NFC L-East still up for grabs for struggling Cowboys

The Cowboys started the year 2-0 but have since dropped three straight to fall to 2-3. Dallas lost all of four games in the regular season last year and was 4-1 after five games. That's the bad news.

The good news is that none of the other NFC East teams have looked all that good and there is still time to turn things around. The Giants, Eagles, and Redskins all have at least two losses and Dallas already owns wins over New York and Philadelphia. Dallas is the only team that does not have a division loss.

But the Cowboys need to get back on track soon. To that end, the staff has decided to make Matt Cassel the new starting quarterback, demoting Brandon Weeden, who had started the three games since Tony Romo broke his left collarbone against the Eagles in Week 2. Now is the time to make a

Matt Cassel's last stint as QB was in Minnesota.
He will start next week for the Cowboys at the Giants.

change since Dallas is off this week.

It's been all downhill for Weeden after going 7 for 7 with a touchdown in relief of Romo during Dallas' 20-10 road victory over Philly. The next week, vs. Atlanta, Weeden helped the Cowboys score 28 first-half points, but the offense bogged down badly in the second, recording only 52 yards and zero points as the Falcons came back from an 11-point halftime deficit to win, 39-28. He was 22 of 26 for 232 yards and no TDs with one pick. The next week at New Orleans, Weeden's accuracy fell off -- he was 16 of 26 -- and most of his 246 yards came on Dallas' last game-tying drive and that is also when he threw his lone TD to Terrance Williams. Dallas lost, 26-20, in OT. Last week, he bottomed out at home vs. the Patriots, competing 26 of 39 passes for a paltry 188 yards, no TDs and one INT in a 30-6 loss. As you can see, he has been pretty accurate, both a lot of his throws have been for short yardage. He averaged just 4.82 yards per completion against New England. Dallas has been bad in the intermediate and downfield passing game. The receivers are struggling to get open, and when they have, Weeden misses them.

So the Cowboys are hoping Cassel can spark the offense a little bit. To be sure, Weeden has not been the only problem. The offensive line has not been as good as last year and thus, the running game has not been as good. After five games, I think it is safe to say the line made DeMarco Murray look great last year, but he also made it look good at times. Of course, something that has hurt the line has been the lack of a star receiver. Dez Bryant has been out since midway through Week 1, when he broke a bone in his foot during the Cowboys' comeback 27-26 win over the Giants. He might be back after the bye week when Dallas travels to New York for a rematch with the Giants. Bryant commands a lot of attention from opposing defenses, thus helping the other receivers, and also helping the line block better in the running and passing games. With Bryant out, defenses have been able to crowd the line of scrimmage, making it tough for Dallas to run the ball. At the same time, defenses have not respected the Cowboys' downfield passing attack, bogging down the underneath passing game, which Dallas used effectively, especially in the first half of the Falcons game.

Despite a high completion percentage, Brandon Weeden
has struggled to lead the Cowboys' offense to touchdowns.

The offense has lots of problems, but it is almost like a line of dominoes being knocked down. One problem begets another problem. Getting Bryant back could open some things up in both phases of the offense.

The good thing about Weeden is he has been in the Cowboys' system for awhile now. That is not the case with Cassel. He was signed Sept. 22 and was only made active against the Patriots. That could hinder his ability to run the offense. Still, it will give the Giants another thing to think about and prepare for. They will be coming off a Monday night game at the Eagles, too, so they have a short week.

For better or worse, mostly worse, the book has been written on Weeden. Whether fair or not, he has been pegged as being a bad NFL QB. He spent his first two seasons in Cleveland, by no means a standout franchise. But, he has also lost all four of his starts in Dallas dating to one a year ago. Defenses are not afraid of him. Cassel is by no means a terrific QB, but he has experienced more success in his career. He has a 96-70 TD-INT ratio, while Weeden's is 28-30. If nothing else, New York needs to prepare for a different quarterback, one that has yet to play a game with his current team. All the Giants will have to study will be tape from Cassel's stints in New England, Kansas City, and Minnesota. Obviously, the cast around Cassel is different in Dallas than in those places. If Weeden was starting, the Giants would merely just need to look at what the Falcons, Saints, and Patriots did this season against him. 

Cassel might not be the answer, but it doesn't hurt the Cowboys to try. Dallas is expected to have at least four more games without Romo: at the Giants, vs. the Seahawks, vs. the Eagles, and at the Buccaneers. Those are winnable games if Dallas could pick it up on offense. All of those teams have been exposed at times this season. I think Dallas has to go, at minimum, 1-3 in those games, but ideally, 2-2 to still be in the NFC East race. That would make the Cowboys 3-6 or 4-5 with Romo back, assuming he does indeed return Nov. 22 at the Dolphins.

As already documented, the other division teams have at least two losses and two of them, the Giants and Eagles, get to beat up on each other Monday night. All those squads have issues, too. The Giants have had trouble closing out games. New York had Dallas dead to rights Week 1 and then led Atlanta by 10 in the fourth quarter in Week 2 before losing. It looked like the Giants were getting it together with two straight wins, but then last week, they nearly dropped a game at home to the lowly 49ers, scraping by 30-27. San Francisco had lost its three previous games 107-28, so I'm not sure what to make of the Giants, even though they could arguably be 5-0. The Eagles had a nice game last week, beating the Saints 39-17, but have had issues getting their offensive chemistry down and are just 2-3. The Redskins have looked better than a year ago, when they won four games, but at 2-3 have problems scoring points. Their defense has looked much improved, but their offense has yet to score more than 24 points, usually not a good sign in this era of explosive offenses. So as of now, it is safe to say none of those teams will run away with the division. I think the Giants are capable of it, though, making that game in New York so crucial for Dallas. And hopefully Philadelphia wins at home Monday vs. New York, meaning both teams would be just a half-game ahead of the Cowboys at 3-3.

Dallas' defense hasn't been great all the time, but has, overall, seemed like it is capable of being better than last year, when Rod Marinelli improved the unit to middle of the pack over its awful 2013 showing. With defensive lineman Greg Hardy and linebacker Rolando McClain in the lineup for the first time this season against the Patriots, with basically no offensive help, the defense held the Patriots' offense to 13 first-half points and sacked Tom Brady five times. New England got it going more in the second half, but I definitely believe that would have been a game into the fourth quarter had the Cowboys' fielded a better offense.

Dallas is sort of pushing the reset button during the bye week by inserting Cassel into the starting lineup, and can still be a factor in the NFC East, but time is running out.