Position battleground (offense): Cowboys vs. Texans head-to-head breakdown

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If you had to describe the Cowboys offense right now in one word, what would that word be?

The Dallas Cowboys are set to take on the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football this week, that’s after a wildly lackluster performance against the Philadelphia Eagles. Let’s take a look at both teams offense’s and see which is performing better.

QUARTERBACK

Cooper Rush/Trey Lance
vs.
CJ Stroud

Last week was an unmitigated disaster. Both Cooper Rush and Trey Lance combined for 66 passing yards, zero touchdowns and three turnovers. The 66 passing yards was the ninth-fewest in a game in franchise history and the 2.3 average passing yards per play was third-least in franchise history. Mike McCarthy has announced that Rush will start again this week, let’s see how long he hold onto the position against Houston. Let’s hope if they do make the change they actually communicate this time as Rush looked confused when Lance took to the field.

C.J. Stroud exploded on the scene last season and took the league by storm. This year he’s hit the sophomore slump, and a year of teams evaluating his game has seen his production this year dip. Among 32 starting quarterbacks he ranks 26th in completion percentage and his 89.1 passer rating ranks 17th. Last season, Stroud scored three rushing touchdowns, for a rookie that’s good going when you add to his passing success. This season he’s score zero rushing touchdowns and has fumbled the ball five times.

Conclusion:

The Cowboys defense is allowing more passing yards between the two teams but here’s one point to note, the Texans are allowing the second-most passing touchdowns in the league. In fact, on the road no other defense in the NFL has allowed more passing touchdowns than Houston.
Win: Texans

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RUNNING BACK

Rico Dowdle/Ezekiel Elliott
vs.
Joe Mixon/Cam Akers

Rico Dowdle is actually looking like a decent running back lately. It’s refreshing to see and some of that has to do with the run blocking looking slightly better. Dowdle made a number of big plays last week, but unfortunately he has to deal with the coaches stubbornness to play Ezekiel Elliott. Dowdle was averaging 4.4 yards per carry and had a huge play where he blasted upfield for 19 yards. Zeke averaged just 3.6 yards per carry and his longest run was just eight yards.

In seven games, Joe Mixon hasn’t reached 100-yards rushing in just two of them. To add more pain to this, he’s scored at least one touchdown in every single game apart from one. His 655 rush yards are 13th-most among running backs and his seven rushing touchdowns is fourth-most. Only Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley are averaging more rush yards per game than Mixon, the only difference is both of those running backs have registered fumbles this year but Mixon has stayed clean.

Conclusion:

The Cowboys are second-worst in the NFL at stopping the run and are allowing 152 yards per game (that’s crazy). Adding to their run stopping woes, Dallas is allowing the most rushing touchdowns at home, averaging three rushing touchdowns per game in AT&T stadium, that’s just sad.
Win: Texans

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WIDE RECEIVERS

CeeDee Lamb/Jalen lbert/KaVontae Turpin
vs.
Nico Collins/John Metchie/Tank Dell

CeeDee Lamb was the latest victim of the Dallas sun in last week’s game— annoyingly. It’s hard to judge the receiving corps based on the fact the Cowboys quarterbacking was so astronomically poor, but there is a chance things improve this week. The coaches can prepare Rush a little better but the Texans have allowed a lot of passing touchdowns this year. Where Rush or Lance will struggle to deliver this week to their receivers is the fact the Texans allow the lowest completion percentage and have allowed only 174 receiving yards this year, fourth-best.

Nico Collins has been tending to a hamstring injury and has been out for the last five weeks. The news around the campfire is there’s a chance he suits up this week and that’s bad news for the Cowboys secondary. Tank Dell and John Metchie have both been enjoying the extra targets with both Collins and Stefon Diggs out. Dell had over 100-yards two weeks ago and Metchie scored his first NFL touchdown last week against Detroit.

Conclusion:

Lamb is the clear winner in terms of wide receiver talent and even Jalen Tolbert and KaVontae Turpin are wide receivers that have similar or better production than their Houston counterparts. The problem here is the quarterback position, and that’s a huge difference for these two receiver units.
Win: Push

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TIGHT END

Jake Ferguson
vs.
Dalton Schultz

Jake Ferguson helped add to the horrific turnover rate in last week’s game with a fumble off a routine catch. It was a bad day for everyone and Ferguson isn’t known for being a turnover guy.

Schultz gets to return to AT&T and he will relish walking back onto the field in Arlington. Schultz has only 29 receptions for 310 yards, among tight ends that ranks 17th, which is below Ferguson.

Conclusion:

Neither tight end has scored a touchdown this year and both defenses match up pretty similarly in terms of production allowed against the tight end position.
Win: Cowboys

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OFFENSIVE LINE

The run blocking was an improvement, but with the ball set so low this season, that isn’t saying much. The optimistic view here is that things are on the up. Terence Steele and Zack Martin both allowed a sack and that right hand side of the line is having some real problems. Cooper Beebe also allowed a sack but it was Tyler Smith that was star of the line last week. He was rock solid allowing no pressures and was one part of the line that managed to weather the storm. Asim Richards did adequately in Tyler Guyton’s place, the question is whether Guyton resumes his role this week. So far this season the Cowboys offensive line has allowed the eighth-most pressures and sacks, but their run blocking is their biggest weakness.

The Houston offensive line is maybe its biggest issue on offense. They did lose two pieces to injured reserve this year and their line statistically is worse than Dallas. They have allowed the fifth-most pressures and third-most sacks, averaging 3.5 sacks allowed per game. As for the run blocking, their unit is probably struggling much the same as Dallas but the work done Mixon and his ability to mask over the deficiencies has helped in a ginormous way. This unit has had its inconsistencies this year.
Win: Push