Clarence Hill: 5 Things the Dallas Cowboys, Dak Prescott must do to beat Detroit Lions

Dak Prescott is officially back.

And so, too, will be an efficient and productive Dallas Cowboys offense.

At least, that’s the hope and the plan, starting with Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions.

Don’t buy into the narrative Prescott needs to learn from backup quarterback Cooper Rush, who led the Cowboys to a 4-1 over the past five weeks while Prescott recovered from a fractured thumb in the season opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Cowboys will continue to be led by a top-10 defense and lean on their running backs. But for the offense to be it’s optimal best, they need Prescott, who passed for 4,449 yards and a team-record 37 touchdowns in 2021, making plays in the passing game.

That’s especially true when you consider the team’s third-down woes and absence of the big plays in the passing game.

The Cowboys have a third-down conversion rate of 30.9% and they have just 12 plays of 20 yards are more through six games. They have only run 294 plays.

“I don’t see us playing much differently than we’ve played,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “The thing you want to do is just stay on course of what we need to improve on. Our numbers are down just start with play count. We need to get the play count up. How do you do that? You get more first downs. I like where our run numbers are, but you’d like to get some more opportunities in the passing game for our perimeter players. That’s the formula for balance. We have been productive pretty much running the football. But we do definitely need to get more production in our pass game, and that will come with more production on first down and a higher conversion rate on third down.”

That should come with Prescott back in the lineup.

Receiver CeeDee Lamb said “Sky’s the limit for the offense now and it’s to show everybody now good they can be.

“The Cowboys offense is going to be the Cowboys offense,” Lamb said. “We are going to do whatever we got to do to put numbers up and have fun doing it.”

5 Things the Cowboys must do to beat the Lions:

Run the ball with Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard

Certainly, the Cowboys want to get the passing game going with quarterback Dak Prescott back in the lineup.

Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore must also lean on the running game with Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard against a defense that ranks 32 on the ground, giving up 167.6 yards per game.

It’s the right thing to do against the Lions and for Prescott.

“I think running the football makes things go a little bit easier,” Elliott said. “Even when it may not be that effective, you’re still wearing on that defense. You’re still creating body blows and then you’re impacting the game and making play-action work. I don’t think it really matters if they were first or last.”

“I think it’s important for us to continue to attack defenses on the ground. Why not? You’ve got two great backs and a good o-line, so why don’t you make it easy for Dak?”

Elliott had 13 carries for 81 yards against the Eagles and is fresh has he’s ever been through six games in a season because of how the team is splitting his reps with Pollard. He has 94 carries for 386 yards but has only caught six passes for 32 yards. Pollard has 55 carries for 292 yards on the ground.

“I feel good. I feel ready to go,” Elliott said. “Me and TP both. I think we’re ready for this team to lean on us.”

Allow Micah Parsons put homework from Eagles game into practice

Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons didn’t have a bad game against the Eagles last Sunday.

But it wasn’t one of his best as the Eagles gave him lots of attention and schemed their attack toward him with the run/pass options.

He spent extra time with defensive coordinator Dan Quinn this week working on his game.

“I just got to hone in on my craft and get better this week,” Parsons said. “I personally made self adjustments, analyzed with coaches. I sat down with them and [went over] things that I can do to be better and how I can fix my game. This week, I’m just looking to hush everything up.”

Parsons leads the Cowboys with six sacks, 19 pressures and three tackles for loss.

Stop the run on defense

Because the Cowboys have the league’s best pass rush, opponents are focusing on their run defense as an area of weakness.

The Cowboys rank 19th in the NFL against the run, giving up 120.7 yards per game.

In last Sunday’s 26-17 loss to the Eagles, the Cowboys gave up just 136 yards on a whopping 39 carries.

But the Eagles forced the run. Most pointedly, on a fourth-quarter drive after the Cowboys cut the lead to 20-17, the Eagles ran it 11 straight times on a 13-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that proved to be the difference in the game.

Now, the Lions are coming with the league’s eighth-ranked running attack, averaging 151.4 yards per game on the ground led by a thunder-lighting combo of Jamal Williams and D’Andre Swift.

The Cowboys know they must stop the run on Sunday.

“We just emphasize shark week,” Parsons said. “That’s what we emphasize this week. No matter what’s out there, you’re going to beat them up. You know what I’m saying. That’s what we are emphasizing this week. We just got to go do it. The next thing you know it’s just execution.”

Winter is coming; Can the Cowboys handle the North

Mike McCarthy was asked multiple times this week if he was starting to feel like the Green Bay Packers coach again?

Why?

Starting Sunday against the Lions, the Cowboys have four straight games against his former division, the NFC North. They play the Chicago Bears Oct. 30 at AT&T Stadium then have a bye.

They return with game at the Green Bay Packers on Nov. 13 and the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 20.

To steal a line from Game of Thrones, Winter is coming for the Cowboys. How the Cowboys handle the North over the next month will go a long way towards deciding their season.

Cowboys sticking with their guys

A common refrain in the off season from the Cowboys when the question came up about adding players in free agency to help bolster the team was, ”We like our guys.”

Well, the Cowboys are continuing that mantra as the Nov. 1 NFL trade deadline comes into focus.

Owner Jerry Jones said the Cowboys are not looking for anyone in the trade market to bolster team for a possible Super Bowl run.

“Absolutely nothing that involves a name of a player position that I’m seriously looking at at this moment,” Jones said. “Not one, not one move. But could that change in 30 minutes? Of course, it could. Always looking to get better. But I think the reality of the situation. I would say there’s not one.”