The Atlanta Falcons (4-4) reached the .500 mark for the second time this season when they won a hard-fought NFC South division road contest over the New Orleans Saints (5-3) this past Sunday, 27-25.
A win on the road at Dallas (6-2), would give the Falcons a regular season winning record for the first time since the final week of 2017.
But the Cowboys defense, now coached by former Falcons HC Dan Quinn, will look to slow down QB Matt Ryan and force the Falcons run game, or lack thereof, to carry the load for the Dirty Birds.
When the Falcons named Arthur Smith as the head coach to replace Quinn, they did so with the hopes Smith could bring with him some of the secret sauce that he used to help the Tennessee Titans become a top-tier NFL offense in his years as Titans OC.
When Falcons.com writer Tori McElhaney joined The Midday Show with Andy and Randy, this week she was delighted to acknowledge Coach Smith’s excellent play-calling against the Saints.
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“The fact that the Falcons offense played so well against the Saints defense means a lot moving forward, and is a good marker for the progress of this offense,” said McElhaney when asked about the Falcons offense overall.
However, when asked specifically about the struggles of the Falcons running game, McElhaney could only respond by saying, “There needs to be a spark in the run game.”
The Falcons currently rank near the bottom of the league in rushing (80.4 yards per game), despite being in the middle of the league in total offense (338 yards per game).
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And if the Dirty Birds hope to make a push toward a possible playoff berth, the running game will have to improve drastically going forward.
“You can’t be one dimensional in this league,” emphasized McElhaney to Andy and Randy.
Lastly, McElhaney told the guys, “Only having 34 rushing yards in a game is not going to cut it,” as she pointed out the low rushing total the Falcons tallied against the Saints.
We can only wait and see if the run game can catch up to the passing attack and help the Falcons be a more balanced offense down the stretch “RUN” of the season!