5 biggest factors for Cowboys to beat Seahawks

For two teams as closely matched as the Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks, Saturday night’s wild card game is likely to come down to a few key plays.

For the Cowboys, however, there’s one advantage that could loom large: Home-field advantage. A sold-out crowd at AT&T Stadium could help make the difference and it couldn’t come against a more appropriate opponent.

The Seahawks famously celebrate one of the best home-field advantages at CenturyLink Field. The Cowboys have felt the power of Seattle’s 12th Man (sorry, Aggies!), most recently in a September 24-13 loss.

It’s almost hard to believe, but this is just the third playoff game played at AT&T Stadium in 10 seasons in Arlington. The Cowboys won the first two, both wild card games, against the Eagles in January 2010 and the Lions in January 2015.

Five things to watch Saturday night:

1. Hey, Mr. Wilson

To slow down the Seahawks’ offense, defenses must contain quarterback Russell Wilson. He is most effective (and dangerous) when he’s improvising out of the pocket.

To stifle that, defensive ends DeMarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory need to keep the edges clogged. In the past two games against Dallas, Wilson hasn’t put up dazzling numbers: 28 yards on 11 rushes and 285 yards and four touchdowns passing.

The Seahawks led the NFL in rushing behind Chris Carson’s 1,151 yards and nine touchdowns in 14 games. Three others, including Wilson, rushed for at least 376 yards.

2. Dust off the defense

That impressive, venerable defense the Cowboys have prided themselves on this season hasn’t exactly been a lock down unit to close out the regular season.

In their last three games, they allowed 1,194 yards. That’s the most in any three-game stretch this season. In fact, the 441 total yards allowed to the Giants last week was more yards than they allowed in consecutive games on Nov. 29 and Dec. 9 to the Saints and Eagles combined.

Perhaps after turning in their two best performances and sewing up the NFC East a month ago, they had a slight internal let down. If so, it’s time snap out of it.

3. Obvious takeaway

The Seahawks didn’t manhandle the Cowboys in either of their past two meetings, but they won.

In fact, if a team had the obvious statistical edge, it was Dallas. The Cowboys outgained the Seahawks 585 to 431 and had 38 first downs to 33 in the two games combined.

The big difference? Dallas had six turnovers while Seattle had none. Four of them were on Prescott interceptions, including a 30-yard pick six by Justin Coleman that gave the Seahawks the lead for good in their 21-12 win on Dec. 24, 2017, at AT&T Stadium.

4. Make it payoff

The Cowboys played Dak Prescott for the entirety of an entirely meaningless game last week with three starting Pro Bowlers, including Ezekiel Elliott, not on the field. It could have been a disaster with one bad hit.

They escaped unscathed and Elliott, left tackle Tyron Smith and right guard Zack Martin got much needed rest.

For it all to be worth it, the added work for Prescott’s passing game, the emergence of tight end Blake Jarwin and the much-needed rest for Elliott and the beat up offensive linemen, it needs to pay dividends on Saturday night. Otherwise, it was all for naught.

5. Garrett vs. Carroll

Seahawks’ coach Pete Carroll hasn’t lost an opening playoff game with Seattle in each of his team’s six postseason appearances. Carroll is 9-5 in the playoffs, including two Super Bowl appearance and a title in 2014.

After missing the playoffs a year ago, he’s got the Seahawks back after an 0-2 start. Garrett is 1-2 in the playoffs and still looking a playoff run.

Garrett is 2-4 against Carroll, including 0-3 in the past three meetings.