Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys Have A Big Opportunity This Sunday

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Dallas Cowboys have a big opportunity to possibly put away the NFC East with a win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

Regular season games don’t get much bigger than this for the Dallas Cowboys. The hated Philadelphia Eagles are coming to town for a prime-time match-up and Dallas has an opportunity to make a strong statement on Sunday night.

Win, and the Cowboys will be well positioned, not only in the NFC East, but in the entire conference for the rest of the season. Lose, and as the kids like to say after a car passes in the middle of the street, ‘game on!’

While it might be a slight exaggeration, this game has the potential to solidify the Cowboys as top contenders in the NFC. A win would put them at 6-1 and after watching how bad the other top teams in the conference were last Sunday, Dallas would look best. The consensus top dog Minnesota Vikings looked putrid against the Eagles and the Seattle Seahawks weren’t much better in Arizona, leaving the Cowboys as surely the most impressive NFC squad to date.

But it hinges on beating the Eagles, who, and stop me if you heard this before, represent perhaps the biggest challenge on the year so far. Philadelphia’s defense is a good one and their defensive line ranks among the game’s best, which will test the freight train that is Ezekiel Elliott and the Cowboys’ running game. Their last two challengers, the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers, didn’t fare well, so dominating the Eagles in the same fashion would make a statement.

Philadelphia is a little different though, their defense has had a decent read on Dallas’ offense in recent years and has given the Cowboys’ offensive line some trouble. Make no mistake about it, this is the toughest test yet for Dallas.

If the Cowboys win, aside from being mentioned as the top team in the conference, it would put Dallas firmly in control of the NFC East. The Cowboys would be two games ahead of everybody in the loss column in the division, which would put the pressure on their rivals to play catch up. That’s a nice little cushion.

Of course, a win doesn’t guarantee anything and there is still plenty of season left to play, but the final nine games on the schedule isn’t daunting. A 6-1 record would put the Cowboys in great position to win the division, which is always the easiest path to the playoffs, and should put them in the conversation for the best team in the NFC.

There’s a long way to go, but there is a lot riding on this game against the division rival Eagles. Not all wins are created equal.

You can chat with or follow Ben on twitter @BenGrimaldi