The Eagles defense will have its work cut out for it when they face Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday afternoon. They will definitely try to take Terrell Owens out of the offense with a double team but that's going to mean Jason Witten being one-on-one.
The Cowboys speed and size at the wide receiver position makes a defensive coordinator want to play the Tampa Two zone defense or what's call the two safeties deep double zone coverage. You want to keep safeties deep against these guys but that coverage is very weak against the running game and is vulnerable to a good tight end. Jason Witten caught 15 passes against the double zone last week versus the Detroit Lions.
Terrell Owens can be held in check but that's going to mean the Cowboys running game and Jason Witten are going to have big days. The key to the Cowboys is their multitude of weapons. Marion Barber will get the chance to have a big day against the Eagles because I don't think they can stop the Dallas running game with only seven men in the box.
Jim Johnson is going to have perform a juggling act. It won't be easy because Dallas offensive coordinator Jason Garrett believes in going for the jugular. They will be looking for ways to get the ball into the hands of T.O. because that's the quickest way to score. The Eagles can't simply stay in one type of coverage. They've got to try to keep Romo and Garrett guessing. If Romo reads what the Eagles are in at the line of scrimmage, he'll attack the weakness. In addition it's an advantage that they're playing at home, so the entire offense will easily hear all of the audibles.
The Eagles will try to blitz at times to get after Romo, but that will mean leaving Owens one on one with either Sheldon Brown or Lito Sheppard. Safeties Brian Dawkins and J.R. Reed must do a great job of disguising the coverages by moving into their positions late in the count.
Either way it will be a mismatch. Patrick Crayton on the other side has a better combination of size and speed than any of the Eagles receivers. Remember that they also have Terry Glenn who started practicing yesterday. He's another guy with a tremendous combination of size and speed.
Turnovers are the only way the Eagles can stop the Cowboys offense and win the football game. I don’t think the Birds can match Dallas score for score but they could beat them, if they could come up with enough turnovers. Marion Barber doesn’t fumble a great deal but Tony Romo does throw interceptions. The Eagles have to come down with those balls when they get their hands on them.
