Thursday Night Football: Saints at Cowboys

The surging NO Saints roll into Dallas as 7 ½ point favorites against the Dallas Cowboys Thursday night going for their eleventh straight win. The 10-1 Saints can clinch the NFC South with a win and a Carolina loss to Tampa Bay Sunday.

Dallas is tied for the lead with Washington in the NFC Least at (6-5) after winning their last thee against the Skins, the Falcons and the Eagles. After looking at this game for a while, one item stands out. Ezekiel Elliot is averaging almost 5 yards per carry and has already run for over 1,000 yards this season. He has gained 120 yards or more in each of the Cowboys last 3 victories. He is obviously the key to Dallas’ recent success.

Conversely, the Saints have the #1 rushing defense, limiting teams to under 75 yards per game. Zeke was a little banged up after the Thanksgiving win and may still be sore.

The Saints also lead the league in scoring offense with an astounding 37 points per game average. Drew Brees is 1^st in passer rating and has a 29-2 TD to INT ratio. The Cowboys 3^rd ranked defense allows less than 20 points per game while the Saints offense is 5^th in total yards. So, on both sides of the ball, we have battles. Zeke vs. the NO defense and Brees, Alvin Kamara, and their receiving corps led by Michael Thomas against the Dallas defense.

1. Can the Cowboys stop this explosive offense?
2. Can the Saints limit Zeke?
3. How can you bet against a division leader playing at home when you get more than a TD?
4. How in the world would you bet against the NO Saints, given that they have won 5 in a row by 10 or more points?

The Bozos hate laying more than a TD on the road but Dallas is still inconsistent and untrustworthy. Dak Prescott still tends to make mistakes at inopportune times. To answer our first two questions- It’s unlikely this Saints offense will be stopped. It’s very possible the Saints defense can limit Zeke. Dallas lost at home already this year by 14 to the Titans.

It’s harder to make a case against the Saints, the way their offense is dominating, so we’re going to ride the tiger and expect NO to cover in Big D. I wanna be in that number oh when the Saints go marching in…

-HB