The 10-1 New Orleans Saints will travel to Dallas to take on the 6-5 Cowboys in this week’s Thursday night matchup. Both teams are playing great football as each extended winning streaks with victories last week. Dallas defeated the Washington Redskins 31-23 at home. This was the team’s third win in a row and was big for their playoff hopes as it put them in a tie with the Redskins atop the NFC East division. The Saints defeated the Atlanta Falcons at home 31-17. It was their 10th in a row after they lost on the opening weekend of the season. They currently sit atop the AFC South division and are 4 games ahead of the 6-5 Carolina Panthers.
Dak Prescott finished with a passer rating of 121.6 against the Redskins. He completed 22 of 31 passes for 289 yards, 2 touchdowns and 0 interception. He also had 18 rushing yards and a touchdown on 6 carries. His favorite target was Amari Cooper who had 180 yards and 2 touchdowns on just 8 receptions. Ezekiel Elliott led the team in rushing with 121 yards and touchdown on 26 carries. This was his third game in a row with at least 100 yards and he leads the league with 1,074 on the season. Defensively, they intercepted Colt McCoy 3 times and had 5 tackles for losses. They limited the Redskins to 80 rushing yards on 20 carries, which is an average of 4 yards per run. On the year, the Cowboys defense has allowed their opponents to average 19.4 points and 348.2 yards per game.
Drew Brees finished with a passer rating of 111.9 against the Falcons. He completed 15 of 22 passes for 171 yards, 4 touchdowns and 1 interception. The interception was just his second on the season. His favorite target was Dan Arnold who had 4 catches for 45 yards and a touchdown. The team rushed for 150 yards with Alvin Kamara leading the team with 89 yards on 14 carries. The Saints have the top offense in the league in points scored per game with 37.2. Defensively, they forced 4 turnovers as they intercepted Matt Ryan once and recovered 3 fumbles. They also had a season high with 6 sacks. They absolutely shut the run game down as the Falcons had just 26 yards on 16 carries, which is an average of 1.6 yards per rush. For the season, the Saints defense has allowed their opponents to average 23.3 points and 376 yards per game.
Dallas will have home field advantage and are still 7.5-point underdogs. They have gone 6-5 against the spread including 3-2 at home. The Saints have gone 9-2 against the spread including 5-0 on the road. Both teams do a great job not turning the ball over as the Saints have more wins this season than turnovers as they only have 9. The Cowboys haven’t had any turnovers during their 3 game streak and they will need to continue that trend to have a chance against the red hot Saints.
