WhoDat!656

Last week the Saints trounced the Vikings, 20-9, for their first win of the season and the (2-1) Cowboys made a dramatic comeback in St. Louis; mobilizing from a 21-0 deficit to a 34-31 victory.

But this is Sunday Night Football, folks, in Dallas' AT&T Stadium--the third largest in the NFL in terms of seating capacity at 80,000. So, you might be asking, what should I know prior to watching this game? Great question! Here are five tidbits of pregame information for you, I mean, y'all.

1. There have been 26 meetings between these two teams with Dallas having a 15-11 advantage. However, in the past nine meetings, New Orleans is 8-1. The Saints' last loss was against the Cowboys on 12/19/2009 which blemished New Orleans' 13-0 season record at the time. The Saints did have the last laugh though, winning the Super Bowl and attracting all the highfalutin attention that comes along with that feat.

2. In regular season primetime since 2006, New Orleans is an impressive 21-9. Specifically, on Sunday Night Football versus the Cowboys, the Saints are 3-1. The last time these two teams battled, New Orleans emerged decidedly victorious by a score of 49-17 and setting the NFL record for first downs with 40. During that game, Brees completed 34-of-41 passes for 392 yards and four touchdowns; the team set a franchise record with 625 total yards; the Saints accumulated 242 yards in rushing offense, with RB Mark Ingram responsible for 145 of them (and a touchdown); and this game marked New Orleans' 12th straight primetime victory in the Superdome.

3. In the past two meetings against the Cowboys, QB Drew Brees has amassed a monumental 838 yards with seven touchdowns and no interceptions. In Brees' last start in Dallas on 12/23/2012, he completed 37-of-53 for 446 yards and three touchdowns to beat the Cowboys 34-31. Additionally, RB Pierre Thomas has scored three touchdowns in his last two frolics against Dallas and WR Marques Colston has enjoyed three consecutive games with 100 or more yards against the Cowboys.

4. But let's not forget QB Tony Romo (or I will never hear the end of it at work), who, in his last home start versus New Orleans, has passed for 416 yards with four touchdowns and (surprisingly) no interceptions. This season, however, Romo has flung four interceptions--all in the first half. He has also hurled four touchdowns--all in the second half.

5. The Cowboys have been relying heavily on the ground game as evidenced by RB DeMarco Murray's success this season. Murray has rushed for over 100 yards in all three games thus far. He currently leads the league with 385 yards, three touchdowns, and a 128.3 yards-per-game-average. Murray is the third player in franchise history to start a season with three 100-yard games; the other two being Tony Dorsett in 1981 and Emmitt Smith in 1995. In 1995, Smith set the record with four consecutive 100+ yard games, so I'm sure that Murray has his eyes on that record. However, Murray has also fumbled--and lost a fumble--in all three games thus far; and all in the first quarter.


New Orleans at Dallas: Five Things to Know

"A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

halloween 65

Going to be an interesting game, which Saints team shows up is the question. The D that gets slapped around or the one's that I know that can do the slapping.

Seer1

1,2,3 -meaningless filler. Those kind of stats are for baseball. I hope the brain trust is aware of four and five. Four's showing Jerry's kids are good at halftime adjustments. Hopefully Rob has two different games to show'em -better and best. Five's showing a decent OL in front of their RB. Big war in the trenches.

hagan714

Five things to watch? the way these to defenses are playing i only see two

all the TDs
all the FG

Combined score +100?

actually it will come down to the bend do not break for each defenses. the team with the most FG will by all odds loss this game

The Dude

I hate it when they hype up all kinds of stats like we have never lost on Sunday night football, great record on the road for Dallas, etc. Just vibes bad juju because by odds they are due.

ClintSaints

The Saints trounced the Vikings? Really???

That's not what I saw. I saw a close game decided by a body slam.

Danno

I'm kinda unimpressed by those 5 things I should know.

Danno

Trounced is ridiculous, but the game was hardly decided on the questionable roughing penalty.

We were obviously the better team. We just let them hang around which made it more interesting.

Foot Stomper

I like the fact D. Murray puts the ball on the ground a lot. And your right he has three so far this year.
Most Fumbles and Fumbles Lost: 2014 NFL Season