Cowboys vs. Seahawks pick how to watch s

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Two years ago, the and each lost in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs. The Cowboys fell to in heartbreaking fashion, while the Seahawks saw the score touchdowns to end the first half and open the second half, putting the game out of reach.In 2017, each team took a step backward. For the Cowboys, their defense backslid and the offense went into a tailspin when the dominant line began suffering injury i sues and was suspended. For the Seahawks, it was their inability to run the ball even a little bit, and the spate of injuries that hit their dominant defense.Coming into the 2018 season, neither team was nece sarily expected to do all that much. Dallas was a year and some roster changes away from being its best self and the Seahawks were just embarking on their rebuild. Instead, both teams are back in the postseason dance, and squaring off on the Saturday night of Wild-Card Weekend (8:15 p.m. ET, Fox, , try for free).The last time these two teams met in the playoffs, things got really, really interesting. How will it go down this Spencer Dinwiddie Jersey time around? Seahawks front seven vs. Ezekiel Elliott and the Cowboys O-LineThe Dallas Cowboys have become a far more balanced offense -- both in terms of play-calling and execution -- since the acquisition of wide receiver during their bye week. Prior to the trade, Dallas was one of the run-heaviest teams in the NFL. The Cowboys called a pa s play only 54 percent of the time during the first seven weeks of the season, compared to a league James Harden Jersey average of 60 percent, per Sharp Football Stats. Their pa s rate was the fourth-lowest in the NFL during that time. Since Cooper made his debut in Week 9, Dallas has called for a pa s on 59 percent of its plays, just north of the league average of 58 percent. They're tied with seven other teams for the 14th-highest pa s rate in the NFL during that time.As you can see above, while the Cowboys have run le s often since the Cooper trade, they have remained just as effective when running the ball. And in Saturday's game against the Seattle Seahawks, they will have to remain so, because the Seahawks play primarily zone coverage and has been far more effective throughout his career against teams that play man. Case in point: Prescott completed only 19 of 34 pa ses for 168 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions against the Seahawks earlier this season. Both of those interceptions fell into the arms of , though, and he is no longer playing.Leaning on the run, though, plays to the Cowboys' advantage against Seattle for several reasons. The first is that Seattle's pa s defense is better than its run defense -- even if only slightly. The second is that the Cowboys' offensive line is far more effective when run-blocking than when pa s-blocking. And the third is that focusing on the run allows the Cowboys to base the game-plan around Elliott, who has become a far more versatile contributor this year than he was even during his first two electric seasons. More NFL Despite playing in just 15 games, Elliott led the NFL in rushing yards this season, the second time in three years he has done so. Even last season when he was suspended for six games for violating the NFL's domestic violence policy, Elliott still led the NFL in rushing yards per game. He's done that in each of his three seasons. Elliott also saw his yards per carry average jump back up to 4.7 this season, after it dropped DeAndre Jordan Jersey from 5.1 as a rookie to just 4.1 last year. Much of that can be attributed to the offensive line, but some of it is also that he was more effective at creating yards after contact, as well as long runs.In 2017, Elliott gained an average of 2.80 yards after contact per carry, per Pro Football Focus. This year, he raised that average to 3.13 yards per carry. Last year, he was at 1.26 yards before contact per carry, while this year he was at 1.58 yards before contact per carry. Adding around 0.3 yards per carry both before and after contact boosted his overall average back up into the high-4's per carry, which is where the NFL's elite workhorse backs generally live. Aiding him in that run back to the top of the per-carry standings was a spike in big plays. Elliott let the NFL with 22 runs of 15 yards or more during his spectacular rookie season, but he saw that total plummet to just eight in 2017. This year he was back on top, but those big-gain runs made up an ever larger percentage of his carries than when he was a rookie.Elliott was also once again sparkling as a situational runner: the Cowboys Reggie Perry Jersey converted runs on third or fourth down with two or fewer yards to go 75 percent of the time, which ranked third in the NFL. Their offensive line typically generated fantastic push in those situations, with in particular paving the way for Elliott (or Prescott) to cro s the line to gain. Speaking of Martin, it should come as no surprise that Elliott was at his best throughout this season when running either between Martin and center or between Martin and right tackle . Martin is arguably the single best run-blocker in the NFL, and Elliott averaged an incredible 5.64 yards per carry when running into a gap directly next to the All-Pro guard. Conversely, Elliott had his worst yards per carry figure when running to either side of the left guard, which most often was rookie before he was replaced in the lineup by . Su'a-Filo was injured last week, though, and Williams took the first teams snaps in practice earlier this week.This is the monster the Seahawks will have to deal with on Saturday evening. Their best chance of shutting him down is probably the combination of defensive tackle and linebackers and K.J. Wright. Reed ranked seventh among all defensive tackles with 26 run stops this season, per Pro Football Focus, while Wagner had 24. Wright appeared in only five games during the regular season, but he was back in the lineup for the Seahawks' final two contests and largely acquitted himself just fine. Wright is still primarily an a set as a cover guy against athletic tight ends and running backs, but in a game where a team is likely to lean on the run his services will be needed in that area as well. The Seahawks mi sed just 13 tackles on running plays this season, per Sports Info Solutions, the lowest total in the NFL. That should help them against a running back who excels in creating yards after contact. Football Outsiders ranked them 20th in second-level and open-field yards per carry, however, indicating that they were liable to give up the occasional long run. Stopping Elliott from picking those up will be of the Andre Roberson Jersey utmost priority on Saturday.Cowboys pa s rush vs. ability to make magicWhile the Cowboys went from being one of the run-heaviest teams in the NFL prior to the Cooper trade to being a team with much more average balance after the deal, the Seahawks remained the NFL's run-heaviest team for the entire season. The Seahawks pa sed on only 47 percent of the plays this year, far below the league average of 5