Dallas Cowboys vs. Chicago Bears: 5 Bold predictions for Week 14
A pair of 6-6 teams in the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears fight for playoff lives on Thursday Night Football. Bold predictions for this Week 14 matchup.
Though the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears have not been bad enough to qualify as the biggest disappointments of the 2019 NFL season, there is no mistaking the fact that they have fallen short of expectations. On Thursday Night Football, two 6-6 teams clinging to playoff life will clash at Soldier Field and hope to spark a late-season run for a strong finish.
While the Cowboys still lead the NFC East, the margin is just one game while the Eagles have a favorable schedule ahead. Dak Prescott and Dallas have been remarkably impressive on offense at times this season but a lackluster defensive effort and consistently questionable decision-making from Jason Garrett and the coaching staff have held this team back tremendously.
As for the Bears, Khalil Mack and the defense have taken a slight step back but Chicago has been more hurt by the regression of Mitchell Trubisky. Having said that, the third-year quarterback has played well in his last couple of games and perhaps he can build off of that to take advantage of a suspect Dallas defense missing Leighton Vander Esch once again.
So which under-performing playoff team from a year ago will overcome and triumph on Thursday Night Football? Let’s dive into the action with five bold predictions for the Dallas Cowboys vs. Chicago Bears matchup to kick off NFL Week 14.
5. Ezekiel Elliott gets back over the century mark
Just based off of the narrative around Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott, you might be led to believe that he’s having a bad season. However, he’s still at 990 yards and seven touchdowns on the year, averaging 4.4 yards per carry. The issue has been a lack of explosive plays and some bouts with inconsistency. Most notably, he’s been held under 100 yards in each of the last four weeks.
Having said that, the Bears run defense has been worse than their 97.5 rushing yards allowed per game on the season would make you think as of late. Chicago allowed the combination of Bo Scarbrough, Ty Johnson and J.D. McKissic to average over 4.0 yards per carry last week and have seen some running backs have big games, such as Todd Gurley going for 97 yards and a score in Week 11.
Though Xavier Su’a-Filo starting at guard for Dallas now that Connor Williams is heading to IR does raise some concern, I’m expecting a big game from Elliott. The Cowboys should be able to get a lead against this Bears club that stumbles quite often and they’ll look to their running back to ice it. He’ll do so with aplomb to finally get back over the 100-yard mark and likely finding the end zone at least once.