The Dallas Cowboys make their first of two visits to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey this Sunday, looking for their first outright win since week two when they beat the other resident of said stadium, the New York Giants 40-37 in overtime. This time, the Cowboys will face a New York Jets team they certainly don’t have a deep history with compared to the Giants. They will play a winless Jets team with a first-year head coach in Aaron Glenn. Both sides are coming off primetime games, where the Cowboys tied the Packers 40-40 on Sunday night and the Jets lost at the Dolphins 27-21 on Monday night.
The most recent meeting between these teams came in week two of 2023 from AT&T Stadium, a 30-10 Cowboys win they controlled from the start. This win actually snapped a three-game losing streak for the Cowboys against the Jets. It was the first of a perfect eight home wins the Cowboys earned in 2023, by an average of 21.5 points.
In these team’s last road meeting for the Cowboys, the Jets beat the Cowboys 24-22. That three-game win streak for the Jets also included a 19-16 win in 2015 in Arlington and 27-24 home win in 2011. Three Cowboys losses decided by a combined eight points. That 2019 loss and most recent visit for the Cowboys to the Jets actually shares a lot of similarities to how Dallas is coming into this week’s game, against yet another 0-4 Jets team.
The Cowboys were also coming off of a game against the Packers at home, losing 34-24 to drop their second in a row after a disappointing road loss 12-10 at the Saints the prior week. Sound familiar to the Bears game in week three for this year’s Cowboys? The Jets loss ended up being their third in a row after starting the season with three wins against the Giants, Redskins, and Dolphins. The game was defined by wide receiver Amari Cooper only being able to play three snaps on the team’s opening drive, a three-and-out where Cooper caught one ball for three yards and then was targeted for an incompletion on third down. Cooper tried to tough things out and play, meaning he was in the Cowboys’ game plan throughout the week of preparation as well, but exiting so early sunk the Cowboys chances of moving the ball at all in this game.
The Cowboys only managed a field goal before halftime and another three points with the opening drive of the second half, which cut the deficit to 21-9. A pair of fourth-quarter rushing touchdowns from Ezekiel Elliott and Dak Prescott sandwiched around a Jets field goal weren’t enough for the Cowboys to come all the way back, as their late two-point conversion attempt failed.
The backbreaking play that forced the Cowboys to play from behind all afternoon will also feel familiar to fans who have watched the team’s current defense coordinated by Matt Eberflus. Sam Darnold connected with Robby Anderson for a 92-yard touchdown to increase the Jets lead to 14-3 in the second quarter. It was the Jets’ longest offensive touchdown since 1985 when Ken O’Brien threw a 96-yard touchdown to Wesley Walker against the Bills.
On Anderson’s touchdown, safety Jeff Heath was the single-high defender and came up on the shorter route despite linebacker Leighton Vander Esch already dropping underneath it. Anderson got behind Chidobe Awuzie and gave the Jets the spark they needed to eventually get in the win column for the first time that season.
These exact type of miscommunications and busted coverages have happened too many times for the Cowboys this season, most notably against the other winless opponent they faced, the Bears. Coming off that loss, the Dallas defense did a slightly better job keeping the top on their defense against the Packers, but still couldn’t turn a 40-point performance from the offense into a win.
To potentially make matters worse for their matchup against the Jets, they will also see a rushing threat at quarterback again, similar to week one against Jalen Hurts who scored three touchdowns with his legs against the Cowboys. Jets starter Justin Fields has increased his rushing total in each game this season, had two rushing touchdowns in week one, and a 43-yard highlight reel touchdown last week at the Dolphins. It feels weird to say so going into a cross-conference road game against an uncommon opponent, but if there is a time for the Cowboys defense to show they can stiffen up against any of these things, Sunday is that opportunity to get back in the win column.
The more likely way for this early kickoff matchup to play out feels like the Cowboys offense needing another big showing. While the defensive issues may not be completely fixed, they at least proved in a huge way last week a repeat performance from that 2019 Jets game on offense is behind them. The years of the Cowboys not having adequate depth at wide receiver are behind them. The Cowboys will also have the slight advantage of knowing their top receiver CeeDee Lamb is unavailable ahead of time, for the second week in a row. Last week in this spot, George Pickens showed up in a huge way as a WR1 and caught eight of 11 targets for 134 yards and two touchdowns.
The Cowboys in the first year under Schottenheimer’s team building have come a long way from the days of Tavon Austin, Cedrick Wilson, and Michael Gallup getting the bulk of the targets like they did in that 2019 Jets loss. The Cowboys won’t visit the Jets without a new, lesser injury concern at wide receiver with Kavontae Turpin questionable with a foot injury, but last Sunday night against the Packers showed they are prepared on this side of the ball.
Add in the fact this current Jets defense has had the most rushing attempts against them this season, and confidence should be high the Cowboys offense can be effective again and do it’s part to help the team win on Sunday.
With the low point on this season for the defense being a shredding by the Bears, the Cowboys defense needs to at least be able to get a few stops against a Jets team that ranks below the Bears in total yards per game, well behind in passing yards, and nearly a field goal worse in points per game. If they’re able to do so, it will be the second season in a row the Cowboys beat a Justin Fields led team. Fields started the first six games of the season for the Steelers in 2024, which included a rain-delayed Sunday night game in week five in Pittsburgh. Of these six starts, Fields had his lowest completion percentage, second fewest yards, and was sacked three times against Mike Zimmer’s defense.
The Cowboys were also the only defense Fields threw two touchdowns against last year, but the Cowboys did win on a late Prescott to Jalen Tolbert touchdown. Fields also started 28 games between 2022-23 for the Bears, when Matt Eberflus was their head coach. Familiarity with the opponent in this way backfired horribly for the Cowboys directly against the Bears, and time will tell at the Jets – the team that gave Brian Schottenheimer his first NFL coordinator job in 2006.
The Cowboys can’t rely on the quarterback talent gap being as wide as it should be for nearly every game right now, with the way Dak Prescott has this offense at the top of the league. They will just need it to be wide enough to win a game they’re favorited to do so in on the road, take stock at 2-2-1, and look to remain road warriors against a losing team the following week at the Carolina Panthers.
