If the Arizona Cardinals score less than 27 points against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, a strange trend for the Dallas Cowboys will live for one more week.
For the previous eight opponents, they have all seen the same thing happen the following week after playing the Cowboys.
They have all scored fewer points the week after playing Dallas than they did when they lined up against the Cowboys. For seven of those eight teams, they scored fewer points the week before playing Dallas too.
The only team to break the trend of scoring more the week before was Washington.
The Commanders scored 24 against the Bears before putting up 22 against Dallas.
Washington only managed seven points the week after the Cowboys’ loss at Kansas City.
If you are an offensive coordinator in the NFL and your team had a bad day, there is one thing that should brighten your day. The Dallas Cowboys being your next opponent.
It will be interesting to see how much longer the trend holds up.
The Next Chances
The Cardinals have a tough challenge on Sunday.
Seattle is 6-2 and tied for first with the Rams. The Seahawks are giving up just under 19 points a game.
The last time the teams played, back in Week 4 in Phoenix, Arizona scored 20 points.
They, and Tampa Bay (38 points) are the only two teams to score 20 points or more against Seattle this season.
The Cowboys’ next opponent, the Las Vegas Raiders, played Denver on Thursday night. Las Vegas put up just seven points on the Broncos.
Depending on how severe Geno Smith’s leg injury is, the Cowboys could be facing Kenny Pickett at quarterback.
The last backup quarterback they faced, Joshua Dobbs, hung 27 points on them.
The Breakdown
TEAM – Week Before – Vs. Dallas – Following week
- Eagles N/A 24 20
- Giants 6 37 9
- Bears 21 31 25
- Packers 10 40 27
- Jets 21 22 11
- Panthers 27 30 13
- Commanders 24 22 7
- Broncos 33 44 18
- Cardinals 23 27 TBD
- Raiders 7 TBD TBD
Cowboys Cure-All
Dallas has to hope that its recent additions of defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and linebacker Logan Wilson will help shore up the defense.
At least by enough to reverse this season’s trend of being what cures the opponent’s ailing offensive attack.
If the Cowboys are going to make any kind of a run for the playoffs, this trend has to come to an end. Nor can they afford to let it return later in the season.
Realistically, the Cwoboys need to go no worse than 6-2 in the second half of 2025.
That gets them to 9-7-1 at the end of the year and hoping its enough to earn a wildcard spot.
Playing our defense don’t change how much they score against other teams!! We got a bad defensive play caller, so whatever team plays us is gonna score a lot!! The only time our defense was decent was when our defensive coordinator listened to Schotty and started calling more man coverage, which was only 2 or 3 games!! The rest of the games, he was stuck on his original zone coverage that don’t fit our players, and that’s why all those teams scored so much on us!! It’s not hard for a team to score less against a good defense and then score a lot on our defense and then score less again against the team they play after us!! And until our defensive coordinator changes his scheme, it’s gonna keep happening!!
And yet, teams are scoring less when they play someone else the week before and the week after. It’s as if there’s a common denominator in there somewhere
Strange that…
If only we could determine what that might be…