Matt Cassel must be a threat, use Jason Witten

Matt Cassel will make his first start for the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET when the team travels to MetLife to take on the New York Giants, who are 3-3 after dropping a Monday Night Football game to the rival Philadelphia Eagles. Although the Eagles are currently in the lead for the division, every team in the mediocre (to put it kindly) NFC East is in the thick of the race, and Cassel has been named the starter in an effort to spark something out of a team that has lost every game since Tony Romo‘s injury.

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Last week, Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith wrote that Cowboys czar Jerry Jones is a fan of the fact that Cassel will take more chances, and he’s OK with running the risk of turning the ball over. Therefore, we can expect a more aggressive offense from Dallas under Cassel, who has thrown 34 interceptions to just 30 touchdowns over the past three seasons.

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By all accounts, Cassel is a well below-average quarterback when forced to start and is a veteran backup in every sense, but the Cowboys do need some aggressive play out of him this Sunday against the Giants. For as much upside as Christine Michael has due to his athletic tools, it’s hard for the Cowboys to trust their running game this week. We saw DeMarco Murray demolish the Giants run defense in Week 6, but since the Giants have allowed just 3.7 yards per carry this season, that looks like an anomaly.

It’s more likely for the Giants to buckle down on run defense, and the best way to put points on the board against this team is by throwing the football. The Giants are currently 20th in the league in net yards per attempt allowed, which means that Cassel needs to be able to take advantage of their weak spots back there.

The issue is that the Giants are excellent at turning the ball over, as they are fifth in the NFL with eight interceptions. Knowing Cassel’s TD:INT ratio over the past three seasons and hearing Jones speak about how aggressive the 33-year-old USC product will be, most people would be worried.

However, the Giants will be missing their best playmaker on Sunday in cornerback Prince Amukamara, who has played as well as any cornerback this year. He has seven passes defended, but he won’t be able to add to that total for a few more weeks due to a torn pectoral. Sam Bradford and the Philadelphia Eagles failed to take advantage of his injury last week, but the Giants might not be so lucky in Week 7.

So the Cowboys success on offense will, unsurprisingly, hinge on Cassel’s ability to balance his aggressiveness with the need to take care of the football. Not having to face Amukamara is a huge positive that cannot be understated, because the former first-round pick is both an elite shutdown corner and a ball-hawk with top-notch instincts.

The weakest spots in the Giants secondary are often over the middle of the field, and one of the Cowboys best strengths with Dez Bryant still out is tight end Jason Witten. He has topped 60 receiving yards just once this season, but Witten has also continued to be one of the most consistent chain-movers around the league. He’s never had less than four receptions in a game through the team’s first five games, and Witten’s 33-yard effort on five catches against the New England Patriots was his first game without 50 receiving yards.

Aug 29, 2015; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills quarterback Matt Cassel (16) during the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

With 75.4 receiving yards allowed per game to tight ends this season, the Giants are particularly vulnerable to being beaten by players like Witten.

Thanks to a pair of safeties who are more interested in making big plays than actually covering (the Giants are trying to make the best of a bad situation, since they don’t have a true coverage safety), the Giants are vulnerable over the middle of the field.

Amukamara and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, when both are healthy, form what is easily one of the NFL’s best CB duos, but their safeties and linebackers are weak spots in coverage.

In his last season as a starter, Cassel averaged 7.1 yards per attempt for the Minnesota Vikings, and that’s the kind of aggressive play the Cowboys will be looking for in a key division game against a .500 team.

The Cowboys are desperately trying to claw their way to .500 and beyond before Romo and/or Dez return, so an awful lot is riding on Cassel against a run defense that is unlikely to suffer a second straight let-down performance.

Even if Michael, Joseph Randle, or someone else in the Cowboys backfield goes off, Cassel needs to succeed against the Giants, and, based on the numbers, Witten will be a critical key to his success.

Not only do the Giants struggles against TEs, but Witten is a darn good TE who can be the safety blanket that offsets some of Cassel’s more rash moves.

Next: Which Cowboys QBs are among the best 30 ever?

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