Cincinnati Bengals entered the game without giving up a 100-yard rusher or a rushing touchdown and Elliott had 134 yards and two scores. He finally showed his breakaway speed with a 60-yard touchdown. It took him two games to figure out the patience needed to run this scheme.

WR Cole Beasley: He leads the Cowboys in catches with 27 for 332 yards and a touchdown. With Dez Bryant missing the past two games with a tibial plateau fracture in his right leg, defenses have paid more attention to Beasley but he continues to get open. His quickness is his best attribute and Prescott likes to find him because he can win so quickly on his routes.

Defense

DE DeMarcus Lawrence: He made his season debut last week against Cincinnati after missing the first four games of the season for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. He didn’t have a sack, but he was able to generate pressure and the Cowboys had a season-high four sacks as a team. He relies more on power than turning the corner but he has two sacks in two games against the Packers.

CBs Morris Claiborne, Brandon Carr: The Cowboys have not given up a 100-yard receiver this year and they have played some of the better ones around in Odell Beckham Jr., Alshon Jeffery and A.J. Green. Carr and Claiborne have held their own. Two years ago in the playoff game, Carr limited Jordy Nelson to two catches. Claiborne is playing the best football of his career after four years of not living up to expectations as the No. 6 overall pick of the 2012 draft.

FS Byron Jones: Last year’s No. 1 pick has made the move from cornerback to free safety. He is still looking for the first interception of his career, but he gives the Cowboys a centerfield-type safety they have not had in years. He broke up a deep ball to Green last week in which he showed tremendous range. If the Packers look to go deep, then the Cowboys will need Jones to show that range more.
 

Cotton

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Cotton

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Cotton

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Cowboys' secondary has been stingy, but will face challenge from Packers
9:02 PM CT
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

FRISCO, Texas -- Through the first five weeks of the season, the Dallas Cowboys have faced some of the NFL’s better wide receivers -- Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants, DeSean Jackson of the Washington Redskins, Alshon Jeffery of the Chicago Bears and A.J. Green of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Quibble with the quarterback play of Washington and Chicago, but the Cowboys did not allow more than five catches or more than 70 yards to those aforementioned receivers. Jeremy Kerley of the San Francisco 49ers has had the biggest day for a receiver against the Cowboys, with six catches for 88 yards and a touchdown.

“We just got to keep it going,” cornerback Morris Claiborne said. “That will be our goal going into the game, but we just have to keep it going and hopefully play like that for the rest of the year.”

Through five games last year, the Cowboys allowed two 100-yard receivers. Julio Jones had 12 catches for 164 yards and two touchdowns for the Atlanta Falcons. Julian Edelman had four catches for 120 yards and a touchdown for the New England Patriots.

The Cowboys’ work against Green was impressive. Claiborne and Brandon Carr frustrated Green a little with physical play, but the Cowboys also had their best pass rush of the season, forcing Bengals QB Andy Dalton to go other places.

“Mo and Brandon had to play well in this ballgame,” coach Jason Garrett said. “They were going to be out there by themselves with him at different times in the game and each of those guys really stepped up. They were physical with him at the line of scrimmage, physical with him at the point of the catch. They did a good job. I thought we also did a good job when they weren’t by themselves. Gave each of those guys some help with the underneath coverage, whether we were rolling the coverage there or just having some linebacker or safety presence underneath him.”

The Cowboys like to say it all works together defensively with the pass rush and the pass coverage. If one suffers, the other suffers.

This Sunday, the Cowboys have another challenge with the Green Bay Packers. Randall Cobb is coming off his first 100-yard game of the season, with 108 yards against the Giants. Jordy Nelson, who missed last season with a knee injury, had six catches for 102 yards and two touchdowns against the Lions in Week 3.

In last year’s meeting against the Packers, the Cowboys did not allow a 100-yard receiver. Aaron Rodgers threw for only 218 yards but he had two touchdown passes. In the divisional round playoff loss to the Packers in 2014, however, the Cowboys gave up two 100-yard receivers.

Cobb caught eight passes for 116 yards, while Davante Adams had seven catches for 117 yards and a touchdown.

“It’s going to be a big challenge for us,” Claiborne said. “It’s going to be a big challenge for our secondary, for our defense as a whole. Aaron Rodgers is one of the best that’s going at it. Some of the things he does on the field, you just can’t; it’s unbelievable. His checks and calling out certain things you wouldn’t even think he saw it. It’s going to have to be a very disciplined game for us with our disguises and stuff like that, just trying to give him different looks.”
 

Texas Ace

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We're going to smash that defense and their faulty ranking to pieces on Sunday.

They have the #1 ranked rush defense, but let's take a look at who they've faced:

Jaguars - ranked 30th in rushing

Vikings - ranked 32nd

Detroit - ranked 23rd

Giants - ranked 27th


They have faced 3 of the worst 5 rushing teams in the league, and a Lions team ranked 23rd. So of course they have the #1 ranked rushing defense.

If we don't turn the ball over this week, we win. I don't think they can stop us and their offense is not playing great, so I think our defense can get enough stops.

Go 5-1 heading into the bye, and it's full homer mode.
 

Cotton

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Texas Ace

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Might as well leave Scandrick out until after the bye.
 

Cotton

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:tippytoe
 

Cowboysrock55

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:tippytoe
Always a chance for a makeup call.
 

UncleMilti

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We're going to smash that defense and their faulty ranking to pieces on Sunday.

They have the #1 ranked rush defense, but let's take a look at who they've faced:

Jaguars - ranked 30th in rushing

Vikings - ranked 32nd

Detroit - ranked 23rd

Giants - ranked 27th


They have faced 3 of the worst 5 rushing teams in the league, and a Lions team ranked 23rd. So of course they have the #1 ranked rushing defense.

If we don't turn the ball over this week, we win. I don't think they can stop us and their offense is not playing great, so I think our defense can get enough stops.

Go 5-1 heading into the bye, and it's full homer mode.
Someone like Booze will have to give me the lowdown on where the Packers were player wise when DeMarco ran all over the Packers and their "vaunted" run D in the no catch playoff game vs who they have playing now.

The only thing I have right now is that Matthews, to my eye, is not playing with the same explosiveness I saw the past few years, and their D has given up some big plays this season.
 

ravidubey

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Packers OL is going to play out of their minds Sunday. They must be sick of hearing the hype the Cowboys OL gets
 

1bigfan13

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Regarding Aaron Rodgers' regression....the one thing that really sticks out to me is his YPA has taken a significant dip since 2014. Prior to 2014 he was averaging well over 8 YPA. Now he's averaging a little over 6. That's a significant drop. Especially when you consider that the league average is a little over 7 YPA.

Right now his 6.3 YPA ranks 28th out of 31 NFL QB.

For comparison's sake, Dak currently ranks 7th in the NFL in YPA.

https://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/player/_/stat/passing/sort/yardsPerPassAttempt
 

Jiggyfly

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Someone like Booze will have to give me the lowdown on where the Packers were player wise when DeMarco ran all over the Packers and their "vaunted" run D in the no catch playoff game vs who they have playing now.

The only thing I have right now is that Matthews, to my eye, is not playing with the same explosiveness I saw the past few years, and their D has given up some big plays this season.
Iknow they have some new guys at DT I think they drafted somebody pretty high at one of those spots.
 

Simpleton

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Regarding Aaron Rodgers' regression....the one thing that really sticks out to me is his YPA has taken a significant dip since 2014. Prior to 2014 he was averaging well over 8 YPA. Now he's averaging a little over 6. That's a significant drop. Especially when you consider that the league average is a little over 7 YPA.

Right now his 6.3 YPA ranks 28th out of 31 NFL QB.

For comparison's sake, Dak currently ranks 7th in the NFL in YPA.

https://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/player/_/stat/passing/sort/yardsPerPassAttempt
Alot of that probably has to do with the fact that Nelson is the only true outside receiver/deep threat on the team. He obviously missed 2015 and likely isn't back to 100% just yet.

Adams is meh and Cobb is basically a souped up Beasley who is really only a threat horizontally and in the middle of the field.
 

Simpleton

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Iknow they have some new guys at DT I think they drafted somebody pretty high at one of those spots.
Alot of the personnel is the same in the front 7 as it was in 2014 in terms of Guion, Mike Daniels and Datone Jones on the line, and Matthews, Peppers and Perry at OLB. There are a few differences but nothing major, like A.J. Hawk and Sam Barrington are gone at ILB, replaced by Jake Ryan and Joe Thomas.

They also have some nice rookies in Kenny Clark, Kyler Fackrell and Blake Martinez, but I wouldn't say they have been game changers up to this point.

The front 7 is still built around Matthews, Daniels, Guion, Jones and Peppers. The biggest difference is that Perry is having a breakout season after being mediocre over his first couple of years.

They don't have much DL depth and really rely on speed/confusion in the front 7 with their zone blitz scheme and mixing/matching blitzes and coverages. Often times they will only have 1 or 2 pure DL on the field at a time.

If our OL is able to communicate with the crowd noise and the score stays close to where our offense doesn't become unbalanced I think we should be able to run the ball on them.
 

Cotton

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Claiborne turned his ankle in practice yesterday. Garrett says he doesn't know if he will practice today or not. Didn't sound serious.
 

Cotton

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Found another article that said Mo is practicing today, so must not have been anything serious.
 

Cotton

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Chaz Green and Tyron both sat out today. Ruh roh.
 
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