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Week 5 of the NFL season has a great early slate of games this week even though bye weeks have started. Looking past the early slate of games, we have a great Sunday Night Football matchup. The 2-2 Dallas Cowboys are traveling to Pittsburgh to take on the 3-1 Steelers.
Let’s break down this Sunday Night Football matchup and make our Cowboys @ Steelers NFL picks.
It feels as though the Cowboys Week 4 game took place a while ago, as they played the Giants on Thursday Night Football in Week 4. They went on the road and beat the Giants 20-15 in an ugly matchup.
The second-highest-paid quarterback in the NFL, Dak Prescott, had a solid and efficient night. He went 22-27 from 221 yards and two touchdowns. He hooked up with Ceedee Lamb for a big play early in the first half for a 55-yard touchdown, which was the most exciting play of the night.
Running back Rico Dowdle caught the other touchdown 15 yards out. Another interesting note from this backfield was the fact Rico Dowdle out-touched Ezekiel Elliot 12 to six in this game. Going forward, Rico Dowdle may be the lead back in this backfield, and he should be the one rostered in fantasy football over Ezekiel Elliot.
A positive note about this Cowboys defense was that they slowed down a Giants running game that had been good. Devin Singletary saw 14 carries for just 24 yards. Even after allowing just 26 yards rushing total, the Cowboys have still allowed the 10th most rushing yards this season. The defense looks to build on last week’s performance and wants to prove it was not an outlier.
The Steelers headed into a Week 4 matchup against the Indianapolis Colts with a 3-0 record. Unfortunately, they could not stay undefeated in this one, losing 27-24 to the Colts. Surprisingly, the best defense in football throughout the first three weeks struggled against the Colts. The defense allowed over 20 points scored for the first time all season.
After a slow start for the offense in the first half, the Steelers offense started to click in the second half. Quarterback Justin Fields continued his strong season, throwing for 312 yards and one touchdown through the air and two more on the ground.
Fields also led the Steelers in rushing on the day with 55 rushing yards. We had some thoughts heading into this Colts matchup that Najee Harris would have a big day without the injured Jaylen Warren in the lineup. That was not the case, as he saw 13 carries for just 19 yards. He just could not get going, but his teammate Cordealle Patterson did. He rushed for 43 yards on just six carries.
The wide receiver room was led by George Pickens, who had a big day. He caught seven of his 11 targets for 113 yards. Unfortunately for him and the Steelers fans, he had a crucial fumble in the second half in the red zone.
The Sunday Night Football matchup is interesting because these two teams could not differ anymore. The Steelers want to grind the game out on the ground, controlling the clock on offense while having their defense dominate that side of the football. The Cowboys want to beat you through the air with Dak Prescott and Ceedee Lamb because their running game has been quiet this season. This game is too hard to predict with how different these two teams are. So our Cowboys @ Steelers NFL pick will shy away from picking a winner. Instead, we are going to look at George Pickens’ matchup against this Cowboys defense.
Pickens is coming off a huge game with 113 receiving yards. We just saw last week from Dallas that they can be beaten through the air. Rookie Malik Nabers caught 12 balls for 115 yards. In Week 2, we saw Rashid Shaheed go off for 96 yards on four catches against the Cowboys. That said, Pickens is the best player on this Steelers offense, and they will need him to have a big night to win.
Our Cowboys @ Steelers NFL pick is on George Pickens to have more than 55 receiving yards in this Sunday Night Football matchup.
Dylan has had a love for sports since he was a kid. Four years ago, he decided to dive into the sports content-creating industry specializing in Fantasy Football, NFL and NBA. He has since had his work published on sites that include Fantasy Alarm, Fansided, and Fantasy Six Pack.