Season On The Brink

The Cowboys must win their game against the Saints tonight, in New Orleans, in order to keep their division title and playoff hopes alive. (AP Photo/Amy Gutierrez)

Cowboys wide-receiver Roy Williams believes that Dallas can beat the New Orleans Saints and that this is round one of a two round fight, as they will meet later in the playoffs.

Roy Williams is delusional.

Either that or he has not been seeing the same Cowboys' team play the last couple of week that us fans have been forced to watch. This is a team that has broken at the most crucial moments on both sides of the ball in their previous two games. The reason why this is so infuriating is that this is a team that is talented enough to not only beat the NY Giants and the Chargers of the world, but also a team as great as the Saints.

This is what is so great about the NFL: any given Sunday, anything can happen. What is likely to happen, though, is that this New Orleans Saints team is going to completely annihilate the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas quarterback Tony Romo, the lone Cowboys' player to play up to his potential the last couple of weeks, knows this is a make-or-break game.

"We need this game," Romo said. "This is an important game for us and our season, where we are in the standings, so we're going to come out and hopefully play our best football game of the year."

Dallas is going to have to in order to beat the undefeated Saints in their own stadium.

The Stats

The Saints are 2-0 this December, while the Cowboys are 0-2, but New Orleans have won their two games by squeakers. Late game field goals over both the Washington Redskins (in OT) and the Atlanta Falcons in a couple of not-so-dominant performances by the Saints. On the other hand, Dallas has lost their two December games by a combined 10 points.

New Orleans has the number one offense in the NFL (35.8 points a game and 426.1 yards per) along with arguably the league's best quarterback. Drew Brees comes into today's game ranked number one in QB rating (112.3), yards per pass (8.87) and completion percentage (69.9 percent). Brees is also second in both passing yards (3,832) and touchdown passes (32).

The Saints have four receivers with over 500 yards receiving this season, led by Marques Colston's 908 and nine TD's.

The Cowboys' pass defense has been shaky at best the last few weeks, giving up 337 passing yards to Eli Manning and the Giants and 341 to Philip Rivers and the Chargers. Those two quarterbacks threw a combined three touchdowns and two interceptions in these games. Dallas might receive a boost in the secondary if Ken Hamlin (listed as questionable) can play after missing the last few games with an ankle injury.

Dallas has lost two of it's last three games on the road, and are 3-3 on the season. The Saints are 7-0 at home this season, and have won by an average of over 13 points a game in the Superdome.

Prediction

The Cowboys are faced with the extremely difficult task of beating an undefeated team late in the season. Although, as Romo brought up earlier in the week, Dallas ended the Indianapolis Colts perfect-season hopes in the 2006 season after a 9-0 start. But, of course, that was in November and this is in December. The Cowboys can win this game against the Saints, but I just do not think they will. I see this as a lower scoring game than most "experts" believe.

Dallas will give their all, and get close late, but will inevitably collapse - as they always seem to do in the most important of games.

Saints 27 - Cowboys 23

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)