Dallas City News

The Cowboys are in serious need of a bounce back. Their 44-19 loss to the Saints a week ago was an embarrassment, especially on defense. That said, bounce back wins are kind of a tradition in Dallas ever since Mike McCarthy became the head coach; in his tenure with the Cowboys, McCarthy is 16-7 in games immediately following a loss, with all but two of those losses coming during his inaugural season when Dak Prescott missed most of the year.

Thay year was also the last time the Cowboys faced the Ravens, who they’ll host this week in an effort to rack up yet another bounce back victory. And if you thought the Cowboys were in desperate need of a win this week, just check out the Ravens, who find themselves at 0-2 coming into this game.

At the start of the season, Baltimore had a 78% chance to make the playoffs, per the statistical model from The Athletic; only the Chiefs and 49ers had higher odds in this model. Now, with the Ravens winless through two weeks, their odds have dropped all the way down to 41%, giving them the 19th best odds to reach the postseason. For what it’s worth, that same model had the Cowboys begin the season with 75% odds and they now sit at 66%.

It’s certainly a shock that the Ravens are 0-2 right now, too. They were underdogs against the Chiefs to kick off the new NFL season, and even then they only lost by a toenail. The loss in Week 1 was expected, and the extremely close nature of it only reinforced the idea that Baltimore may be the second-best team in the AFC.

That made it all the more surprising when they lost to the Raiders in Week 2. Led by rookie head coach Antonio Pierce, who won the job after going 5-4 as the interim head coach last year, and journeyman quarterback Gardner Minshew, the Raiders entered the season with some of the best odds to be picking first overall. They certainly looked the part in Week 1, and did for most of Week 2 as well.

The Ravens led 23-13 halfway through the fourth quarter, and it looked as if the game would be over before too long. But the Ravens went three-and-out on their next two drives and their defense repeatedly gave up chunk plays, allowing a go-ahead field goal with just 27 seconds left in the game.

Now they come into Dallas looking for their first win, and it sets up a fascinating duel between two teams trying to figure out their identity this season. The fact that these two teams rarely meet makes it all the more exciting. The Cowboys have played just six games against the Ravens, going 1-5 in those contests. Of course, only one of those games was played at AT&T Stadium, and the Cowboys won 27-17 during Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott’s rookie season.

This will also be the first time we see Prescott go up against Lamar Jackson, since Prescott was injured when these teams met in 2020. It should be a fascinating duel, given that Prescott was the runner-up to Jackson just a year ago for the MVP award. Fittingly, neither quarterback has lit the league on fire yet this year, setting the stage for a potential breakthrough game from one or both of them.

Ultimately, this game carries unusually high stakes for a Week 3 matchup. If the Ravens fall to 0-3, their path to the playoffs would take an extraordinary hit. On the flip side, a second straight loss at home for the Cowboys – especially one that sees the run-heavy Ravens walking all over this defense – could create levels of chaos and animosity in Dallas the likes of which have rarely been seen during the McCarthy era (which is saying a lot).

This game is about as close as you can get to a playoff environment in September, but that will be the case on Sunday. The top two vote-getters for MVP a year ago going head to head in a must-win situation for both teams: what more could you want? If nothing else, this game should make for appointment television.