COWBOYS REPORT

Cowboys crush Giants; Redskins up next

Dak Prescott
Tim Warner/Getty Images

The Dallas Cowboys cruised to an easy victory Sunday afternoon when they defeated the New York Giants 35-17.

The Cowboys quickly gave up an early touchdown but went on to score touchdowns of their own on their next five possessions. Quarterback Dak Prescott was unstoppable. He finished the game 25/32 for 405 passing yards, 4 touchdowns, and ZERO turnovers. Prescott posted a perfect 158.3 Quarterback Rating while connecting with seven different receivers. A few more games like this and Owner Jerry Jones will gladly be opening up his check book when they come to terms on a new contract.

With the Cowboys having their way through the air on offense, Superstar Ezekiel Elliott only carried the ball 13 times for 53 yards and a touchdown. With it being Zeke's first game back from his holdout, the light workload seemed to be exactly what was needed.

Receivers Michael Gallup and Amari Cooper appear to be in sync with Prescott as they both posted 100+ yard-receiving days. Second year man Gallup had 7 catches for 158 yards as Cooper caught 6 for 106yards.With these two outstanding playmakers on the field, opposing defenses have to worry about a lot more than just Zeke.

The Cowboys have started the season off right with a win over a divisional opponent and look ready for a great season.

Three things to watch

1.Ezekiel Elliott (Running Back): With one game under his belt, it will be interesting to see how much the Cowboys coaching staff will increase his touches.I would expect him to get somewhere around 18.

2.Randall Cobb (Wide Receiver): With the Redskins giving up over 300 yards passing last week, I think Cobb should benefit the most this week when he lines up in the slot.There is high potential for him to make some huge plays down the field; just look at what DeSean Jackson did last week to this defense.

3.Jason Witten (Tight End): Witten scored a touchdown last week in his first game back from retirement, and was targeted six times. Prescott seems to use him as his security blanket, let's see if the future Hall of Famer can keep producing as he fights father time.

Coming Up

Sunday September 15th, the Dallas Cowboys (1-0) will be taking on their division rival Washington Redskins (0-1) at FedEx Field in Landover Maryland.Kickoff is set for 12:00 pm Central time.As for the game, I expect a lot of the same from the Dallas offense.The Redskins were torched through the air last week and I believe Dak and company will be Dak'ting a fool again.Washing ton is going to be without their starting running back Derrius Guice who is out with a knee injury.This should be a good spot to pick up anther easy win.

If you have any fantasy players, the only must start players are:

Cowboys: Ezekiel Elliott (RB), Amari Cooper (WR), Dak Prescott (QB), Michael Gallup (WR)

Redskins: Chris Thompson (RB) maybe, and only in a PPR league

For you gamblers out there, the Cowboys are -4.5 and the over/under is 46.That is a pretty big line because they are on the road but I think the over is a good safe play and the only one I am going to make.

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A new era begins. Composite image by Jack Brame.

It’s go time! While the Astros are not the juggernaut they were over the more than half-decade stretch from 2017 through 2022 that yielded regular seasons with 101, 103, 106, and 107 wins, four American League pennants, and two World Series Champions, as the saying goes, they ain’t dead yet. There is no superpower in the American League West the Astros need to overcome. In fact, the American League as a whole is grossly inferior to the National League. As a result, a fifth Astros’ AL title in this era is not some absurd fantasy, though it is certainly unlikely. But winning the pennant is unlikely for every AL team, so if you’re a fan of the Astros there is nothing wrong with a “Why not us?” mentality. On the other hand, the floor for the 2025 Astros is lower going into a season than it has been in almost a decade. The lineup has numerous question marks, and if the terrific trio atop the Astros’ starting rotation (Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, and Ronel Bronco) runs into injury or performance issues the Astros would have serious problems. That the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners both finish ahead of the Astros is clearly plausible. Play ball!

Astros history lives in these moments

It is simple fact that time marches on, but it is still amazing that the Astros are beginning their second quarter-century of play at what for its first two seasons was called Enron Field, then for the past 23 seasons Minute Maid Park, and now Daikin Park. That’s 25 seasons in the books, at least 26 more to come, with the Astros a few years ago having extended their lease through 2050. In non-specific order, I have twenty easily come-to-mind most spine-tingling moments at the ballpark. If you want 25 for 25 years, I leave five more to you.

Not all spine-tinglers on the home field are generated by the home team. Here are three produced by visiting players. In 2001, Barry Bonds smashed his 70th home run of the season to tie Mark McGwire’s single season Major League record. We know what went into the home run numbers of that era, but it was still jaw-dropping stuff. Bonds would finish the season with 73 homers. Game five of the 2005 National League Championship Series, with the Astros one out from winning their first ever pennant, Albert Pujols launched a Brad Lidge hanging slider that might still be airborne if not for the glass wall above the train tracks. It may be the most instantaneous crowd delirium to utter silence moment ever. It turned a 4-2 Astros’ lead into a crushing 5-4 loss. But, the next game Roy Oswalt pitched the Astros to that pennant in St. Louis. Lastly, the second game of the 2013 season, Rangers’ pitcher Yu Darvish retired the first 26 Astro batters before Marwin Gonzalez smacked a ball through Darvish’s legs up the middle for a base hit. Soooooo close to a perfect game. Only 22 perfect games have been thrown in MLB’s modern era (1900-today).

Now to Astro achievements. Fudging a bit by including Roger Clemens since it’s not for one specific moment. But the Rocket’s starts with the Astros were events. Speaking of Hall of Famers, Craig Biggio’s 3000th hit is an obvious list-maker. Jeff Kent is not a Hall of Famer but he was better in the batter’s box than any second baseman elected after Joe Morgan. Kent won game five of the 2004 NLCS with a bottom of the ninth three-run bomb to end what had been a scoreless game. Alas, the Astros would lose the next two games and the series in St. Louis. The crowd went much wilder over Kent’s homer than over Chris Burke’s series-winning homer over the Atlanta Braves in a 2005 NL Division Series. Burke’s homer came in the 18th inning, so sheer exhaustion held down the decibel level a little. A sleeper for the list occurred earlier in that same game, when Brad Ausmus of all people hit a two-out game-tying homer to get the game into extra innings.

Four no-hitters have been thrown by Union Station. Working backwards: Ronel Blanco last season, Framber Valdez in 2023, a combined job started by Aaron Sanchez in 2019, and the first in 2015 by Mike....yes, Fiers.

And now to the grandest home park moments of this Platinum Era in Astros’ history. Carlos Correa authored two of them, each in a game two of the American League Championship Series. In 2017 he doubled home Jose Altuve with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. That came off of Aroldis Chapman who shall appear once more in this column. In 2019 Correa tied the series at one win apiece with a walk-off homer. Yordan Alvarez also gets a pair of entries. You know, Yordan hit just .192 in the 2022 postseason. But talk about making your hits count. In game one of those playoffs, ALDS vs. Seattle, it was a two-out three-run walk-off blast off of Robbie Ray to give the Astros an 8-7 win. Then in the final game of those playoffs, it was a sixth inning gargantuan three-run launch to dead center turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.

That leaves four moments that are 100 percent non-negotiable entries. While not dramatic (4-0 final score), the payoff warrants inclusion of the Astros winning Game seven of the 2017 ALCS over the Yankees. Similarly, while the moment of victory lacked drama (4-1 final), how could one exclude the Astros winning the World Series on home turf in 2022. Finally, for my money the two most pulsating, goosebump-inducing, viscerally exciting moments at 501 Crawford Street. In one of the most scintillating games ever played in any sport, Alex Bregman’s bottom of the 10th inning single gave the Astros’ their epic 13-12 win over the Dodgers in game five of the 2017 World Series. Then in 2019, Jose Altuve’s game six homer ended the ALCS (I warned you Aroldis).

Here’s to the new season! Join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!


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