Dallas City News

A win is a win. There are no style points in the NFL so the “way” in which you win is ultimately inconsequential. Obviously we want the Dallas Cowboys to win as emphatically as possible to help us feel like the team is a contender, but sometimes you are just grateful to get out of dodge with the win regardless of how you got it.

Such was the case last week for Dallas and their trip to face the Cleveland Browns. Based on who we know the Browns to be entering this season, procuring a win against them was hardly easy. Moving beyond that, doing so with an incredible day at the office on offense was even more difficult.

Consider that the Cowboys were victorious in Cleveland despite only producing 265 yards of total offense. While offense was down across the entire NFL in Week 1, it is still a rare thing for Dallas to win in this manner. Our friends at Stathead help us realize that this kind of win (265 total yards or fewer) has only happened four times in the Dak Prescott era (the Rams game you will see below saw Cooper Rush start with Prescott’s thumb injured at the time). As we noted in our historical notes from the game, the Cowboys have done it in back to back season openers.

Three (of the Prescott-led instances) of those games were on the road, two (counting Cleveland here) saw the Cowboys get out to big leads and put matters on ice, one was against the Buccaneers where Dallas got out to a lead and was waiting to put on hats and t-shirts celebrating a division title, and that last one was against current defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer.

The point in bringing all of this is up is to note that the lackluster offensive day in Cleveland will not likely be repeated. It stands to reason that the Cowboys will move and groove on offense quite differently against the New Orleans Saints, but what specifically can we expect from them?

NFL Pro features projections for notable players from every single game. We discussed these last week and they wound up being fairly close to reality on a few players.

The actual stat line for each player has been bolded.

• Dak Prescott: 235.6 yards, 1.8 touchdowns… 179 yards, 1 touchdown
• Ezekiel Elliott: 38.8 yards, 0.3 touchdowns… 40 yards, 1 touchdowns
• Brandin Cooks: 3.2 receptions, 40.4 yards… 40 yards, 1 touchdown
• Jalen Tolbert: 3.1 receptions, 36.1 yards……. 1 reception, 12 yards
• Jake Ferguson: 4.2 receptions, 44.3 yards… 3 receptions, 15 yards

Both Ezekiel Elliott and Brandin Cooks had their yardage predicted almost down to the number. This could just be coincidence of course, but it is interesting to note as we move forward.

This week NFL Pro is calling for a much more stout day on offense. Here are the projections, with New Orleans included as well.

There is a projection for Jake Ferguson here, but obviously we do not know if he will even play in the game. Take it with a grain of salt.

It is certainly interesting though that Dak is predicted to throw two touchdowns while only CeeDee Lamb has a projection to catch one north of 0.5. Perhaps this indicates that somebody else will rise up for Dallas, perhaps Jalen Tolbert has a big day.

A note within all of NFL Pro’s assessment of the week is that Ezekiel Elliott has scored a touchdown in 10 of his last 11 games played with the Cowboys specifically. Odds are high that he will find the endzone at one point or another.

The Saints are coming off of an impressive outing on both offense and defense so Dallas having success in either area will not be enough on its own. If the Cowboys want to improve to 2-0 it is going to take a complete and total effort.