After narrowly escaping the Black Hole and nabbing a 20-17 victory against the Raiders last weekend, the Cowboys are still alive in the playoff hunt. Dallas will play what is the biggest game of the season thus far on Christmas Eve against the Seahawks.
Seattle and Dallas will enter Sunday’s matchup with an outside shot of making the playoffs. The loser will be eliminated from postseason contention, while the winner will survive and advance to week 17.
The Seahawks are coming off of an absolute demoralizing loss at home to the Rams, 42-7. The worst loss in the Pete Carrol era.
Seattle doesn’t have much left, injuries and age lead many of the experts to believe that their window for contending deep into the playoffs is closing. They don’t have a lot of talent on their roster, but Russell Wilson has been their superman this year and will be the player spotlight this week.
Wilson is second in the NFL in passing touchdowns with 30. He is also seventh in yards with 3,669. On an offense that has been as dreadful as the Seahawks, those numbers are incredibly impressive. However, Wilson has accounted for a fair number of yards on the ground as well.
Wilson is 31st in the NFL in rushing yards with 521, he is less than 100 yards behind the likes of Demarco Murray, Tevin Coleman and Alfred Morris for the season, and is ahead of running backs like Doug Martin, Matt Forte, and Jay Ajayi. Wilson leads the Seahawks in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.
The video game type numbers that Wilson has put up in 2017 has him very much alive in the MVP race. Wilson has been responsible for all but one of Seattle’s touchdowns this year and has accounted for nearly 90% of the Seahawks’ offensive yards.
The key to a Cowboys’ victory? Keep Wilson on the sideline. The return of Ezekiel Elliott will be a major benefit to that cause. A strong running game that takes a lot of time off of the clock will be the best defense the Cowboys can put up against the sixth-year quarterback.
After watching what the Rams did to Seattle last week, many assume the Cowboys can do the same thing this weekend or something similar. Offensively, I’d agree but defensively the Cowboys will struggle to contain Wilson.
Dallas will keep their playoff hopes alive and eliminate Wilson for the first time in his career on Sunday by a score of 31-27. A steady diet of Ezekiel Elliott will keep Wilson on the sideline long enough to prevent him from scoring more points.
They will still need help but the Cowboys’ playoff hopes will be alive and well by Sunday night.
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