After a heart breaking loss against the New Orleans Saints this past Sunday night, the Dallas Cowboys are facing the reigning Super Bowl Champions, the New England Patriots. The Patriots are arguably the best team in the NFL right now, with a perfect record at 3-0 and their future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady playing at the highest peak of football. In just three games, Brady has accumulated over 1,100 yards and nine touchdowns. No question, the Cowboys can certainly believe that they’ll have their hands full, especially with a healthy Pat’s team.

Cowboys Offense:

It’s starting to become an excruciating and costly trend for the Texas team, as each week they’ve lost a key component in their offense. Last week it was their leading receiver in yards, Lance Dunbar, who is now out for the year with a torn ACL. Already shorthanded without their star studded one-two punch Tony Romo and Dez Bryant, each loss is coming at a huge price. In Dallas’ favor, they do play in one of the weakest division in the league, in terms of record wise. For this week against New England, Cowboys are going to need their current quarterback Brandon Weeden to play his best game yet. Weeden had some nice moments against the Saints, including a 60 yard pass to receiver Brice Butler  (who to add will also miss this week’s game against Patriots) and the dramatic fourth down, fourth quarter pass to receiver Terrance Williams to tie the game before heading into overtime. Cowboys will need to put in their trust in Weeden, let him open up the offense by taking deep throws down the field. The problem with the Cowboys running game as of late ultimately has to do with the boxes being loaded, moving the ball down the field by passing, should free up the running game. The Boys’ know they’ll need the running game to be effective this week, so expect starting running back Joseph Randle to have a bounce back game against the Patriots.  To touch back up on receiving, Cowboys will probably go heavy on the multiple tight end formation, for blocking and receiving. As mentioned Butler being out, tight end Jason Witten should get many looks.

Cowboys Defense:

Help is certainly on the way for the Silver and Blue team! Cowboys finally get linebacker Rolando McClain and highly scrutinized defensive end Greg Hardy back this week, after each player had served a four game suspension by the league. Undoubtedly a huge boost for the Cowboys on the defense, who need all the help they can. Another bright spot to add, linebacker Sean Lee will also be on the field, who suffered a concussion last Sunday, but was cleared this week for game time action. This will be the first time McClain and Lee will be on the turf together, and they should make some noise. Most shocking player for Dallas has arguably been cornerback Morris Claiborne, who is playing like he was projected out of college. After holding his ground well against the speedy receiver Brandin Cooks from the Saints, Claiborne should be ready for the challenge against slot receiver Julien Edelman.

Keys to win the game:

For the Cowboys, its simple, keep the high octane offense of Patriots off the field. In order to do that is by eating up the clock, running the ball and converting passes on third and fourth downs. Cowboys will have to play their best game of the season so far, there’s no question. To add about running the ball, the Dallas offensive line has to be ready this week. They’ve as of recently been taking some heat for the past few weeks running game performance, but not all the blame goes on them. As mentioned earlier, the opposition defenses have been loading up the boxes on the run game, which makes the offense stagnant. The Boys will have to believe their quarterback and let him dictate this offense freely.

Prediction:

It’s going to be a tough afternoon for the Cowboys, as they face an elite team. Despite America’s team getting back a few big defensive pieces, it’s going to be hard to stop Pats offense. With a shorthanded injury depleted roster of an offense, Cowboys will need to put on their best effort. Even with that, it’s going to be a battle to keep pace.

Final score: Patriots 33, Cowboys 27