National Football League

Cowboys face biggest test on road against Super Bowl champs

Published Oct. 11, 2014 1:22 p.m. ET

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The Seahawks will bring the noise. The question is, can the Cowboys turn up their own volume to match the Super Bowl champions?

That's the question as the Cowboys face the stiffest test of their 4-1 record on Sunday at Seattle's CenturyLink Field, where Seahawks fans have made it arguably the loudest and most hostile environment in the NFL.

The Cowboys have turned up the heavy metal music at practices this week to prepare for the fan noise. The hard part is preparing for the 3-1 Seahawks.

"More than anything, I think it's the team," Cowboys tight end Jason Witten said. "They've got great fans and it's loud, but really that's irrelevant to what the football players are."

The players include Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, a master at using his mobility to detect weaknesses in defenses. There's also receiver and kick returner Percy Harvin, one of the most elusive players in the league.

But the spearhead of Seattle's attack is bulldozer running back Marshawn Lynch. The Seahawks have the No. 1 rushing attack in the NFL with 167.3 yards a game. That's second only to the Cowboys with 160 yards a game.

The Cowboys use league-leading rusher DeMarco Murray (670 yards, 5 TDs) much the way the Seahawks use Lynch in establishing a physical ground game to set up the pass.

"Both of them are really aggressive runners and really effective runners," Seattle coach Pete Carroll said. "Both guys have really unique styles and I don't think they're the same. But the results and the role that they play on their team is very similar."

While the ground games are similar, on the flip side the Seahawks have a decided edge in defending the run. Seattle allows a league-best 62.3 yards a game on the ground.

"They stop the run and then they put you in positions where you're always behind the chains," Witten said. "They execute really well in that and they get you in third and long and that crowd noise, with them playing their defense they just swarm to the ball."

The Cowboys give up almost twice that – 122 rushing yards per game – and will have a wounded linebacking corps. Strongside linebacker Bruce Carter will miss the game with a quadriceps injury, meaning versatile rookie Anthony Hitchens will be pressed into duty again.

Cowboys middle linebacker Rolando McClain has been a difference-maker, but he suffered a groin injury last week and wasn't able to return to practice until Friday.

The scrappiness of the Dallas defense has been a key to the Cowboys' four-game winning streak. The defense has been far from the handicap it was expected to be coming into 2014, but can it be an asset against Seattle?

"[It's going to take] A team effort and winning football, clean football," cornerback Orlando Scandrick said. "We've got to be pretty much mistake-free...Good things are going to happen, bad things are going to happen. When I say winning football, it's how you handle the bad things when they happen."

The high-profile matchup of the day will be Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant against outspoken Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman. Both are among the elite at their positions and should have a lot to say to each other on the field.

That is, if they match up. One of the key questions heading into the game is whether the Cowboys will seek to avoid matching up Bryant on Sherman.

"They have really good players all across their defense, so I think if you got into that game with these guys you wouldn't really snap a ball," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "They've got good players outside, they've got good linebackers, they've got good rushers. The free safety (Earl Thomas) is fantastic. So we've got to go play. We have to do what we do."

Overall, the rest of the NFL will be looking to see how the Cowboys perform against the Seahawks. The Cowboys' wins have come against the Titans (1-4), Rams (1-3), Saints (2-3) and Texans (3-3). The word "measuring stick" has been said more than once this week around the Cowboys' practice facility.

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"They're defending champs, so any time you go to play them, it shows where you are as a football team," Witten said.

The Cowboys certainly didn't measure up the last time they visited Seattle in 2012, a 27-7 loss. Coming off a season-opening win over the Giants, the Cowboys were blindsided like Seattle receiver Golden Tate's vicious crackback block on linebacker Sean Lee in that game.

Felix Jones fumbled the opening kickoff and the Seahawks returned a blocked punt for a touchdown to lead 10-0 five minutes into the game.

The Cowboys can't afford a similar start on Sunday or the noise will never stop. How they handle the opening minutes may show how much progress the Cowboys have made.

"The preparation wasn't there," recalled Bryant. "I can tell you that it's a totally different mindset here in this lockerroom."

Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire

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