The Cowboys won in thrilling fashion last Sunday night, beating the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, 27-20. The team will look to make it back to the .500 mark in their next matchup with the high-flying offense of the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons, however, are coming off of a tough, disappointing loss to the Cleveland Browns, 16-28.
One would assume that the Falcons are going to turn it around offensively this week after their embarrassing showing against Cleveland. They definitely have the pieces to do it, we know about Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, and Tevin Coleman, but rookie wide receiver Calvin Ridley is this week’s profile player.
The stud wideout from Alabama was believed by many to be the player that the Cowboys were going to take with their first-round pick back in April, but we all know what happened there, the team opted to take Leighton Vander Esch and Ridley fell to the Falcons.
Since then, Ridley has gone on to lead all rookie players in receiving touchdowns with seven, and he’s second amongst rookies in receiving yards with 500, trailing only Saquon Barkley. He’s also tied for the longest reception amongst rookies with a 75 yarder against the New Orleans Saints in week three.
There isn’t a correlation between Ridley’s success and the Falcons record this season, but with the inconsistency of the Dallas offense, it would be best if the defense held Ridley to as few catches as possible. With seven touchdowns in nine games, it’s obvious that he has a nose for the end zone when he has the ball in his hand. For the most part, the Dallas secondary has been outstanding this year, but they might need to turn in their best performance of the season for the team to win against the Falcons.
This game is a tough one to predict because we honestly don’t know if the Falcons are a good team this season or not yet (the Cowboys either). They’ve had quality wins against the Panthers and the Redskins, but they’ve also been blown out by the Steelers, Browns and suffered a buzzer-beater loss to the Bengals.
This is a winnable game for the Cowboys, but Atlanta is a tough place to play. If the Cowboys can’t get off to a quick start it’s very possible that the Falcon crowd gets into the game and causes problems with their noise. However, it really felt like we saw a team that has turned the corner against the Eagles, I’ll take the Cowboys in a close one, 24-23.
