FRISCO – A little over a year ago, the Dallas Cowboys made the trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, under much different circumstances. They were marking off another win in pursuit of a spot in the NFC Playoffs while Bryce Young was struggling to keep his head above water in his rookie season.
Back then, the Cowboys’ defense had a field day against Young and a hapless Carolina Panthers offense. Dallas had seven sacks of Young and forced two turnovers with one of those being a pick-six returned by Da’Ron Bland.
Flash forward to this season and both the Cowboys and Panthers are both far removed from the playoff picture. Neither is mathematically eliminated just yet but they are not anticipating a magical run to January, either.
However, the Panthers enter this game the betting favorite and perhaps with a little more confidence with Young’s surge of late. Carolina has lost their last three games, but have given three teams in the current NFL playoff picture all they could handle.
“The confidence comes from all the hard work…. because of all the studying, because of all the challenges in practice,” Panthers head coach Dave Canales said this week. “If there’s one thing he prides himself on, it’s consistency.”
For the Cowboys and Mike Zimmer, job No. 1 on Sunday will be to squash that confidence and do it early. That starts with defensive star Micah Parsons. who tallied 2.5 of the seven sacks the Cowboys had against Young last year.
Dallas came out aggressive against an admittedly porous Cincinnati Bengals offensive line and found some success in that early on. Preventing Young from settling into the flow of the game would be to their benefit.
Coverage will also need to hold up better for the Cowboys than it did Monday because Young will escape and look for scrambling passes or gains with his feet. Against Tampa Bay, Young found Adam Thielen on a 25-yard pass to score the go-ahead touchdown by winning on a scramble drill and getting the ball downfield.
If the Cowboys do not finish plays, they are susceptible to similar outcomes throughout the contest.
Does Dallas have a Bryce Young blueprint for Sunday?
One of the most dangerous teams to face in the NFL is one with nothing to lose. That danger is enhanced with a young quarterback with talent finally finding some confidence. Young getting going and hitting a rhythm early in the contest could spell trouble for the Cowboys on the hunt for a bounce back performance.
