FRISCO, Texas – Monday Night Football has a chance to be wild as Cincinnati travels to AT&T Stadium with a 4-8 record and seven of those eight losses coming by a single possession. The Cowboys are 5-7 and need a third straight win to keep their postseason hopes alive, especially with the odds stacked against them. On this week’s “Here We Goooo!”, let’s examine how Dallas can pick up its second home win of the season.

1. Don’t just let yourself be pressured, make your way to Burrow

Since Micah Parsons returned to the roster in Week 10, the Cowboys’ defense has found its best in the pass rush department, and he’ll have to ruin this game if Dallas wants to slow down a Bengals offense that’s putting up nearly 30 points per game achieved. In the four games Parsons played in his return, he generated 24 quarterback pressures in under 2.5 seconds, including a league-best 12.

How does this translate to the Bengals offensive line? Rookie right tackle Amarius Mims has allowed 21 pressures since Week 9, or about four per game. Parsons has played on the left side in 77% of his snaps since returning, so he needs to take advantage of this matchup and, more importantly, take Joe Burrow down.

However, Parsons isn’t the only Cowboy who has put pressure on opposing quarterbacks. His speedy counterpart, DeMarvion Overshown, has generated 15 pressures in the last six weeks, 10 of them in under 2.5 seconds, the most of any off-ball linebacker in that span. He has also blitzed the passer on 27.3% of his dropbacks since the bye week, which is more than double what he did previously (11.3%). His season pressure rate of 28.4% is the second highest among off-ball linebackers this season. Parsons and Overshown have found ways to complement each other in the pass rush department, and Monday night is their best opportunity to do so again.

And how about some unsung heroes for the Dallas defensive front: Osa Odighizuwa and Carl Lawson. Let’s start with Osa, who has 22 pressures on 157 pass rushes over the last five games, the sixth-highest rate among defensive tackles in that span. Prior to Week 9, he had yet to reach four presses in a game this season, but he has reached that mark in four of the last five games.

It may not seem like it because his snaps are significantly lower than those of the aforementioned Cowboys pass rushers, but Lawson has made an impact on the field. Lawson has registered 22 pressures and four sacks in 268 snaps. It’s good to have so much depth up front, especially with DeMarcus Lawrence still working toward a return to the field.

Putting pressure on the quarterback is all well and good, but Joe Burrow is also moving in the pocket as well as he has in his career, so it will be a matter of getting sacks, not just pressure. If Dallas can do that, they will open up some opportunities on offense.

2. Rico has to keep the hot hand

Rico Dowdle won his first career 100-yard rushing game on Thanksgiving, and Dallas needs to capitalize on that momentum in this game as well. The Cowboys’ running backs ran -81 yards faster than expected, the fourth-worst result in the NFL. However, against the Giants, Dowdle posted a career-high +44 yards above expectations and four explosive runs, the most by a Cowboys running back since Week 12 in 2022.

As bad as Cincinnati’s defense was all around, stopping the run (particularly on the inside) was one of its strengths. They held opponents inside the tackles to just 3.8 yards per carry, their second-best mark of the season. With that said, Dowdle has 85 runs on the inside for 408 yards and a touchdown, which equates to 4.8 yards per carry, If Dallas’ offensive line is able to make a similar push as it did up front in the final two weeks, then the Cowboys will have a great opportunity to establish the run.

Cincinnati suffered a major blow to its run defense and defense as a whole as Logan Wilson will be out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury. He is the Bengals’ second-leading tackler (104) and arguably their best tackler, as he produced a negative expected points gain for opponents on 7.2% of his tackles and missed just 7.1% of tackle attempts, the ninth-lowest mark among them Defenders in the NFL.

Dallas’ best chance to win this game is to run the ball early and often, stringing together long drives to keep Cincinnati’s dynamic offense off the field for as long as possible. The Cowboys have totaled 213 rushing yards over the past two weeks, the second-most they have had through two games this season, and will need to aim for a similar performance on Monday.

3. Remove the Burrow-Chase connection from play

The Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase connection has been terrorizing opposing defenses at LSU since 2018. They are a rare NFL-QB-WR duo who have played for the same team in both college and the NFL, let alone at this high level. In their four years together in Cincinnati, they totaled 314 completions for 4,425 yards and 40 touchdowns. In 2024 alone, Chase has 79 receptions for 1,142 yards and 13 touchdowns, leading the NFL in both categories.

So where is this duo at its best? The answer could be anywhere, but Burrow has continued to find success on break-in routes, similar to what Dallas did with the Houston Texans, where CJ Stroud and Nico Collins had a lot of success on similar route concepts. Burrow throws for 9.6 yards per attempt with a 59.9% success rate on break-in routes, both top 10 in the NFL this year. And his receivers help him too, as Chase and Tee Higgins are both open to their attacking targets more than 50% of the time, meaning they’re at least three yards apart.

And things don’t get any easier for Dallas on other routes either. Burrow has 1,629 yards and 17 touchdowns on throws with 10 or more air yards this season, with 11 of those touchdowns going to Chase this season. It will be a big test for Dallas’ secondary and especially at safety to ensure the top defense isn’t lost to strong threats like Chase and Higgins.