Santoliquito: Cowboys Team To Beat In NFC East
PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS)— They had heard all summer how wretched they were supposed to be. They had heard the rumblings that they would be lucky if they won five games. They've won five of their first six—and are the surprise team of the NFL.
No one expected this, probably not even the Dallas Cowboys. But here they sit, tied atop the NFC East with the Eagles, each with 5-1 records.
But as of mid-October, where we are right now, it's about the only thing equal about the Dallas Cowboys and the Eagles.
The Cowboys are better right now, in mid-October, than the Eagles. They're first in the NFL in rushing, averaging 160.3 yards a game. They're fourth in points scored, averaging 27.5 points a game. They have the third-overall best offense, averaging 389.7 yards a game, and their defense is eighth in the NFL, giving up 21 points per game.
Through the first six weeks, Cowboys' running back DeMarco Murray has to be one of the leading candidates for MVP, averaging 130.8 yards rushing a game. If he keeps up this pace, he'll rush for 2,092 yards, threatening Eric Dickerson's 30-year all-time single-season standard of 2,105. Murray's also averaged 26.5 carries a game, and if that pace continues, he'll break Larry Johnson's all-time single-season total of 416 established in 2006 with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Murray is the second player in NFL history to begin a season with six straight games of at least 100 rushing yards (the other was Jim Brown in 1958). The fact is, if Murray keeps getting the ball at this pace, there may not be anything left of him by the time the Eagles face the Cowboys two times in a span of three weeks in late November.
The true reason why the Cowboys are good—and will continue to be good—are tackle Tyron Smith and Doug Free, center Travis Frederick and guards Ronald Leary and Zack Martin. Smith, Frederick and Martin are first-round picks, and playing like it. Free, who's out three to possibly four weeks with a foot injury, was a fourth-round find, and Leary was undrafted free agent signee in 2012.
It's this front that makes the Cowboys formidable and keeps Tony Romo upright. It's also going to pose problems for the Eagles, wince Free will back in plenty of time for the Thanksgiving Day game and Dec. 14 game at Lincoln Financial Field.
Hopefully by then, Dallas will show some wear. Because right now the Cowboys are a scary team to face, especially after beating Seattle, still the standard in the NFC, in Seattle. The way the Cowboys smacked around New Orleans, 38-17, doesn't bode well for anyone that faces the Cowboys.
Looks like the pundits may have had it wrong, which isn't exactly a first. But it is mid-October. The Eagles will be a better team, bordering on a far better team, when the two meet on Thanksgiving. By then, who knows what the Cowboys will be.
Right now, though, they're the class of the NFC East, not the Eagles.
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