Cowboys news: DaRon Bland will not be active versus Lions
DaRon Bland injury update: Cowboys All-Pro CB ruled out vs. Lions, won’t return until after bye week – Garrett Podell, CBS Sports
The Cowboys will wait a little bit longer for their cornerback rotation to become fully healthy.
Bland led the NFL with nine interceptions, including an NFL single-season record five pick sixes last season after moving to the outside following two-time Pro Bowler Trevon Diggs tearing his ACL in Week 3. He’s been absent for the first five weeks of the 2024 NFL season after suffering a stress fracture in his foot during the final week of training camp in Oxnard, California. While a 6 to 8 week timeline in the big picture of life isn’t very long, for Bland, someone who missed significant time for the first time in his football career, it felt like an eternity.”
“It’s tough,” Bland said on Thursday. “It was my first time being hurt, so taking that time away from the game, it took me a minute to get back to where I feel good to come back. So it feel good now. … It felt really long. I feel like I [haven’t] played football in years, almost.”
Dallas opened his 21-day practice window Wednesday, and he has since practiced fully both Wednesday and Thursday. He didn’t practice Friday, however, and was officially listed as questionable. On Saturday, ESPN reported that the Cowboys will wait until after their Week 7 bye to activate their All-Pro corner. The Cowboys essentially confirmed that report shortly thereafter, as the only moves they made for the Lions game were elevating cornerback Amani Oruwariye and linebacker Darius Harris.
Cowboys defense takes another hit with LB Eric Kendricks ruled out for Sunday vs. Lions – David Moore, DMN
Kendricks is going to be another big miss for the Cowboys defense.
Kendricks leads the team in tackles (52) and is second in sacks with two. On a team that has forced precious few turnovers this season, he has one interception and forced a fumble.
Just as importantly, he wears the green dot. Kendricks has the most complete understanding of coordinator Mike Zimmer’s defense and is the player who calls the defense on the field and gets everyone in the right spots.
Mike McCarthy held a conference call with reporters before the Cowboys announced that Kendricks would miss the game against the Lions. Asked what the plan would be if the veteran linebacker was unable to go, the Cowboys coach responded, “We’ll find out Sunday.’’
Pete Prisco’s Week 6 NFL picks: Lions edge Cowboys in high-scoring game – Pete Prisco, CBSSports.com
Vegas has the game at an over/under of 52.5, the highest of all games this weekend.
The Lions are off their bye, while the Cowboys are home after a tough victory over the Steelers on the road. Dallas is still undermanned on defense, which is not a good thing against this Lions offense. Look for both teams to score a lot here as the Lions also have defensive issues. The Lions will win a shootout, but it’s close.
Pick: Lions 33, Cowboys 32
Elsewhere on CBSSports, four out of eight staff writers are taking the Cowboys at -3.
Expert predictions for Cowboys-Lions: Detroit revenge game? Can Dallas’ defense stack up? – Staff, DMN
All six DMN writers have the Lions winning today. Tim Cowlishaw explains why.
Somehow these teams combined for just 39 points when they met in December. That feels more like a halftime score with both defenses struggling in different ways (Cowboys vs. good run teams, Lions vs. all passing teams) and the Detroit offense clicking on all cylinders. Dallas is more limited, and that’s going to make it tough for Cowboys to secure their first home win. Unless Rico Dowdle has an especially solid game, the Cowboys are too one-dimensional.
Cowboys-Lions predictions and preview – Staff, The Athletic
Machota and Yousuf both have the Lions taking the win today.
Machota: Lions 27, Cowboys 24. The Vegas line has been at three all week, and I think the Lions should be favored by closer to a touchdown. But I’ll go with the experts and their point spread. The Lions have too many offensive assets for a Dallas defense missing its top three pass rushers. I also wonder about Dallas’ ability to keep Hutchinson away from Prescott. He had three sacks in the December game while going against Tyron Smith. Is Guyton going to have more success? It seems unlikely, especially considering Hutchinson is playing even better right now. He is the favorite to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year, according to BetMGM. He’s listed at +275, just in front of T.J. Watt (+300), who had 1 1/2 sacks and three QB hits against the Cowboys on Sunday night.
Yousuf: I like the progress I’m seeing from the Cowboys offense, with Tolbert and Dowdle showing positive signs. Ferguson and Lamb might not be contributing to their full potential, but we know what they’re capable of, and that feels like a matter of “when” more than “if.” The real concern is the Cowboys defense, which was bad when it was at full strength and is operating without its top four defensive ends. That will be too much to overcome. Lions 33, Cowboys 28.
Rico Dowdle, Ezekiel Elliott, and the Cowboys’ Quest For Ground Game Competence – Rivers McCown, D-Magazine
McCown, formerly of Football Outsiders fame, explains how a slightly more competent ground game could open up the Cowboys offense.
In any event, the Cowboys need Dowdle to produce a higher success rate. Dak Prescott is second in the NFL in passing attempts. Some of that is because he’s good at passing. Some of that is because the Cowboys created massive negative game scripts against New Orleans and Baltimore, forcing them to throw more. But more than anything it’s an admission that the Cowboys can’t trust their running game. Even against the Browns in a game in which they quickly established a firm lead, Prescott dropped back 35 times to the team’s 25 runs.
Prescott has already faced 35 snaps on third-and-long (third-and-7 or longer) this year, eighth-most in the league. And because the Cowboys have not surrounded him with the greatest receiver talent in the world—especially now that Cooks is sidelined—he has a minus-46.4 percent DVOA on those attempts. His output has been nearly 50 percent worse than the average quarterback in those situations. The lack of a productive running game amplifies the problem here by creating even more of those third-and-longs.
The hope with Dowdle is that the burst, the tackle-breaking ability he has, and his athleticism can help the ground game. With only CeeDee Lamb qualifying as an objectively great receiver while we figure out what Jalen Tolbert can be, defensive coordinators can tee off on third-and-long. They don’t need to worry about anyone else beating them; they can play boutique coverages and roll safeties toward Lamb.
Get out of third-and-8 and into third-and-3, and the playbook opens up. If Dowdle can get the Cowboys closer to a 50 percent success rate and get them out of two or three third-and-longs a game, that can give the offense a significant boost.
So forget about a dominant run offense. That’s not happening with this personnel. But if the Cowboys can just bring this running game up to code, Prescott and the offense will have a lot more breathing room than they enjoyed in September.
Recent history among 3 things Cowboys should love about facing Lions – Ben Grimaldi, Cowboys Wire
Look for these trends to continue if the Cowboys hope to beat the Lions.
Dak Prescott to CeeDee Lamb connection
The last time these two teams played, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott tore up the Detroit defense by passing for 345 yards and two scores. Most of that damage was done by throwing to CeeDee Lamb, who caught 13 passes for 227 yards and a score on a record-breaking night for the All-Pro wide receiver.
If the Cowboys are going to win their first game of the season at home, they’ll need the dynamic duo of Prescott and Lamb to have big games.
History is on their side
The Lions aren’t the same Lions of old, but the Cowboys have had their number recently. Dallas has won seven straight games against Detroit, which in includes the crazy wild-card game from 2014. That was the start of a seven-game winning streak for the Cowboys, who have won in every way possible during that span.
There have been controversial wins, like last year’s late-December clash. There have been blowout wins like the 2016 contest, when Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott were rookies leading the team to a 42-21 victory. Dallas has also pulled out some close games, like in 2018 when the Cowboys needed a last-second field goal to beat a team that would finish 6-10.
The Cowboys young linebackers will need to step up against Detroit-Brandon Loree, Blogging the Boys
The Cowboys second-level defenders will have to grow up fast if they hope to beat Lions.
On Friday’s injury report, it was announced that veteran middle linebacker Eric Kendricks would be out of Sunday’s matchup with a shoulder injury. A backup linebacker, Nick Vigil. who signed with Dallas in August, is also questionable for Sunday after not practicing this week. If both veteran players can’t go, the focus shifts to the Cowboys young linebackers.
Overshown flashed in Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns, and after a few tough games against the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens, the former third-round pick seemed to regain confidence in Weeks 4 and 5. Overshown is second on the team in tackles with 37 and is coming off a week against the Pittsburgh Steelers in which he played 100 percent of the snaps on defense for the first time all season.
This offseason, defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer has praised Liufau for his work ethic and how quickly he picked up the defense. As a result, it has earned him more time on the field, probably way more than fans may have expected to start his rookie campaign.
Clark had a standout performance in training camp and seemed to be turning the corner in his career, but has not been on defense for more than five snaps in two weeks. If Vigil is out for Sunday, that could open the door for Clark to show he deserves to be a part of the main rotation.