Dallas Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys @ Cleveland Browns: A Quick Game Preview

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

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Here’s a quick game preview as the Dallas Cowboys will travel to Cleveland for a Sunday afternoon matchup with the 0-8 Browns.

The Dallas Cowboys will square off with the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, with two teams going in completely opposite directions. The Cowboys have won six straight games after stumbling out of the gate, and look to avoid a trap game in Cleveland.

While the Cowboys won an absolute thriller against the Eagles last week, the Browns fell to 0-8 after a close loss to the New York Jets. This is a very winnable game against a Cleveland team that has had the most disastrous season imaginable, but if the Cowboys aren’t careful, they could stumble and be the first in the win column for the Browns.

Despite how sharp he looked in crunch time, quarterback Dak Prescott played his worst game of his career against the Eagles. Prescott threw an ugly goal line interception, and missed various downfield throws to Dez Bryant.

These can be attributed the Eagles terrific defense, prime time jitters, or simply rookie mistakes, but regardless of what caused them, seeing them in consecutive weeks should be cause for worry. The young signal-caller showed poise in the fourth quarter of last week’s game, leading the Cowboys to an overtime victory despite his rough start, let’s see if he continues to show the veteran mindset going forward.

The Browns have the veteran mindset from their quarterback position, with journeyman Josh McCown getting the nod for his third start of the season. Unfortunately for Cleveland, McCown is one of six quarterbacks to throw a pass for the Browns in 2016, contributing to their winless record. McCown is arguably the most talented passer on their roster, and he’s coming off a decent day by Cleveland QB standards, so the dinged up Cowboys secondary won’t have an easy week in the Midwest.

Staying with the secondary, this could turn out to be a test for the Dallas defensive backs, with Morris Claiborne and Barry Church out for the foreseeable future. McCown may not be a household name, but he’s more than capable of a good game. Wide receiver Terrelle Pryor has been a Swiss-Army knife on offense, scoring from the receiver and running back positions, and he’s even thrown some passes for the Browns this season.

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First round rookie Corey Coleman will also be returning against the Cowboys, so McCown will have some targets to throw to against what could be a severely weakened Dallas secondary.

Also on the Browns offense is Isaiah Crowell, who’s having a career year, and is even in the top 10 in yards per attempt. If he were on a team that didn’t spend all season trailing, he’d be right up there with the top rushers in the league.

Speaking of the top rushers in the league, the NFL’s leading rusher Ezekiel Elliott returns to his old stomping grounds. About two hours away from Ohio Stadium, Zeke may look to put up some Buckeye-like rushing totals against Cleveland’s 31st-ranked rush defense. He has an outside chance to be the 8th back to hit 1,000 yards after just eight games, joining Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson, Terrell Davis, Adrian Peterson, Jamal Lewis, and former Cowboy DeMarco Murray. While doing so will require his first career 200 yard game, it’s hard to bet against him.

There’s a lot of talk in “riding the hot hand” when talking about Prescott. But the way this team has been playing shows it has multiple hot hands, but the hottest by far has to belong to head coach Jason Garrett. The Cowboys three toughest games have come in division contests, and in those games Garrett has reached down to the bottom of his playbook to provide a spark for team.

Whether it be an onside kick attempt against the Redskins, or the fake punt that resulted in a first down last week against Philadelphia; Garrett has shown that he no longer deserves his reputation of a conservative coach. When punter Chris Jones took off for 30 yards on 4th and 8, it felt like everybody in AT&T Stadium knew that the comeback was coming; Garrett had snapped the team out of the funk it had been in since the opening kickoff.

Don’t let the winless record fool you, the Browns play hard for head coach Hue Jackson, and are the definition of a trap game for the 6-1 Cowboys. This game will ultimately come down to how Garrett prepares his team for this game; if they come in with the right mindset and don’t look past the Browns, the Cowboys should take care of business and move to 7-1 on the season.