Patriots defense matches up well against Cowboys offense

The Dallas Cowboys have a powerful and diverse offensive attack, but the New England Patriots are well-equipped to neutralize it on Sunday.

Any way you slice it, the New England Patriots are going to have their hands full this Sunday with the Dallas Cowboys.

The Cowboys are No. 1 in the NFL in total yards per game, No. 1 in passing yards per game, No. 7 in rushing yards per game, and No. 4 in points per game. Quarterback Dak Prescott leads the league in passing yards, receiver Amari Cooper is fourth in the league in receiving yards, and running back Ezekiel Elliott is eighth in the league in rushing yards.

To say this offense is extremely potent and efficient is an understatement. The Cowboys offense is everything the Patriots offense wishes it could be this year.

Elliott’s backup Tony Pollard is one of the better second-string backs in the NFL. Randall Cobb and Michael Gallup – combined with Cooper – represent the best wide receiver corps in the NFC. Prescott is a legitimate MVP candidate this year.

All of that is the bad news if you’re a New England fan this week. The good news is that this Patriots defense actually matches up pretty well with the Cowboys offense.

Let’s start with Cooper. The dynamic former Alabama wide receiver has already tied a career high in touchdowns this season and looks like a lock for 1,000 yards. He’s undeniably the most explosive threat on this Dallas team, a first-round draft pick who has more than lived up to all the hype as a professional football player so far.

Unfortunately for Cooper, he likely draws Stephon Gilmore this weekend at Gillette Stadium. Gilmore has followed up a Pro Bowl season in 2018 with an even more lockdown effort in 2019. Along the way, he’s cemented his status as the top cornerback in the league. Cooper might catch a couple balls on Sunday, but unless Gilmore stops playing at the exceptional level he’s maintained through 10 New England games this season, there’s a very good chance Cooper gets eliminated from making much of a difference on the outcome of this game.

The Patriots secondary this season is so much more than just Gilmore though.

Jonathan Jones has been a regular all year on ProFootballFocus’ rankings of the most effective cornerbacks in the NFL, and he’ll probably be tasked with covering Randall Cobb out of the slot this Sunday. Cobb has been red-hot of late, catching 16 of 23 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns in the month of November alone. He’s a tough draw for any defensive back, but if there’s one player in the league who looks up to the challenge, it’s definitely Jones.

That leaves Jason McCourty on Michael Gallup. McCourty has flown a bit under the radar this season up in New England while Gilmore and the “Boogeymen” linebacking corps have stolen most of the headlines, but he’s been even better in his second season as a Patriot than he was in 2018. His veteran ability and know-how should be instrumental in slowing down Gallup, a talented second-year player with plenty of potential but not a whole lot of big game experience under his belt.

After that “Big Three” of starting Cowboys receivers, the talent among Dallas’ pass-catchers falls off quite a bit. Jason Witten is a future Hall of Famer, but he also spent all of last season retired from playing while commentating in a broadcast booth; he’s obviously lost a step. Tavon Austin is an interesting gadget player but not much more than that. Outside those two guys and the players already listed, no one else represents much of a threat catching passes from Prescott in Foxborough this weekend.

Of course, the biggest threats of all are Prescott himself and Elliott.

Elliott isn’t quite as dominant this year as he was in 2018, but he’s still a top-five running back in the NFL who can make plays as both a runner and a receiver. There’s a good chance Bill Belichick identifies Elliott as the No. 1 priority for his defense to take away on Sunday; that’s easier said than done of course, but the Patriots’ run defense looked much improved against the Eagles than it did in its prior two games against the Ravens and Browns.

If they can build on that performance from Week 11 in Philadelphia, New England should be able to at least mitigate some of the damage Elliott inevitably inflicts. It all starts with the big bodies up front for the Pats – namely, Lawrence Guy, Danny Shelton, and Adam Butler.

More than anything else though, New England wins or loses this weekend depending on how they handle Prescott. He’s been the story of the season if you’re a Cowboys fan, and he’s rightly at the top of the list of candidates for league MVP alongside Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson this year.

The Patriots need to do a better job of keeping Prescott contained in the pocket than they did Jackson in Week 9. If New England manages to take away Prescott’s ability to scramble for positive yardage when plays break down, they can trust the back-end of their defense to cover the Cowboys’ cast of electric wide receivers so the Patriots don’t get beat deep.

None of this is new if you’re a fan of the Patriots this season. As much as the New England offense has become a lightning rod for criticism, doubt, and frustration, the defense has proven time and time again that they’re the real deal – outside of a few bad quarters in Baltimore, that is.

This D has all the tools and potential to shut down the Dallas O on Sunday, and that should be a source of comfort for Pats Nation as they continue to worry about Tom Brady, the offensive line, and the lack of overall talent at the skill positions in New England this year.