Cowboys vs. Texans: Can Cowboys capitalize on matchup advan

tages at Houston? Last week Cheap Demarcus Lawrence Jersey , the Cowboys offense finally found a little rhythm in their 400+ yard performance thanks to Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott. More importantly, it got the Cowboys to a record of 2-2, and though this week’s opponent is 1-3 it feels like they should be much better. This Texans offense averages over 400 yards per week, mostly by the arm of Deshaun Watson and his fantastic array of receivers. Houston’s problem has been their defense, which is routinely allowing opponents to match those offensive numbers. Statistically speaking, this Sunday night’s Cowboys-Texans game will feature very few clear strength-versus-weakness matchups. In fact, more often than not we may see lots of strengths-on-strengths and weakness-on-weakness. The question will be if the Cowboys can find a little offensive consistency on the road where they are 0-2. So far, they average 23.5 points at home but only 10.5 in their away games.Can the Cowboys take advantage of Texans’ bad red zone defense?78.6% of red zone attempts vs. Houston’s defense end in scoresThat’s right, the Texans defense is allowing conversions by the bunches in the red zone this season. On 14 attempts, opponents have scored 11 times and the Texans haven’t played a single team ranked higher than 15th in total offense. Houston is 29th with an average of 3.5 red zone trips allowed per game and 2.8 trips are ending in touchdowns. Even the Giants offense went 4-for-4 on Houston.40% is the red zone conversion rate for the Cowboys offenseThe Cowboys have just 10 trips to the red zone, only five teams have less and two with fewer points scored. Four of the six touchdowns the Cowboys have came in the red zone but the team has eight field goals. It doesn’t help when you also have penalties or the quarterback takes unnecessary sacks. The Cowboys have a real opportunity here but have to stay out of their own way.Can Cowboys defense limit the Texans explosiveness?54% of explosive plays allowed by Cowboys came in last two gamesOver the last two games, the Cowboys have allowed seven plays of 20+ yards or more, two of them were over 40+ yards. They are the third-best defense in the league at limiting these plays with only 13 on the season. The seven in the last two games make up 54% of the season total. 11 of the 13 have come on big passes courtesy of busted coverage by defensive backs. Overall, only three defenses allow fewer yards per play than the Cowboys at 4.9 yards on average. The Cowboys are getting killed a lot on third downs, where they allow the seventh-worst conversion rate of 45%. 48% is the completion percentage of Texans 20+ yard pass attempts (second in NFL)Overall, of Deshaun Watson’s 92 completions, 19 passes have gone for 20+ yards, that’s 21% of the Texans total offense. Their 20 explosive plays are tied for fourth-most in the NFL, 70% of their passing gains are split between three receivers. That’s 815 yards between DeAndre Hopkins, Will Fuller Youth Jaylon Smith Jersey , and burner Keke Coutee. Much like the Lions, the Texans present a difficult matchup for the Cowboys secondary.The only saving grace is that Houston’s offense is only converting 40% on third down and is sixth-worst in red zone efficiency at 44%.Which is stronger - Cowboys ability to run or Texans ability to stop the run?17% of rushing attempts against Houston result in first downsOut of the 109 attempts against the Texans run defense, they have only allowed 19 rushing first downs, tied for the eighth-fewest with Washington. They have yet to allow a 100-yard rusher and have allowed only one rushing touchdown. The Texans are only allowing 94.2 yards per game (ninth best). Running backs average 3.5 yards per carry, which ranks Houston fourth in the league, it will be the best run defense the Cowboys have faced.28% of Cowboys rushing attempts have resulted in first downsNo disrespect intended but the Texans haven’t faced the league’s leading rusher or a Top-10 rushing team for that matter. Though Saquon Barkley only had 17 attempts for 82 yards, he averaged 4.8 yards against Houston. The Cowboys have 30 rushing first downs on just 101 attempts, Ezekiel Elliott accounts for 67% of them. Zeke’s the only running back averaging over 100+ yards per game and his 5.8 yards per carry is a league best. Dallas is also getting an average of 3.9 yards per rush before contact. Can Cowboys’ pass rush wreck the Texans plan on offense?11.1% of passing attempts against Cowboys defense ends with a sackThe Cowboys defense ranks third in sacks with 14 on just 126 pass attempts (fifth-fewest). Just about every nine pass attempts, the Cowboys defense is sacking the opposing quarterback. They are also registering pressures every three pass attempts with 42 on the season. The only issue is that nine of Dallas’ sacks have come at home and they average only 2.5 sacks per game on the road. Both Maliek Collins and David Irving will not be making the trip to Houston, which is sort of surprising as they were both thought to be on the track to play. That means that Tyrone Crawford, Antwaun Woods, Daniel Ross, and Caraun Reid will have to step up.11.5% of Deshaun Watson’s pass attempts have ended with him being sackedWatson has attempted 148 passes (13th-most) but has been sacked 17 times, which is second-most in the league. So, just about every nine attempts, Watson is taken down, perfect timing for the Cowboys.Now, Texans analysts will say similar things as analysts have about Dak Prescott: Watson needs to stop holding the ball! The Texans quarterback is one of just two to have more time per throw than Prescott with 3.16 seconds per Next Gen. Sacks haven’t been the only problem as Watson has been hit a league-high 43 times, that’s a hit for every six snaps. This is the clearest advantage that Cowboys are going to get.The Cowboys and Texans rivalry is typically more one-sided as the Houston crowd will be extremely fired up for this one. A lot of the issues the Cowboys have been struggling with on offense are areas to attack on this Houston defense. The same can be said the other way as well. In the NFL, it’s all about who can take advantage of the matchups http://www.cowboyscheapauthenticstore.com/jeff-heath-jersey-cheap , that makes this game a real toss-up. The Dallas Cowboys 2018 offseason started out a little bumpy. The franchise’s all-time leader in touchdown catches, Dez Bryant, was released. Then, future first-ballot Hall of Fame tight end and franchise leader in catches, Jason Witten, retired. On draft day when fans expected to get a new star wide receiver, boos rained out inside AT&T stadium when the team selected Boise State linebacker Leighton Vander Esch. As if that wasn’t bad enough, news broke that their All-Pro center Travis Frederick had been diagnosed with Guillain-Barr茅 syndrome, a disorder in which the immune system attacks the body’s nervous system. He would be lost for the season.This team entered the season with a lot of holes to fill. Who’s catching passes from Dak Prescott? What players will be logging snaps at tight end? And who will fill Frederick’s shoes and what type of impact would that have? The Cowboys learned the hard way that these answers wouldn’t come easy and had a record of 3-5 at the midway point. Things were not looking so good.But then, things slowly started coming together. The Cowboys replaced their offensive line coach Paul Alexander and promoted assistant Marc Columbo. As it turned out, Joe Looney played quite well. The front office made a big trade giving up their 2019 first-round draft pick to acquire two-time Pro Bowl receiver Amari Cooper. The young receiver was just what Prescott needed as he had 53 catches for 725 yards and six touchdowns through just nine regular season games. If you prorate those numbers through 16 games, it would be the largest WR production since Dez Bryant’s sole All-Pro season back in 2014. The team even started getting production out of their inexperienced tight ends as both Geoff Swaim and Blake Jarwin had a nice showing in their first season getting real opportunities to play.And then there was their defense. While the organization has plugged away at remodeling this unit over the last few years, this season things started to really pay off. And understanding that DeMarcus Lawrence is the real deal is clearly apparent now. He had his second straight double-digit sack season, but more importantly - he was disruptive in all facets of his game. He’ll get a lot of money to be the team’s edge rusher for years to come. After searching and searching, it appears the Cowboys also found a nice under-the-radar 1-tech defensive tackle in Antwaun Woods. He’s under contract for another year. No one knew what to expect from Randy Gregory, but he ended up surprising people and recorded six sacks this season.One of the biggest surprises came from what transpired with the linebackers. A group that was once so dependent on Sean Lee is now so stacked that his place on the team is unclear. We may have seen Lee’s last game in a Cowboys uniform. The reason for such is that the team has two outstanding linebackers in Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch. All those boos we heard on draft day can be stuck in a sack because the rookie linebacker earned All-Pro honors his first year in the league. He becomes only the third Cowboys rookie to earn that honor, but the third over the last five years (Zack Martin and Ezekiel Elliott). Not only did the Cowboys strike gold with their first-round pick this season, but they also hit the jackpot from their 2016 second-round gamble in Jaylon Smith. The Cowboys are the only team in the league that had a linebacker duo to each record over 120 tackles on the year (Vander Esch, 140 and Smith, 122) and neither of them were named Sean Lee.The Cowboys also got solid production from their young secondary. It’s easy to forget that the team has completely overhauled this group over the last couple seasons. All the usual suspects - Brandon Carr Youth Brett Maher Jesey , Morris Claiborne, Orlando Scandrick, Barry Church, and J.J. Wilcox are all gone. The team has replaced them with three defensive backs from last year’s draft - Chidobe Awuzie, Jourdan Lewis, and Xavier Woods. Joining them are third-year corner Anthony Brown. Even the veterans are relatively new to their roles. Jeff Heath is only in his second season as a starter and Byron Jones just completed his first full season at cornerback. Jones earned All-Pro honors this season.This defense is a very young group whose potential has yet to be reached.But potential and a dollar will only get you a cup of coffee as the Cowboys weren’t quite there yet. The Cowboys won 10 games on the year and it was good enough to take down the NFC East, but this team still had their struggles. Through 16 regular season games, the Cowboys offense gave us plenty of reason for pause. They ranked 22nd in the league in points scored. While a stretch of winning games and some moments of offensive burst gave us hope, it’s hard to escape such a large sample of middling play from the offense.The Cowboys have won the division three times over the last five years. That’s a pretty good achievement and shouldn’t be swept under the rug. The team has won two wild card games in that span, but cannot get past the divisional round. One perception is that the team has plateaued and cannot seem to get over the hump. This would lead some to believe a change is needed to get some fresh blood. Do you want a new boat or do you want the mystery box? The mystery box could be anything. It might even be a boat.Another perception is that the team has constantly gone through so many personnel changes that they struggle to maintain consistency. This team makes good on their promise to get better, but when are they going to ever be good enough to win a Super Bowl? If they can get to a point where they’re not having to overcome so much change, maybe then they can get in a groove across the board and play at a high level.Looking around this roster, it’s easy to get excited about the future. While there are still specific positions that could use some help, there’s really no remaining position groups to blow up. Some things will just take care of themselves. Travis Frederick may return next year. Amari Cooper will be around for a full season and Michael Gallup gets better with each new game. And Blake Jarwin is starting to show a lot of improvement.The Cowboys front office will have a lot of big financial decisions to make this year. The team has freed up a lot of cash thanks to some sacrifices they have made in recent years. Great drafting and frugal free agent spending has afforded them this luxury. While they won’t have a first-round pick in the next draft, the team will still have some picks where they can make a splash.That has to feel good.They may also decide to go another direction with their offense. The Cowboys have had success in the past under Scott Linehan, but the team isn’t getting the most from their offense. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if the organization shook that up a bit before the start of next season.While it’s always disappointing when the season comes to an end, it’s always going to end in an unsatisfying fashion for 31 teams in the league. The Cowboys finished in the top eight of the 32 teams in the league. Finishing in the top 25% of the league is nothing to feel bad about. There’s always the expectations of something greater and that’s what this Cowboys team will need to focus on going forward. The good news is they have the leadership to keep getting stronger and they have a very young group of players on the rise. It’s frustrating to have to keep waiting, but great things are coming from this team. And when it happens, it’s going to be a triumphant testament to fight this team has and how they never gave up on each other. Custom New Orleans Saints Jerseys