Ray Hagan
Ladies and gentlemen, the Week 7 edition of Beat of the East is here. This past weekend, the predictions went totally south, as I went 0-2 on both the winners and against the spread. That brings me to 6-5 overall, 5-6 against the spread. Gotta get that cleaned up. Gotta do a better job *clears throat*. Now, Week 8 looms.
REWIND
The Giants edged out the Rams in London in a sloppy game where Case Keenum, despite what Jeff Fisher claims, was absolutely the difference in winning and losing. Keenum is not a starting NFL quarterback. He’s a viable backup and that’s it. Because of that fact, teams don’t respect the passing game and it’s pretty easy for them to stack up against the Rams’ best weapon, Todd Gurley. The Giants held the Rams totally in check. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for the G-Men, though, as once again their offense sputtered with Eli Manning crashing back to earth after last week’s 400-yard performance. He’s been south of 200 yards passing in two of the last three games. The Giants head into the bye with a winning record and winners of two straight after dropping three in a row.
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The Redskins fell apart. Josh Norman was lost to a concussion and Matthew Stafford once again pulled a rabbit out of his hat to secure a win. Kirk Cousins wasn’t bad, completing over 75% of his passes for just over 300 yards, but only mustering one touchdown didn’t help. I expected more out of him after the Lions allowed the aforementioned and horrible Case Keenum to throw for three scores the week before. The ‘Skins lost the turnover battle thanks to a pair of fumbles and in the end lost the game. Anquan Boldin continues to look like he’d have been a good fit in Eagles green this year. He keeps catching touchdowns, now with four on the year, or as I like to call it one less than the entire Philadelphia wide receiver corps. A week after torching the Eagles, running back Matt Jones mustered only 10 carries for 27 yards and a fumble.
FAST FORWARD
A week after the Giants flew to London to get a much needed win, the Redskins will try to do the same. They head across the pond to take on the Bengals. The Redskins have the better record, and that’s not a surprise given that Cincinnati is averaging few points per game and surrendering exactly the same points per game. This is going to come down in many ways to Josh Norman’s health. If he’s unable to suit up, it’s suddenly a long day for the Redskins against A.J. Green.
The Cowboys are at home against our beloved Birds. The Cowboys are playing like a well-oiled machine, and that’s cause for concern for Eagles fans. The Eagles just knocked the Vikings from the ranks of the unbeaten; can they end a five-game winning streak for Dallas? That question will be answered by whether a defense that allowed Matt Jones to look like Superman can stop someone who truly might be Superman, Ezekiel Elliott.
LONG BOMB
You might notice that I didn’t mention Dez Bryant’s potential return as an obstacle for the Eagles in the section above. It’s been reported that Bryant is likely to play on Sunday. I more so wanted to explore his impact on the Cowboys Sunday night in this section. Now, before I dive into the stats, it is likely that in his return from injury last year, Bryant was limited which could have potentially reduced his impact. Still, I can only go by the numbers, so let’s take a look at what the Cowboys quarterbacks have done on a per game basis in the last 10 games with and without Dez Bryant.
| Att | Comp | Comp % | Yards | TDs | YPA | |
| Without | 31.40 | 21.10 | 67.20% | 250.00 | 1.20 | 7.96 |
| With | 33.30 | 21.10 | 63.36% | 228.20 | 1.00 | 6.85 |
I was floored by these numbers. I fully expected that even in his limited state, Bryant would lead to an uptick in the Dallas passing game. Instead, the time with Bryant on the field has yielded far worse numbers across the board. Completion percentage is nearly four points lower. Yards are over 20 lower per game, touchdowns are .2 lower per game, and yards per attempt are down nearly a full yard. I thought it was important to take out the Kellen Moore/Tony Romo/Brandon Weeden/Matt Cassel numbers as well and just focus on Dak Prescott. Here’s what the numbers look like just this year for Prescott with and without Bryant.
| Att | Comp | Comp % | Yards | TDs | YPA | |
| Without | 27.67 | 19.67 | 71.08% | 239.67 | 2.00 | 8.66 |
| With | 33.00 | 22.00 | 66.67% | 255.67 | 0.33 | 7.75 |
Obviously, Prescott has improved throughout the year and that has an effect on these stats. However, it’s pretty interesting to see that the numbers hold up similarly to those above, except that he’s throwing for more yards with Bryant. I don’t think he hurts the Cowboys offense, but there may be something to be said for having to worry about working the ball to a receiver on a regular basis.
The Cowboys’ No. 1 receiver is a headcase; we all know that, he knows that. It’s hard to answer if it’s hurting the Cowboys with such a small sample size, but it surely doesn’t look like he’s helping much. I expect that Prescott and the Cowboys will perform well this week, but I don’t expect Bryant to provide a significant jump. This is Zeke’s team now.
BEAST OF THE BEAT
Landon Collins was superhuman this week. He had a pair of interceptions including a ridiculous return for a touchdown against the Rams. He was not the only reason that the Giants won (See: Keenum, Case.) But he was the only New York player that actually seemed to show up in London ready to go. Congrats to Collins for being the first defensive player to secure this award.
We’ll be back later in the week with a preview of this week’s NFC East matchups, thanks for reading and be sure to check out all of the great content here at PhillyInfluencer.com.