Brett's Cowboys Corner

The Cowboys are coming off a week one win against the Browns and it was the defense that reigned supreme. This week the Cowboys will need to look toward their offense to help get them past New Orleans.

The Cowboys have lost the last 23 games when they fail to hit 20 or more points, ironically the last win for a low-scoring Cowboys team came against the Saints in 2018. A 13-10 Cowboys win, the game famously sealed by Jourdan Lewis, who had a diving interception to win the game against Drew Brees.

The last time these two teams met, 2021, it was a 27-17 win for Dallas that featured Taysom Hill as the starting quarterback. He threw 4 interceptions that day.

X-Factors for the game, based on matchups and potential target areas, not necessarily the best players every week.

• Carson will likely be tested again this week, with the matchup of Shaheed they will look for pass interreference calls down the field
• Luepke can be the Taysom Hill for Dallas, he will be implemented more into the rushing, receiving, and blocking game with the absence of Jake Ferguson.
• Dak has to take control of this game early, at home, the last time at AT&T stadium left a bad taste for many fans. Time to show off the 60 million dollar arm.

• Shaheed is the deep ball threat for New Orleans, catching a 59 yard bomb 5 minutes into the game last week, they will likely hunt the matchup verses the rookie cornerback. He also serves as their punt returner.
• Young led the Saints in pressures last week with 6, all coming from the left tackles side…where rookie Tyler Guyton will line up.
• Kamara is more obvious but he still is a high impact threat with his ability as a runner and pass catcher, Carr loves to throw short to him and let him eat YAC. Watch out for his high usage in the motion pre-snap.

1 – Dak Prescott needs to unleash the air raid.

In the film analysis of the Saints, it was clear they wanted to bring all kinds of pressure against Bryce Young. We like to think that Dennis Allen would know better than to blitz defensive backs and safeties against Dak as he led the league in completion percent against pressure last season. The Saints will likely implement different ways to bring the blitz, but when they had so much success with defensive backs blitzing, they want to do it more, Alonte Taylor had 3 sacks from the slot last week.

With only 179 passing yards last week, Dak should be looking to get the offense into rhythm in the home opener. The Saints will give up a vertical attacking offense, and it may be a big game for Lamb. Especially if it is expected that Marshon Lattimore will not be ready to go. In the film analysis, I mentioned that the Saints defense plays press-man coverage at a high rate, 45% of the time. Lamb led the league in receptions and yards against man coverage last season.

2 – Don’t let the Saints movement knock you off balance.

The Saints offense loves the pre-snap motion, 49 of 62 plays involved motion and 35 of 49 had a motion while the ball was being snapped. This will cause your defense to be running around trying to keep up and there’s potential you could lose track of someone coming out of the backfield like Kamara. The Cowboys need to be careful with the scatter technique the Saints implement, where the Saints use motion to run players around and get everyone bunched together on one side, and once the ball is snapped they scatter down the field. They look for an error in the coverage and a man deep or in the flats that is unguarded.

3 – Keep Derek Carr pressured.

The Panthers applied almost zero pressure on Derek Carr, which allowed him to keep most plays short, dump-offs just picking up 5 yards every time. Carr has no problem with long, slow, and methodical drives. He won’t force the ball downfield if you keep giving him easy passes. Carr only attempted 4 passes over 20+ air yards last week, because he simply didn’t need to. Corners will need to keep a tight coverage on Carr but more importantly, they need to keep him pressured and force him out of the pocket. Unlike Watson last week, this time you want the QB to be on the move having to make pressured decisions because that’s where he will lose the game for the Saints.

4 – Cowboys tight end room needs to be ready.

This might have been a game where Jake Ferguson would have feasted. Saints like to play single high safety, which opens up the seam route for Dallas that Dak and Jake connected on all last season. Ferguson will be considered doubtful for this game, meaning Luke Schoonmaker and Brevyn Spann-Ford will have a larger role this Sunday.

For many the Schoonmaker pick in the 2nd round is becoming an alarming regret among fans, some media, and maybe a few in the front office. There have been opportunities for him to step up and become another threat in the tight end room, but it has never stuck. He will likely be the starter Sunday and this will be a true opportunity to have a big game, I think he needs a big game as a blocker for the benefit of the Cowboys needing a win…but Schoonmaker needs to be an impact player in the receiving game for his own sake, this is his best shot to show his value to the offense. Considering the Cowboys bring in a UDFA rookie in Spann-Ford and another pass-catching threat in John Steepens, who’s dealing with more injuries, to try and replace Schoonmaker.

I want to lastly point out that Hunter Luepke, the fullback, has a chance to show his value as a utility player in the offense to have a big role on Sunday. Luepke has been Coach McCarthy’s pet cat, he has been telling us how much impact Luepke will have on the offense and his weekly role, this is a big opportunity for Luepke to show his value and potentially take more snaps away from a guy like Schoonmaker.