The schedule makers were very kind to the Dallas Cowboys, giving them three straight and five of six home games from Nov. 18 through Dec. 23.
Whether Dallas takes advantage or not remains to be seen.
The Cowboys have a full head of steam entering Sunday's matchup with the Cleveland Browns, and will try to build on an upcoming soft schedule. They got themselves back into the playoff mix with last week's 38-23 win at Philadelphia and heated up the NFC East race.
Big plays on defense and special teams resuscitated the Cowboys back to life in a game that meant so much for both teams. The Eagles also entered the game at 3-5, but quarterback Michael Vick was knocked out of the game with a concussion and Dallas turned up the defense on rookie QB Nick Foles. Brandon Carr returned a tipped pass for a touchdown and both DeMarcus Ware and Anthony Spencer each had a crucial sack to seal the win.
Jason Hatcher recovered a fumble in the end zone on a big sack deep in Eagles territory to finish the scoring and cap a 21-point fourth quarter. Along with Carr's pick six and Hatcher's gift in the end zone, Dwayne Harris had a 78- yard punt return for a score.
"We talk about 'all three phases,' really, on a daily basis," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "Everybody has a role in what we're doing, and everybody has to pick each other up. ... Everybody understands it's a team game."
Garrett, though, wasn't too pleased that the Cowboys were penalized 13 times for 75 yards, and thought the defensive infractions hurt tremendously. It seemed Dallas wanted to give the game away and amazingly improved to 3-1 this season when committing at least 13 penalties. Ten of the 13 penalties on Sunday were against the defense, six of which gave the Eagles a first down. Rookie cornerback Morris Claiborne was flagged five times on the afternoon.
But perseverance and patience paid off for Dallas, which sits right behind the struggling 6-4 New York Giants for first place in the division. The Giants have been known for their November breakdowns and things could get interesting over the next few weeks.
Dallas ended a two-game losing streak and won for just the second time in six games. It will have to come out firing on all cylinders against Browns rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden. Weeden is tied for second in the NFL with 12 interceptions, but guess who leads the league in that category? That would be Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo with 13. Romo has had two games with four or more picks and hasn't thrown one in two straight and three of four games.
"The ball is the most important thing ... we've got to protect the football," Romo said. "We talk about it all the time. And when you can do that. You have a chance to have some success and be a pretty good football team."
Right now the Browns are not a good football team and had their bye week to reflect on that. They entered the break with losses in two of three games and are just 2-7 on the season.
Cleveland, which was 3-6 at this point a season ago, dropped a 25-15 decision versus Baltimore on Nov. 4. It played well defensively, holding the rival Ravens under 300 yards (282) of offense and keeping Ray Rice from rushing for more than 100 yards (98). But at the end of the day, a pair of interceptions by Weeden proved to be costly.
Browns head coach Pat Shurmur discussed what went on during the bye.
"As coaches, we got a chance to sit down and evaluate what went right early in the year and what didn't go well and what we want to try to focus on. That part was good," Shurmur said. "I think the players got a chance to get away a little bit and take advantage of some much-needed rest."
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/15/3098742/nfl-preview-cleveland-2-7-at-dallas.html
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