Some interesting stats to pass along... The Eagles have the NFL's 12th ranked offense. The Cowboys are 10th. The Eagles have the 24th-ranked defense. The Cowboys are 20th. Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, the fleet-footed one, has been sacked 17 times. Cowboys quarterback Vinny Testaverde, the old man, has been sacked 14 times. The Eagles' sack leader, Jevon Kearse, has six sacks. The Cowboys' leader, Greg Ellis, has six sacks. The Eagles are 7-1. The Cowboys, 3-5. Funny how even the best of stats do not add up. What doesn't compute? Here are two more stats. The Eagles' turnover differential is plus-nine, tied for third in the NFL. The Cowboys' is minus-12, tied for 29th in the NFL. The Eagles own 16 take-aways, 10th in the NFL. The Cowboys own five, dead last. It is interesting to note that the 1989 team had a franchise low 17 takeaways....and we were 1-15 then. We are on pace for 10!?!?! FYI - the NFL record low belongs to Green Bay with 16 in 1995. The Cowboys have but five take-aways - four interceptions and the one fumble recovery. Worse, three of those interceptions all came against Cleveland. That means the Cowboys have but one interception over the other seven games - Lance Frazier vs. Detroit. So this also means the Cowboys have gone take-away-less in five of eight games this year. Now why? Problems at corner have forced the Cowboys to play conservatively. That mean less Roy Williams and other blitzers. Without them, there is little consistent pressure by the front four. Not only that, you have to add in a measure of just plum bad luck. I mean, it's not as if the Cowboys haven't forced any fumbles. They have. Eight of them. Now that's not great, OK, and it's four less than the league average after nine weeks. And only four teams in the league have forced fewer opposition fumbles. But good grief, what are the odds of recovering just 12 percent of your forced fumbles? This all smacks of the same bad fortune the Cowboys are going through with opposing field-goal kickers. Do you realize their opponents are 16-for-16 on field goals this season? Perfect? And seven of those are from at least 45 yards and two of those from 51. You know, that streak goes all the way back to last year, when opponents finished the season and playoffs going 13-for-13. That's making good on an incredible 29 out of the last 29 attempts against the Cowboys. And if you take all of last year, covering the past 24 games, it's a mind boggling 37-of-39. In fact - OK, I'm going to quit - if you go back to 2002, you can add on another eight-of-eight from the end of the season, meaning that unbelievable number runs to 45-of-47. You can't even do that against air in practice. Guess the Cowboys can't pressure a kicker, either, let alone a quarterback. But if the Cowboys are to pull out of this take-away ditch, they must get pressure on quarterbacks, and this might not be the game to get started, since this is, after all, McNabb back there, the guy who has run them ragged the past few years. Not only would collecting a few more take-aways help the defense, but also the offense. Did you realize that of the Cowboys' touchdowns - nary a return for a score - only three of the drives have been less than 50 yards? Two of those, 31 and 46, were set up by ReShard Lee kick-off returns. Only one of the Cowboys' scoring drives has been set up by a turnover, and at that, they still had to go 59 yards. And 10 of those scoring drives have been at least 65 yards. No lay-up scores for the Cowboys, no siree. They earn what they get. But that's why they are where they are.
