The New England Patriots are one of only two teams to win three Super Bowls in four years. The other? Yep, the Dallas Cowboys.
That’s about all these two teams have in common, too.
The last time they played each other was in 2007, when the Patriots destroyed nearly every regular-season opponent they faced — Cowboys included, 48-27, in Texas. And at this point, that’s all just pretty irrelevant. Different coaches, different players and different situations have both teams at a crossroads, but there’s no doubt about it: they both are out for blood.
Tom Brady and the Pats (4-1) are looking to keep on rolling, fresh off their big, home win over their division rival New York Jets, and one game away from their Week 7 bye. The Cowboys (2-2) are in quite a different situation. Four close games … a couple disastrous collapses, a couple impressive wins. But just like the Patriots’ opponent last week, the Cowboys are well aware that coming into Foxborough and leaving with a win can revive any team’s season, especially this early on.
Can the Cowboys respond from their bye week in a positive way?
Some analysts think the Cowboys, fresh off their bye, could be the team to snap the Patriots’ unreal home winning streak. A lot of people have expected a lot from the Cowboys lately, though. And those people have been let down a lot.
Could the Cowboys do it? Sure; “Any Given Sunday.” But the Cowboys need to be a team that finishes. That’s the biggest problem for the team that has beaten a game San Francisco 49ers squad and division-rival Washington Redskins this year, yet gave away a Week 1 win to the Jets and folded in horrifying fashion to the red-hot Detroit Lions just before heading into their bye.
There’s no doubt that a bye couldn’t have come at a better time for Dallas. The doubt lies in just how effectively the team used the week off to improve and prepare.
Will the Patriots continue to improve against a team this hungry?
Typically, the Patriots do well against teams in desperate need of a W. The Jets were starving last week. They remain hungry.
“I think the biggest confidence booster we’re getting is in practice each week,” cornerback Devin McCourty told reporters this week. “We’re practicing better as a defense and I think it’s showing on Sundays. Right now, we’re just trying to keep that going — keep having good practices, putting it together and it will give us the confidence to go out there on Sundays and play confident, trust our abilities, trust what we did all week and just go out there and play good defense.”
With a secondary that’s been called anything but solid, facing off against a more-than-capable QB and receiving corps, the Patriots defense is looking to make another strong impression on the defensive side of the ball.
Romo vs. the Patriots’ defense
All the pressure is on Romo, as it usually is. In addition to being known as the guy who “can’t win the big one,” Romo is becoming the guy who just doesn’t win. Or, even worse, the guy who gets his team a nice lead then gives it away in a losing effort.
Anybody knows that you can’t do the Patriots any favors when it comes to ball possession, so if Romo is going to go out and start giving the ball away, the Cowboys might as well save the gas and stay in Arlington.
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