Dallas City News

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that this week has carried the least amount of optimism from Dallas Cowboys fans so far on the season. Obviously we are only three weeks in, but the mood and vibe have been low.

Such is the case when you are coming off of a 44-19 loss and one of only 11 teams in NFL history to allow 44+ points to be scored against you in consecutive games at home (playoffs included). It goes without saying that a win could go a long way around here.

Oddsmakers believe that is unlikely though as Dallas is a home underdog against the Baltimore Ravens this week. We have seen oddsmakers be wrong in each of the last two Cowboys games at home though as Dallas was favored significantly in both of them only to be blown out in each contest.

What about Madden, though? What does the video game have to say? Every week we run a simulation to see how it has the Cowboys doing and this week the game is calling for more bad vibes. Madden has Dallas losing to Baltimore by a final score of 21-14.

Entering Week 3, Madden had not been kind to the Cowboys as last week the game called for Dallas to lose a high-scoring affair and while that was halfway true the Cowboys did not live up to any sort of high-scoring output themselves. Clearly they did lose.

Madden predicted a Dallas win in Week 1 only for the Cowboys to walk away with a smooth victory. So far this season the game is all over the place.

• Week 1 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to Cleveland Browns, 18-17
  Week 1 In Actuality: Dallas Cowboys beat Cleveland Browns, 33-17
• Week 2 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to New Orleans Saints, 36-29
  Week 2 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys lose to New Orleans Saints, 44-10

This particular simulation was interesting though as it had Dak Prescott getting hurt down the stretch with Dallas trying to tie things up. Cooper Rush pulled off some amazing throws on a third and fourth down to get Dallas down to the goal line, but Ezekiel Elliott was stopped at the 1-yard line. Amazingly the Cowboys got the ball back around midfield with the score the same and under a minute to go, but a Rush checkdown to Elliott landed four yards shy of the endzone for the game’s final play.

Should the Cowboys lose they will fall to 1-2 on the season, a record they have had 12 times in franchise history. They have only made the playoffs on four of those instances (Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott were part of the group who pulled it off in 2018), but Madden seems to think they will soon have to try and do it again.