The NFL's "International Series" concludes Sunday afternoon with the Dallas Cowboys facing the Jacksonville Jaguars at London's Wembley Stadium, the third of three games in the British capital this season. This is the second straight year that the Jags have played overseas, while the Cowboys are playing their first ever regular season game outside of the United States.
Jaguars vs. Cowboys preview: 3 things to watch
The Cowboys need a healthy Tony Romo if they are going to beat the Jaguars and head into their bye week with a win.
The Cowboys were one of the league's biggest surprises, racing out to a 6-1 record, a start fueled by the historic rushing performance of DeMarco Murray and the steady play at quarterback of Tony Romo. However, the team has dropped its last two games -- a 20-17 loss to Washington in Week 8 and a 28-17 defeat by the Cardinals in Week 9 -- and has fallen a half-game back of the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East. Dallas needs to avoid its first three-game skid since 2010 if they are going to keep pace in the division.
The Jaguars are not the worst team in the league thanks to the winless Oakland Raiders, but its hard to ignore the fact that they have been outscored by a whopping 110 points this season -- 12 more than any other team. They rank last in scoring offense (15.7 PPG) and 30th in scoring defense (27.9 PPG), a combo that makes it hard to win any games. As a result, the team has just one win this season and is battling the New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Raiders for the No. 1 pick in the 2015 Draft.
Let’s take a look at three things to watch in this matchup between the Cowboys and Jaguars:
1. Tony Romo
The big question heading into the game is the health of Romo, who suffered two small fractures in his back two weeks ago and missed last week’s loss to the Cardinals. Romo made the overseas trip to London, returned to practice Thursday and has a good chance to play Sunday against Jacksonville. The Cowboys need a healthy Romo under center if they want to get a win heading into their bye and remain contenders in a tough NFC playoff race.
The Cowboys offense generated a season-low 266 yards against the Cardinals as backup Brandon Weeden went 18 of 33 for 183 yards with two interceptions. Weeden has now lost his last eight starts, and his career Total QBR of 25.4 ranks dead last in the NFL since his debut season in 2012. Even a diminished Romo might be a better option than Weeden, who has not shown the ability to be an NFL-caliber quarterback in his three pro seasons.
2. Cowboys offensive gameplan
Murray was held to fewer than 100 yards rushing for the first time this season in a Week 9 loss to the Cardinals, but still leads the NFL in rushing by a huge margin with 1,133 yards. Regardless of who is under center for the Cowboys, he needs to give the ball to Murray. Dallas is 17-1 when Murray has at least 20 carries, and 6-17 when he starts and has 19 or fewer carries.
Murray should be able to get back on track against a Jacksonville defense that has allowed 339 rushing yards in back-to-back losses to the Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals. The key for Dallas is to get him going on early downs, putting the offense in favorable second- and third-down situations. Murray averages a league-best 5.6 yards per carry on first down, and his 834 rush yards on first down are more than any other player has on all downs.
3. Jaguars breakout star
Denard Robinson has been one of the lone bright spots in an otherwise dismal season for the Jaguars. The second-year player out of Michigan has emerged as the feature back on the team, running for 329 yards and two touchdowns over the last three games. Prior to this stretch, Robinson had a total of 160 rush yards in his career and had never gotten double-digit carries in a game.
Robinson ranks first in the NFL over the last three weeks in yards per rush (5.7), and only Murray has run for more yards than Robinson since Week 7. Prior to his breakout game, the Jags had one of the worst rushing attacks in the league. The team ranked 27th in yards per carry and only the Raiders had fewer rush yards than Jacksonville in the first six weeks.
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