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Monday Night Football, Week 9. Tonight the Tennessee Titans travel to the Lone Star State to take on the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas, Texas. This is a clash of two teams fighting to keep their fringe playoff hopes alive.
The 3-4 Titans come into the game reeling, losers of three straight games, in second place in the AFC South. The Titans young quarterback Marcus Mariota, after a promising start to his career, has struggled lately, and there are questions as to whether he will ever become the franchise quarterback the Titans hoped he could be. This Titans team has an impressive defense, ranked third in points allowed and ninth in yards allowed on the year, but the offense can’t get out of its own way. The Titans have scored just 31 points over the last three games and have scored more than 20 only one game this year. Young Marcus Mariota, now in his fourth NFL season, has just three touchdown passes all year, and is currently under an 80 passer rating for the second straight year. If he doesn’t improve drastically in short order the Titans may well be in the market for a new quarterback in the near future.
The 3-4 Cowboys are a model of inconsistency. They have alternated wins and losses every week this season. If the pattern holds the Cowboys are due for a victory at home tonight. Like the Titans the Cowboys have an excellent defense, currently ranked first in the NFL in points allowed, but a poor offense, currently ranked 25th in points scored. Also like the Titans the Cowboys have a struggling young quarterback who started his career extremely well and has gone downhill from there. Dak Prescott, now in his third NFL season, had a Pro Bowl rookie year, only to come crashing back down to earth in the last year and a half with roughly NFL average play at quarterback. If the Cowboys ground game is operating at a high level Prescott shines; otherwise he looks very pedestrian.
It’s the Titans and the Cowboys in a contest of mediocre teams striving to keep playoff relevancy alive.
Enjoy the game everybody.