by RiverDog » Wed Dec 31, 2014 8:41 am
I'm not saying that I'm scared of anyone as I do think we are the best team in football and even more so when playing at home. But there are a couple of things I want to point out, particularly as it applies to a potential matchup with the Cowboys.
Dallas has the best balanced offense of all the teams in the playoffs. They can cause us some serious matchup problems. In the first game, we had Richard Sherman shadowing Dez Bryant. Unless I am mistaken, this is the only game in the past 3 years where we've broken our tradition of leaving our corners on the same side of the field regardless of the receiver they're matched up against. That just shows the type of respect our staff has for the Cowboy offense if we break our own rules like that. They have the best OL of all the playoff participants and of those we've faced in the last half of our season, both in terms of running the ball and in protecting the quarterback.
As well as our defense has played over the past 6 weeks, we really haven't done it against top shelf quarterbacking. In our last 6 games, we have faced Drew Stanton, Colin Kaepernick (x2), Mark Sanchez, Ryan Lindley, and Shawn Hill. Only Kaepernick was a starter at the beginning of the season. As much as we've all liked to make him the butt of all our Cowboy jokes, Tony Romo is a veteran Pro Bowl quality quarterback that has played against our defense more than any other QB in the playoffs, having faced us 3 times in the last 4 years. He knows our defense and he knows what to expect from the 12th man.
I don't think the Cowboys make it to the NFCCG, though. I certainly don't think they're going to blow out the Lions. They haven't played well at home and Detroit has an offense that if it is clicking, can turn the game into a high scoring shoot out, and if they make it past them, I don't see them knocking off the Packers in Lambeau. IMO our playoff opponents will be the Panthers and the Packers.
I'm not pessimistic and I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but I do think it's appropriate that we have a balanced discussion. This is playoff football, and these teams aren't going to roll over for us.