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Mmm, ArizonaWith a six-game win streak (tomorrow at Arizona, versus the Giants next week) paired with a Giants loss tomorrow (versus Green Bay) and the Cowboys win the NFC East by week 14.
The Cowboys are nothing but opportunistic. There hasn't been a Dallas team since 1995 that would have swept the last four games, games they should have won. Wouldn't shock me in the least for them to win the next two as much as it wouldn't if they lost them.
The Cowboys are a pretty so-so 2-3 on the road this season and their home wins have come against Washington, St. Louis, Miami, Buffalo and Seattle. Not exactly a murderer's row.
The Cardinals are considered the "good bad team." Good enough to be the lower rungs of the league, but not good enough to beat anyone else. Which means to me that they're bad. The four Arizona wins: St. Louis, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Carolina.
So, who knows who's really good in this league anymore? If the better team wins tomorrow, the Cowboys are 8-4 and primed for the division.
Five things:
Skeletons, And I Don't Mean John
The Dallas Cowboys face two ghosts of Christmas past this week: Road games in Arizona and December. The last two Cowboys games in Arizona have been losses. One came in overtime on a blocked punt where Mat McBriar was lost for the season. Last year, David Buehler (remember him?) missed an extra point after a fourth-quarter touchdown allowing the Cardinals to kick the game-winning field goal minutes later on Christmas Day. Also, it's December. All the press has been about Tony Romo's record in November and how fantastic it is. I guess we should ramped up for a monthful of stats about how awful Romo is in December. They are currently set up to be able to slide maybe get two or three more wins and a spot in the tournament. Still, it'd be good to get a hard-fought December win on the road.
Skelton, And I Mean John
John Skelton is awful. He is Kevin Kolb's back-up. Still, the guy has won three of his four games this year despite seven interceptions and four touchdowns. The Cowboys need to punish him and make the Cardinals pay for it. There's zero reason why a Skelton-led team should be winning games even if they are against St. Louis.
Patrick Peterson
The Cowboys' kick coverage hasn't always been great this year and Patrick Peterson is a game changer. You've almost got to treat him like Devin Hester at this point and punt with caution.
Beanie Wells
He's run hard this season and its paying off despite constant injuries. Averaging 4.7 yards a carry and should eclipse 1,000 yards this season for the first time in his career. It's arguably the only consistent offense the Cardinals have. If the Cowboys can't stop it, it'll be an extremely long afternoon.
A Consistent Offense
The Cowboys -- for all their successes -- have beat two pretty mediocre or bad teams the last two weeks (Miami, Washington) by a total of four points, which includes getting dragged into overtime by Washington. It's not like there isn't opportunity. The Cowboys simple get into these ugly, muddy, slow-moving games and you blink and it's the fourth quarter and the Dolphins or Redskins are within a field goal of winning. The Cowboys must find some method of consistency in the offense, which, I think, focuses on Jason Witten and Dez Bryant. For whatever reason, both disappear from Romo's radar for long chunks of the game. That has to be an anomaly and not the norm.
Prediction
Dallas Cowboys 26, Arizona Cardinals 19
Cowboys escape. Set up match-up against Giants. Start December 1-0.
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