TNF: Saints vs Cowboys Game Thread

Thursday Night Football, Week 13. Tonight the New Orleans Saints take a short trip west to take on the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas, Texas.

The Saints are playing for playoff positioning, as they are at this point virtually assured a playoff spot. The Cowboys are still just looking to keep their playoff hopes on a sound footing.

The 10-1 New Orleans Saints come into this game riding a league best 10 game winning streak and are one of only two teams that have lost just one game all year. The Saints feature the most prolific scoring attack in football, with a future Hall of Fame quarterback in Drew Brees, a Pro Bowl receiver in Michael Thomas, and one of the best backfield duos in the NFL in Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram. This Saints juggernaut has put up 30 or more points in all but one game all season.

The 6-5 Cowboys come into the game hot as well, riding a three game winning streak. The Cowboys offense is nothing to write home about with game manager Dak Prescott manning the helm at quarterback and not much beyond Amari Cooper at the receiver position. A large dose of running back Ezekiel Elliott is essential for Cowboys success. The real strength of the Cowboys is their defense, ranked third in the NFL in fewest points allowed. The Cowboys have allowed opponents more than 24 points in only one game this season, and have never allowed more than 28.

On paper this one boils down to whether the Cowboys defense can slow down the Saints offense enough to stay in the game. Very few NFL offenses have the goods to stay in a shootout with this Saints offense, and the Cowboys aren’t one of them. The Cowboys only realistic hope in this game is to dominate with their running attack and have the defense somehow limit the Saints more effectively than just about any defense has this season. This is a daunting challenge for the Cowboys.

It’s the Saints and the Cowboys in an intriguing matchup of offensive juggernaut against defensive stalwart in tonight’s Thursday Night Football action.

Enjoy the game everybody.

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