Who’ll win the weekend in Week 10: Cowboys on brink, and Rams ready to rebound
Yahoo Sports NFL senior writers Kimberley A. Martin, Charles Robinson and Terez Paylor select Week 10 games that can leave us buzzing heading into Monday.
Martin’s pick
Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles
An angry Jerry Jones is an unpredictable Jerry Jones. And that makes this “Sunday Night Football” matchup even more delicious.
“America’s Team” has plenty of issues to fix heading into Week 10 — namely, their struggling quarterback, Dak Prescott, the play-calling of offensive coordinator Scott Linehan and their often-on-the-hot-seat head coach Jason Garrett.
The NFC East is still wide open, thanks to the dumpster fire that is the New York Giants and the mounting injuries plaguing the first-place Washington Redskins. To say this is a must-win for the Cowboys, who are a game behind Philadelphia and two games behind the ’Skins, is an understatement. Securing this road victory won’t be easy. The Eagles are 21st in the league in points per game (22.2) and 15th in total offense (366.9 yards per contest), but they’re tough to beat at home. They’re 17-5 since 2016 (including the playoffs) at Lincoln Financial Field. Meanwhile, the Cowboys are 0-4 on the road this season.
Jones said recently that he has no plans to make midseason changes to his coaching staff. But all it would take is one massive meltdown against the rival defending Super Bowl champions — on national television — to get the owner’s blood boiling. Dallas already is in the midst of a two-game losing streak. One more defeat would drop Dallas to 3-6 before it gears up for matchups against the Falcons, Redskins and Saints. And mounting losses just might cost a coach his job.
Robinson’s pick
Cowboys at Eagles
This is always a contentious matchup, but there’s a little something extra riding on this one for Dallas.
Sitting at 3-5 and coming off a severely disappointing home loss to the Tennessee Titans on “Monday Night Football,” the Cowboys appears to be on the cusp of a tailspin. A win in Philadelphia could hold off the wolves at least a little bit longer for head coach Jason Garrett. But a loss – particularly a lopsided one – would be disastrous. If Dallas is going to avoid one of those embarrassing double-digit loss seasons, this game could make or break that effort.
On the flip side, the Eagles are coming off a bye week and finding some more consistency across the board. This will be the first game in an Eagles uniform for rental Golden Tate, giving another weapon to upward trending quarterback Carson Wentz.
Paylor’s pick
Seattle Seahawks at Los Angeles Rams
The Seahawks (4-4) have been a little better than many expected them to be. And now they have a chance to go over .500 against an NFC West rival coming off its first loss of the season. The Rams dropped to 8-1 after their spotlight defeat against the Saints last Sunday.
For obvious reasons, I expect the Rams to come out fired up. They’ve spent the past several days hearing people talk about the Saints now being the NFC’s best team, and for all the competitors in that locker room, there’s no way that’s going to go over well. What’s more, they’ll be at home, and eager to get the sour taste of the loss out of their mouths. That especially goes for the defense, which hasn’t been as good as many thought it would be, overall.
This one should be fun.
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