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Dallas Cowboys Vs. Baltimore Ravens: Bold Predictions For Week 11 Game Of The Week

By Daniel Benjamin
Published on: 15:44 PST, Nov 14, 2016

The Dallas Cowboys, the hottest team in the NFL, will host the upstart Baltimore Ravens in the NFL’s Week 11 Game of the Week. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. (ET) at AT&T Stadium. The game will be televised by CBS.

Dallas (8-1) won its eighth straight with its 35-30 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field on Sunday. The game was a back-and-forth affair before a wild last two minutes that saw three touchdowns scored. Rookie running back Ezekiel Elliot scored on a 14-yard run to give Dallas a 29-24 lead with 1:55 left. The Steelers answered right back with a touchdown of their own to retake the lead 30-29.

Dallas got the ball back with 42 seconds remaining. And rookie quarterback Dak Prescott marched the Cowboys down the field. The Boys, aided by a 15-yard facemask penalty, got to the Pittsburgh 32-yard line in four plays. On the very next play following the penalty, Elliot took a Prescott handoff to the house for a 32-yard touchdown with nine seconds on the clock.

Pittsburgh racked up 30 first downs, and out-gained Dallas 448-422 in total offense. Ben Roethlisberger torched the Cowboys’ secondary for 408 yards and three touchdowns.

Baltimore (5-4) should come into the game well rested as they have 10 days off between games. The Ravens are on a two-game winning streak, defeating the Cleveland Browns 28-7 on Thursday night as quarterback Joe Flacco threw three touchdowns. Baltimore also got a dominating performance from its defense, which allowed 144 total yards as well as forced three turnovers.

Dallas has the NFL best record while Baltimore sits alone atop of the AFC North division for the first time since 2012. The Ravens lead the all-time series 4-0 though the last time the teams met was in 2012.

The Ravens will hold Elliot to less than 100 yards rushing and 125 total offensive yards

Dallas has the No. 1 rushing offense in the NFL with 161.0 yards a game. Elliot is the only running back in the league to top the 1,000-yard mark on the ground so far. The Ohio State product is coming off a 21 carry, 114-yard and two touchdown performance against the Steelers. He is averaging 111.7 rushing yards a game and has five-100-yard games. The 21-year-old has not been held to under 90 yards rushing yards a game since Week 2.

While Elliot has been terrific, he would not be having such a great season without an outstanding offensive line like the Cowboys have. Dallas is ranked second in the league in run blocking per Football Outsiders. Elliot is also a productive receiver out of the backfield, racking up 250 yards on 18 receptions.

Baltimore owns the league’s top-ranked defense, surrendering 281.6 total yards a game. The Ravens are also permitting a league-low 71.3 rushing yards a game. The Ravens held the Browns to 33 yards on 13 carries last week and has only allowed two running backs to gain 100-yards on the ground. Cleveland’s Isaiah Crowell and the New York Jets’ Matt Forte are the two backs who have topped the century mark.

Dallas’ defense will accumulate more sacks than the Ravens

Neither team has a monstrous pass rush as both teams rank in the middle of the league in sacks.

Baltimore has registered 22 sacks this year, but the Ravens get most of their sacks by blitzing and mixing up their defensive fronts. Outside linebacker Terrell Suggs is the Ravens most dangerous pass rusher. Suggs beat Browns’ All-Pro left tackle Joe Thomas a couple of times last week — recording a sack and a strip fumble as well as forcing an interception as a result of hitting quarterback Josh McCown’s hand as he was throwing. He has six sacks this season. Nose tackle Timmy Jernigan is second on the team with five sacks while rookie linebacker Matt Judon has three.

Baltimore will likely have to try to confuse the Cowboys’ offensive line by mixing up their blitzes as they rank as the seventh best pass blocking team in the league. Dallas has surrendered 11 sacks this season.

Defensively, Dallas has totaled 19 sacks after getting to Roethlisberger just once. Defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford has 3.5 sacks to lead four players with multiple sacks. 12 different Cowboys have tallied at least a half sack this season.

The biggest reason for this prediction is how poorly the Ravens’ offensive line has played, particularly rookie left tackle Ronnie Stanley. Baltimore has permitted 20 sacks, which is the 13th fewest, but they have allowed their quarterbacks to get hit 57 times — which is the 10th most. The Ravens’ offensive line has also been called for the third most holding penalties (23) according to NFL Penalties.

It doesn’t help the Ravens that rookie guard will likely miss the rest of the regular season with a high ankle sprain.

Ravens wide receiver Mike Wallace will accumulate at least 75 receiving yards and have one big-play of 20 or more yards.

Flacco’s 379 pass attempts are the second most this year. The problem for the Ravens is that he hasn’t been very accurate, completing only 62.5 percent. Flacco has been better the last two games, completing 67.1 percent of his throws (48-of-71) for 537 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions.

Wallace has been Flacco’s go-to receiver, with fellow receiver Steve Smith Sr. missing a few games. The 30-year-old speedy receiver leads the team with 72 targets and is second with 43 receptions. He had a season-low five targets against the Browns though he still had four catches for 59 yards.

Wallace is the Ravens big -play receiver with six catches of 20 or more yards and a team-high 231 yards after a catch. In addition, 30 of his 43 catches have been for a first down.

Dallas’ secondary is below average. The Cowboys are allowing quarterbacks to complete 69.7 percent of their passes for 263 yards a game. They have been pretty good at preventing big plays, allowing 27 plays of 20-plus and four plays of 40-plus yards. Steelers’ wide receiver Anthony Brown is the only receiver to top the 100-yard mark against the team.

Dallas will hold Ravens running attack to less than 65 yards

Baltimore hasn’t really done a good job at trying to establish the run this year. The Ravens did total 119 yards on the ground against the Browns last week. Most of those yards came after the Ravens were in control of the game.

Running back Terrence West ran well last week as did rookie Kenneth Davis. West is averaging 14 carries and 56.7 yards per game. He has four runs of 20 yards or more.

Dallas has one of the best run defenses. The Cowboys are holding opponents to 82.6 yards per game though they are giving up 4.1 yards per carry. Dallas has recorded 36 tackles for losses with leading tackler Sean Lee topping the squad with seven tackles for negative plays.

Baltimore will force at least one Cowboy turnover

Dallas has done an excellent job protecting the ball. The Cowboys have turned the ball over seven times with five fumbles and two interceptions.

Baltimore has forced 17 turnovers, the fifth most in the league. The Ravens have several playmakers on the defensive side in addition to Suggs: LB Zach Orr, LB C.J. Mosley, S Eric Weddle, CB Tavon Young and CB Jimmy Smith.

The Cowboys will win game by five to eight points

Dallas is favored by seven points per Oddsshark.

The Cowboys have a lot of offensive weapons besides Prescott and Elliot. WR Dez Bryant is always dangerous, and TE Jason Whitten is very reliable. Dallas is the fourth-highest scoring team in the NFL with 28.7 points a game. The Boys have scored 27 or more points seven times, and they have produced 35 points in each of the last two games.

The biggest question for the Ravens is Flacco. He has not played well this year, and he had two bad interceptions against Cleveland. The Ravens had their highest scoring game of the season last week, putting 28 points up on the board. They are 24th in the league with 20.2 points a game.

Dallas has the largest point differential in the league. The Cowboys are 3-1 at home, outscoring opponents by 33 points. They are also 3-0 against AFC North teams with the margin of victory being 44.

Baltimore is 2-2 on the road with a minus-five point differential. The Ravens are also 0-2 against NFC teams, losing to the Giants (27-23) and Redskins (16-10).

[Featured Image by Joe Sargent/Getty Images]

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