Clarence Hill: 5 Things the Dallas Cowboys must do to beat the Chicago Bears
Welcome to the Tony Pollard coming out party.
That should be the primary story line coming from Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears.
With starting running back Ezekiel Elliott sitting out the game to rest a sprained right knee and hopefully use next week’s bye to heal and return for the Nov. 13 game at Green Bay, this is Pollard’s chance to shine and show the world what he can do.
And he couldn’t have picked a better defense to go against. The Bears own one of the league’s worst run defenses, allowing an average 149.7 yards per game on the ground.
Thee Cowboys plan to continue to lean on the running game with Pollard and rookie undrafted free agent Malik Davis carrying the load in place of Elliott. Look for the Cowboys to possibly elevate running back Qadree Ollison from the practice squad.
But the focus will be on Pollard.
“My confidence in Tony is through the roof,” quarterback Dak Prescott said. “He’s a guy who is going to step up and be his best. And he’s a hell of a player, obviously out of the backfield, whether you throw him the ball, whether it’s catching, lineup up at receiver. It’s just about us making sure we get him the ball, get him the ball where he’s comfortable and in space to make plays.”
There are no concerns about the speedy Pollard when he has the ball in his hands. He has been the team’s best offensive weapon all season. He scored touchdowns on a 57-yard run and a 46-yard pass reception. He also has a 46-yard run on his resume and he ranks ninth in the NFL with 5.6 yard average per carry.
The questions that must be answered his many touches can he handle and will he be a liability in picking up the defensive blitz.
Pollard has never had more 14 carries or 18 touches as a runner and receiver in his career.
And the Bears are going to certainly attack his blocking deficiencies on passing downs.
This is Pollard’s opportunity.
“I’m always trying to go out there and show what I can do, prove myself right, prove others wrong,” Pollard said.
5 things the Dallas Cowboys must do to beat the Chicago Bears:
Dak Prescott getting more comfortable converting third downs
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott just wants to win. He doesn’t care how the Cowboys do it on offense, whether he throws it 20 times or 40 times. He wants to do what is necessary to win the game.
“I want to win. If that means going out there and throwing it 20 times, 200 yards, touchdown, no touchdowns, I’ll do that. Or 400, five touchdowns,” Prescott said. “Whatever is asked of me, that’s all that really matters. I just care about the final score at the end of the game.”
Prescott also understands that the Cowboys need to get the passing game going and improve their third-down conversion rate.
He says he should be more comfortable against the Bears in his second game back. After missing five games with a broken thumb, he returned to complete 19 of 25 passes for 207 yards in the 24-6 victory against the Lions last week.
Prescott has only had fewer 25 pass attempts two times in his last 57 full games played.
Prescott said those numbers will go up when they start converting third downs and getting more plays.
“I think it’s how many plays we’re getting. I think that’s more of it than anything,” Prescott said. “Mostly you want to run the ball. When you run the ball, that opens up the pass game. We’ve got to establish that. We’re not getting first downs and if we’re going three-and-out, the number of plays we’re getting goes down. We’ve got to do a better job of getting more first downs and getting more cracks. Getting more plays, and with more plays, more opportunities come for everybody.”
Get Michael Gallup involved in the passing game
With the trade deadline approaching on Monday, teams are calling the Cowboys to see if they need help at receiver. It is a good question because so far it’s been CeeDee Lamb and Noah Brown alone.
Lamb leads the Cowboys with 37 catches for 479 yards. Brown has 25 catches for 339 yards, but he only has seven catches the past three games.
The Cowboys need to get more from Michael Gallup, who missed the first three games recovering from a torn ACL. Gallup has only eight catches for 86 in the last four games. He is supposed to be the team’s No. 2 receiver behind Lamb and serve the primary deep threat.
The Cowboys must find a way to get Gallup untracked. James Washington is returning from a foot injury after the bye.
But if the Cowboys don’t get =production from Gallup, they might be tempted to add help at receiver via trade at the right price.
Focus on stopping the Bears run game with added beef up front
There is no question the Cowboys have one of the league’s best defenses. They have allowed only eight touchdowns. They have league’s best pass rush, leading the league with 29 sacks and 55 opponent negative plays.
If the unit has shown one weakness all season, it’s stopping the run. They allow an average of 120 yards per game on the ground, ranking 20th in the league. It was the impetus for the mid-week trade with the Las Vegas Raiders to acquire defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins. At 6-foot, 340 pounds, Hankins gives the Cowboys added beef up the middle to go with Quentin Bohanna (6-3, 330), the only other lineman on the roster with run-stuffing size.
It was a timely move with Bears coming to town on Sunday. The Bears have the league’s best rushing offense, averaging 181 yards per game.
Hankins said he needs no time to adjust and will be ready to play against the Bears.
“There ain’t really much to say or nothing lavish that’s coming,” Hankins said when asked about his role. “I’m just coming in here to stop the run and help this team win games.”
Contain Justin Fields
Bears quarterback Justin Fields remains a work in progress as a passer. But as long as he doesn’t make mistakes, he has proven to be weapon on offense because his ability to scramble with his blazing speed.
On most Sundays that would be a problem for opposing linebackers. But against the Cowboys that may be a problems for Fields. Linebacker Micah Parsons can not only run with Fields, he has proven to be faster than him.
“Yeah. I mean he knows it, too,” Parsons said when asked if he is faster than Fields. “We’ve raced multiple times. We actually raced our 40 times back when he was coming out, beat him in that. It’s not even close.”
Parsons ran the 40 in 4.39 seconds during his pro day at Penn State. Fields’ best was 4.44 at Ohio State.
The Bears are incorporating the quarterback run into their offense like the Philadelphia Eagles do with Jalen Hurts on scrambles, zones reads and run pass options.
“None of them are faster than me so I don’t really think that’s a problem,” Parsons said when asked to compare Hurts to Fields. “At the end of day we just got to get them to the ground.”
Focus on the Bears
With the bye coming up next week, there is a natural inclination to let your mind wonder about plans for the off week. Scheduling, travel, family are things that must be decided on, especially if you don’t plan to stick around Dallas.
Coach Mike McCarthy has made a point to address the Cowboys are getting the focus on Sunday’s game against the Bears and worry about the bye after the games.
“Honestly, we’re focused on this week,” quarterback Dak Prescott said. “(Mike McCarthy) made that clear Monday. Obviously gave us the schedule of the bye week and said this is the last we’re going to talk about it until post game. As we’re adults and we’re men, we can do that. We obviously understand what’s after this game. But right now it’s about focusing in each day and understanding we’ve got a really good team and a team that just played really well Monday night. So we’ve got to make sure that we lock in, focus on getting a win. It’s about getting win No. 6, and we can enjoy the bye week when that comes. “
This story was originally published October 30, 2022 at 4:00 AM.
