Colts. Their margin for error is exactly nil and the Cowboys are on a 5 game winning streak. This game will present a lot of the same difficulties that the Colts faced from the Texans
Quincy Wilson Color Rush Jersey , and the Colts will need a similar team effort to come out with a win. As far as the Colts are concerned, their playoffs started last week and they can’t afford to lose another game. Here are some of the matchups to keep an eye on Sunday.Pierre Desir vs Amari CooperPhoto by Richard Rodriguez/Getty ImagesThis might seem like a laughable matchup to some, but after Desir trailed DeAndre Hopkins last week and did a pretty solid job limiting his impact on the game, it isn’t so ridiculous to think about him. Hopkins is one of the best receivers in the league, and limiting his production is no small feat. The question is, can Desir do the same to Cooper? The Cowboys’ offense has been more effective since Cooper arrived, and if Desir can keep him from gashing the Colts with big plays, and a ton of yards after the catch, it will force the game into the hands of Zeke Elliott and put him up against a run defense for the Colts that has been stout. If Desir can cover Cooper well and let the pass rush get to Dak Prescott, it will go a long way toward getting the ball as often as possible into the hands of Andrew Luck and the offense. Colts Defensive line vs Cowboys Offensive linePhoto by Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesThe Cowboys offensive line is almost a modern legend in terms of its ability. However, this unit simply isn’t the same as some in the past. They’ve missed their All-Pro center Travis Frederick, and both Tyron Smith and Zack Martin are playing hurt if they are able to play at all. What that means is that the Colts have an opportunity to get after Dak Prescott early and often against a significantly less dangerous offensive line than what this unit is when they are whole. Dak Prescott struggles with ball security and the Colts have the king of the strip-sack, Robert Mathis, coaching up their young defensive linemen. If Denico Autry can continue his stretch of excellent play and we get the next step for a guy like Tyquan Lewis on the edge, this game could get ugly for the Cowboys’ offense. Expect DC Matt Eberflus to dial up pressure and test this offensive line early in the game. T.Y. Hilton vs Byron JonesPhoto by Ronald Martinez/Getty ImagesByron Jones is a very good cornerback. He essentially shut down Zach Ertz in the Cowboys’ most recent meeting with the Eagles, and has shown a prodigious ability to play all over the field. It stands to reason that we should expect him to follow T.Y. Hilton a good bit during this coming game. After all, Hilton just put up 199 yards and was a big play machine last week. As I have said all season long, if T.Y. Hilton is a factor early and often, it bodes very well for the Colts. When Hilton plays well
Skai Moore Color Rush Jersey , the team generally wins games. His success creates opportunity for other pieces of the offense to get involved as well. In other words, this might be the matchup that decides the game.Having said that, I don’t know that Jones will trail Hilton all game. As I pointed out above, he was used to play Zach Ertz, the Eagles’ tight end in 3rd and long frequently per Jeff Cavanaugh of the Athletic, and so they might choose to use him as a way to deal with Eric Ebron. It doesn’t take much film study to know that Ebron is a dangerous red zone weapon. Regardless, if the Colts want to successfully move the ball against this defense, they’ll have to do it by at least occasionally beating Jones, or at least scheming around him, and my hunch is that Hilton will be the guy most often tasked with that job.Eric Ebron vs Cowboys linebackersPhoto by Tim Warner/Getty ImagesSpeaking of Ebron, if he isn’t covered by Byron Jones, he’ll likely see coverage from a pretty solid group of linebackers. Jaylon Smith, Leighton Vander Esch, and Sean Lee are a part of what has to be considered one of the strongest linebacker groups in the NFL. They’ll be tested this week by the Colts’ use of both their tight ends and running backs in the passing game. In his first meeting with Jacksonville, Eric Ebron put up 3 scores and ran wild on a very talented defense because Frank Reich’s play calling had them so turned around that they seemed to keep losing him. This was indicative of how well Reich is able to scheme against familiar defenses and put his guys in position to win their matchups.While I don’t expect anything as crazy as that to happen, I think Reich will definitely have a plan in place to try to wrong-foot the Cowboys’ linebackers to give them 1-on-1’s with Eric Ebron. That isn’t a matchup you ever want for your defense, regardless of the quality of linebacker. As another note on this matchup, Ebron currently sits at 13 touchdowns on the season, just 4 shy of the record set by Rob Gronkowski for the most by a tight end in NFL history.Frank Reich vs Jason GarrettPhoto by Tim Warner/Getty ImagesThis is the most important matchup of the day. Frank Reich will make his debut against the Cowboys as a head coach
https://www.coltsfanshop.com/Jack-Mewhort-Jersey , though he has faced them several times before. These two coaches are quite familiar with one another from Reich’s time with the Eagles. Given that his defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus was coaching for the Cowboys last season it is safe to say that this Colts team should be as well prepared for the Cowboys as any team they’ve faced all season long. They know what will be thrown at them from two different angles. Reich’s play calling on offense has been great at getting guys open and quickly getting the ball in their hands. His misdirection and pre-snap movement have been problematic for undisciplined defenses, and he will throw a lot at this Cowboys to try to keep them on their toes. How the Colts offense starts will be critical. Flat starts to their last few games have nearly been disastrous for them, and it puts a lot of pressure on a young Colts defense that plays best with a lead. If Reich has a solid script to start the game and can keep pressure on from ahead, it will be tough for Dallas to catch them, and force them into situations where the defense gets a chance to create turnovers.What matchup are you looking forward to? Every week, I will present a summary of some basic and advanced stats for the Colts performance relative to the league. Thanks to Pro Football Reference, NFL.com and the nflSCrapR project for being awesome sources of weekly data.This is one of those rare weeks where Drive Success Rate doesn’t really tell the story.25 first downs and a 75.8% DSR is a lot of ground to give to an opponent and normally I would say that is a bad effort.Yet Houston was held to 21 points and 1.9 points per drive which is good (for us). The disconnect is the manner in which the scoring drives happened. They were methodical but clustered.Houston got a lot of first downs indicating a behavior that normally translates to other drives, but outside those 3 drives the Texans couldn’t move the ball very well.I think the reason for that is the Colt’s defensive penalties.Each of the 3 scoring drives had at least one gifted first down.Over a third of their total first downs came after the Colts committed a penalty on the drive.When the Texans couldn’t draw a flag they couldn’t move. TEAM TOTALSHere you can see the schizophrenic nature of the stats. Adjusted Points per Drive, Yards per Play and Third Down Conversions are all good. Drive Success Rate, overall First Down Conversions, Penalties and Explosive plays are all bad. PASSINGThe Colts defense allowed Deshaun Watson to complete 71% of his passes but they were short completions with only 4.3 air yards.Yards after the Catch has been a problem and this week is no exception.You would think by Week 14, I would get used to a bend don’t break style. Evidently, it doesn’t matter what I think as holding Watson to just 1 TD and sacking him 5 times (thank you Denico Autry) is a great way to limit his production. RUSHINGNothing too exciting here. Giving up 4 explosive rushes is not a good thing, but limiting Third Down conversions to 33% is. CONCLUSIONS & NEXT MATCH-UPIf it wasn’t for the penalties, this would have been a great week for the defense. But penalties were called (right or wrong) and they played well enough to win against a good team (did I justsay that?). Dallas is up next and they have had one of the better offenses in the league on the year. Dak Prescott to Amari Cooper is no joke as their passing game ranks 11th by DSR over the last 5 weeks. Against a Colts defense that ranks 17th in preventing ANY/A, that gives the edge to Dallas.I’ve also heard that Ezekiel Elliott can run the ball, but with a 5 week wRSR ranked 15th and a Colts D that’s 1st in wRSR against, that might be a favorable Indy match-up.TRAILING 5 WEEK TOTALS (per game)SEASON TOTALS (per game)
13th June 2019
The Cowboys come to town Sunday in yet another critical game for the
