The best team in the NFL, the Denver Broncos, are taking their offensive powerhouse tour to Texas in order to play the Dallas Cowboys, hoping to continue their perfect start by being the first visitors to win at AT&T stadium this season.
The Cowboys have now lost two games this season on the road, both of them without really knowing how it happened. They’re off to great starts, but suddenly the receiving game shuts down, and Tony Romo does avoid making mistakes (only one interception this season), but can’t get his explosive offense to work again, while the Cowboys’ pass-defense struggles in key moments of games.
There’s no such problem for the Broncos, averaging 44.8 points per game so far this season. Peyton Manning leads the NFL with 75% completion percentage, 1470 passing yards, 16 touchdown passes, a 138 passer rating and all without throwing a single interception so far this season.
So what is there to do against the Broncos? One thing the Broncos have done very well is stopping the run, allowing only 74 yards per game on the ground, which also comes from teams being forced to chase them through the air. However, if the Cowboys do manage to have another very strong start, which they are capable of executing, building on DeMarco Murray (356 yards, one touchdown) isn’t such a bad idea.
The Broncos are going to miss weakside linebacker Danny Trevathan most likely, which might create an opening for the Cowboys to get some running yards and open up things downfield by giving Jason Witten the ball more than he has so far this season, catching 21 passes for 191 yards and a couple of touchdowns. Finding one player to shut down on the Broncos is extremely difficult, with Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker and Wes Welker all catching over 24 passes so far for more than 266 yards.
The Broncos have won the last three meetings between the team, including the last of them in 2009. All the games between the teams since 2001 have been decided by 7 points or less.
Prediction – The Cowboys have the offense to give Broncos more problems than they’ve had so far, but not the defense to really slow down Peyton Manning, who still hasn’t really made a mistake this season.