What does the Cowboys season look like with Andy Dalton at quarterback?
By Mike Luciano
Do the Cowboys stand a chance with Andy Dalton at quarterback?
The Dallas Cowboys’ victory over the New York Giants was totally secondary, as quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a nasty ankle injury that will sideline him for 4-6 months, ending his season. The Cowboys turned to Andy Dalton, a 32-year-old Texas native and TCU alum fresh off nine years with the Cincinnati Bengals, to save them, and he did just that while leading them to a 37-34 win.
The Cowboys now have no choice but to go with Dalton under center. While most teams would wave the white flag and surrender, the Cowboys could still make the postseason with Dalton.
When the #Cowboys signed veteran Andy Dalton as their No. 2 QB, OC Kellen Moore believed they had secured the the best backup quarterback in the entire NFL. Dalton has won 70 games as a starting quarterback and led Bengals to the playoffs three times.
— Ed Werder (@WerderEdESPN) October 12, 2020
Andy Dalton has proven he can get teams to the playoffs
Dalton was often saddled with some poor coaching from Marvin Lewis, and he still managed to get Cincinnati into the playoffs with regularity. With two 4,000 yards seasons, 204 career touchdown passes, and three Pro Bowls, Dalton has proved he can be an above-average starting quarterback with half-decent offensive coaching around him.
Kellen Moore likes to go downfield with the ball, and Dalton showed last week on two big throws to Michael Gallup down the sideline that Moore should have no reason to truncate the playbook in the name of protecting Dalton. While they might choose to be a bit more balanced on offense via running the ball more with Ezekiel Elliott and adjust the gameplan to account for the difference in mobility between Prescott and Dalton, Dallas should still be expected to air it out.
In their next six games, Dallas has three matchups against the laughable NFC East (one Eagles game, two Washington games) and two games against teams like the Minnesota Vikings and Arizona Cardinals who have suspect pass defenses. The four opponents they end the season with (Philadelphia, San Francisco, Cincinnati, Giants) have a combined four wins to this point, meaning that Dalton performing as he did in Cincinnati might be enough to get the Cowboys a few wins late in the season and sneak into the playoffs.
Dalton is not Dak. However, he has the arm talent, accuracy and pedigree needed to help Dallas weather the storm and compete for a division title.
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