FRISCO, Texas – It's not often that for three straight years, a team goes on the road to play an opponent that isn't in their division in the NFL.
Nonetheless, that'll be the case for the Cowboys this Sunday as they head back to Carolina and take on the Panthers for their second straight road game after a 37-22 win over the New York Jets last Sunday.
The good news is history has been kind to Dallas in this environment, with back-to-back wins in Charlotte in 2023 and 2024 by 33-10 and 30-14 margins respectively. What will the Cowboys have to do to make it three straight wins in as many years over the Panthers? Let's dive into it in this week's Here We Goooo:
A chance for the Dak-Ferguson connection to return
Through five games, Jake Ferguson leads all tight ends in the NFL in receptions with 41 – 12 more than the next closest player.
Still, he and Dak Prescott have struggled to connect on one of their bread-and-butter routes, the throw up the seam that helped Ferguson earn a Pro Bowl nod in 2023. From a few passes that sailed high to Ferguson getting rocked on a couple of them too, it's an aspect of the offense that Dallas would love to have back.
The good news is there's a pretty good opportunity awaiting them against the Panthers to reestablish that connection, or at least build some confidence in it. Carolina's defense has allowed the most yards to tight ends in the NFL this season with 401, as well as three touchdowns.
With the Cowboys trending towards being without both CeeDee Lamb and KaVontae Turpin once again on Sunday, there's no reason to expect any sort of slow down in Ferguson's targets and opportunities to move the ball down the field for the Cowboys on offense.
Last week, Dallas' offense lined up in a season-low 45.8% of their snaps against the Jets in 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end) followed by 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) being their next-highest utilized formation at 20.3% of their snaps. Ferguson is the primary tight end on the field in most scenarios, so both of those formations trend positively for him should they continue against the Panthers.
In their last two meetings the last two years, Ferguson has caught five passes for 55 yards against Carolina, which isn't promising, but note that other receivers like CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks and Michael Gallup were also playing, which led to the wealth being spread a little bit. With a more condensed array of receivers this week, it's a chance for Ferguson to have one of his bigger games this season.
Opportunity for consistency in the pass rush
Speaking of opportunities, the Cowboys pass rush has one in this game as well. After matching their season total in sacks through the first four games with five against the Jets last week, they'll face a Panthers unit that they've had a lot of success against the last two years.
In 2024 and 2023, Dallas' defense had a combined 13 sacks on Bryce Young. Sure, they also had Micah Parsons during those two seasons and now will feature a completely different unit of pass rushers, but their offensive line has struggled, especially on the edges.
Left tackle Ikem Ekwonu and right tackle Taylor Moton have been responsible for a combined 43 quarterback pressures and three sacks on Bryce Young this season, both of which are top ten in the league in pressures allowed. Moton has missed the last two practices for Carolina with an elbow injury, meaning he's trending towards not playing against the Cowboys on Sunday.
Should that be the case, the Panthers' unofficial depth chart lists Yosh Nijman as the back up right tackle. On just 40 pass blocking snaps this season, Nijman has allowed eight quarterback pressures, good for a team-leading 20% pressure rate. The entire offensive line for Carolina has given up the sixth-most pressures this season (89) and the eighth-quickest time to pressure for opposing defenses (2.86 seconds).
The Cowboys' defense has been far from consistent to start the year, but Carolina serves as an opportunity to try and find some more of it at the very least from a pass rushing perspective. Everyone was getting involved last week, but James Houston continues to lead the way for this unit with three and a half sacks.
When under pressure in 2025, Young has completed 49.1% of his passes for 315 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. That's on track to be much better than his numbers in that category the last two seasons, but there could still be opportunities for Dallas' defense to capitalize on some errant throws.
Put seat belts on the opposing offense
Former Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle said earlier in the week that his former team would need to "buckle up" going against him as he prepares to be the lead back for the Panthers for the second straight week.
With Chuba Hubbard missing two days of practice with a calf injury, Dowdle is on track to be the lead back for Carolina on the heels of a career-high 206-yard rushing performance last week against the Dolphins.
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer jokingly said during the week that they'd have their seat belts buckled in for the challenge, and they'll certainly have to given how the defense has performed against the run in the last two weeks.
Through the first three weeks of the season, Dallas' run defense gave up 329 yards and four touchdowns on the ground, just below the top half of the league. In the two games since, they've given up nearly that same amount, with 308 rushing yards and two touchdowns allowed against the Packers and Jets, the third most in the NFL during that time span.
Last week was the first time that Dowdle has gotten a bulk of the carries out of the backfield for Carolina, and he'll be going up against a different defensive scheme than he did in practice with his former team last season.
Still, some of the same players are in the fold and he'll know where vulnerabilities are. The good thing for Dallas is the inverse is the same for them defensively, as plenty of players and coaches alike are familiar with Dowdle's game from the previous four seasons he spent with the Cowboys. They'll need to keep their seatbelts tightened fastly against Dowdle, who clearly is out for revenge in this game.
