Mike Freeman's 10-Point Stance: Can Anyone Stop the Pats? Don't Sleep on Dallas

Cotton

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Mike Freeman's 10-Point Stance: Can Anyone Stop the Pats? Don't Sleep on Dallas
By Mike Freeman , NFL National Lead Writer Nov 2, 2016

Here we are again. Another year. Another dominant Patriots team. Another Tom Brady Revenge Tour. What number revenge tour is this, anyway? Two? Five? I lost count.

Anyhoo, here we are again, New England possessing the best team in football because, once again, it has the best player in football in Brady. Right now, barring an injury to Brady, or something deflated, or videotaped, the Patriots are the team to beat.

And for the moment, it's not even close.

Sure, any team can be beat. The Patriots were beat twice by the underdog Giants in two Super Bowls. So none of this is to say the Patriots can never lose. Of course they can.

But there are only a handful of teams that can beat the Pats, and of that small group, one in particular matches up with them in almost every way (except for Brady).

The Dallas Cowboys.

If you're a Patriots fan, they are the team you don't want to see in the Super Bowl. If you're a Patriots hater, they may be your only hope.

After covering the Cowboys on Sunday night, I saw a team building toward greatness, one physical and confident enough to compete with any team. Even the mighty Patriots.

Go ahead and laugh. Go ahead and flame those message boards. But the Cowboys are the biggest threat to the Patriots.

This Cowboys team is reminiscent of some of the outstanding NFC East teams from the 1980s and early 1990s. The defense (ranked among the top 10 in the league in yards allowed and points surrendered per game) is more physical and faster than people know. It has a strong running game (leading the NFL with 164.9 rushing yards per game), and rookie quarterback Dak Prescott continues to grow exponentially.

The other threats to the Patriots aren't as complete as the Cowboys. The Broncos are a nasty defensive team but don't have the quarterback play. The Steelers have the quarterback play but not the defense. The Packers have Aaron Rodgers and, well, Aaron Rodgers. Not much else. As great as he is, that's not enough.

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The Falcons have a putrid defense. There's Seattle, but it lost to New England in the Super Bowl and doesn't look like the Seahawks we've come to know. The Raiders can be scary and will be Super Bowl contenders next year, but you can't beat the Patriots by committing four trillion penalties.

For now—right now—there's just one team that's physical enough on both sides of the football, athletic enough and smart enough to hang with New England, and it's Dallas.

In the Cowboys locker room after the Philadelphia game, a win that put them two games ahead of everyone else in the division, there was a sense that the players knew this team had a chance to be special. But they are far from satisfied.

They are also maybe the only team that can stop the vaunted Patriots.
 

mcnuttz

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I like it, and hope that the team can handle the hype that's gonna be surrounding them for the 2nd half of the season.
 

Cotton

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I like it, and hope that the team can handle the hype that's gonna be surrounding them for the 2nd half of the season.
This is one of the things about Zeke and Dak (especially Dak) that has really impressed me so far. They are really humble guys. At least they have been to this point. Let's hope they stay that way.
 

Texas Ace

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The Patriots scare me.

More importantly, Bill Belichick scares me. The guy can come up with stuff to shut down and/or confuse All-Pro players, so I hate to think of what he would throw at Dak.

Having said that, there are two things I'd look at as to why we could beat them. If we actually did make it all the way to the SB with Dak, then that means the guy has played one of the greatest rookie seasons at the QB position that the NFL has ever seen, and there's no reason to believe he couldn't continue that into the SB if he did all the way up to that point.

Also, as usual, the Pats defense isn't anything special. You can throw and run on them, and I am absolutely positive we'd run right over them and there would be nothing they could do about it.

They key in that game would be how many stops could our defense generate against Tom Brady, and how effective would our passing game be when we absolutely had to go to it.
 

Cotton

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The Patriots scare me.

More importantly, Bill Belichick scares me. The guy can come up with stuff to shut down and/or confuse All-Pro players, so I hate to think of what he would throw at Dak.
Good news: Dak will have an entire season under his belt by that point. He is getting better every game, so you have to assume he learns even more lessons between now and then.

Bad news: There will be a crap ton more film on Dak by then.
 

NoDak

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If we were lucky enough to make the super bowl, and face the Patriots I think we'd lose. We don't have the defense to stand up to Tom Brady, and we don't have the coaching to protect our rookie QB from Belichick. I would have to hope that our running game would bludgeon them into submission, because as much as I like Dak, I wouldn't want to pin my hopes on him winning that match up.

But Romo could. :art
 

Cowboysrock55

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If we were lucky enough to make the super bowl, and face the Patriots I think we'd lose. We don't have the defense to stand up to Tom Brady, and we don't have the coaching to protect our rookie QB from Belichick. I would have to hope that our running game would bludgeon them into submission, because as much as I like Dak, I wouldn't want to pin my hopes on him winning that match up.

But Romo could. :art
Romo could also throw 3 picks in the first half and get knocked out (ala Panthers circa 2015).

We'd have a better chance against the Patriots running the ground and pound with a QB who can also ground and pound it.
 

NoDak

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Romo could also throw 3 picks in the first half and get knocked out (ala Panthers circa 2015).

We'd have a better chance against the Patriots running the ground and pound with a QB who can also ground and pound it.
:lol
 

L.T. Fan

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Now how was that for an answer. I give it good marks for inovation but I think it is real short on objectivity. If you are going to pound it on the ground most any QB will do. Maybe we need Tim Tebow.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Now how was that for an answer. I give it good marks for inovation but I think it is real short on objectivity. If you are going to pound it on the ground most any QB will do. Maybe we need Tim Tebow.
Well not just any QB. You'd want a QB who can actually run like a RB. But Tim Tebow is a pretty good suggestion.
 

Cowboysrock55

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Let's pull the reins on this.
Frankly I'm just thrilled to be heading to the playoffs this year (More then likely). Most the people on this board didn't even think that possible when Romo was healthy. Anything after that is just bonus points to me. We are a team that has just opened the window with Dak and Zeke only being rookies and this O-line just hitting their prime. I expect for Dallas to be a top team for years to come. It's no longer making a last run before the window closes with Romo. Now I feel more like the 91 Cowboys with a bright future ahead.
 

Smitty

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Romo could also throw 3 picks in the first half and get knocked out (ala Panthers circa 2015).

We'd have a better chance against the Patriots running the ground and pound with a QB who can also ground and pound it.
The Patriots do not have the defense to do what the Panthers did to us last year... whether its Romo or Dak.

But frankly yeah that is a game I see Romo winning. Unless he has a typical "bad Romo" clunker, I actually think Romo would have a 2014 Green Bay-ish game against them. Dak I am not sure yet.
 

ravidubey

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This is the team I want to beat. We can run over them if we don't screw up in the playoffs and miss our chance to play them.
 
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