![The Cowboys need more smiles. [Image Credit: Bigcats Lair/Wikimedia Commons]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/10/4/660x290/b_502x220x82/the-cowboys-need-more-smiles-bigcats-lair-via-wikimedia-commons_1613505.jpg "The Cowboys need more smiles. [Image Credit: Bigcats Lair/Wikimedia Commons]")
The Cowboys and the Packers will face off this weekend in a game that should tell us which team has a better chance of going deep into the playoffs. At the end of the day, the Cowboys could win a wild-card spot, and the Packers will win their division in the NFC North. The Cowboys needs to show that they can score reliably, and the Packers need to do a little bit more on defense to be respected by other teams in the conference.
The Cowboys offense has issues
This offense should be smooth as silk and score a lot. They have weapons in Dez Bryant and Jason Witten.
They have Ezekiel Elliott coming out of the backfield, but they have looked very inconsistent over the course of this season. They are surely better than the Giants, but they are in a dead heat with the Redskins and Eagles for the NFC East title. If The Cowboys cannot score, they have no chance of going anywhere. They have so much invested on offense that not scoring is inexcusable in every way.
The Packers defense needs stops
No defense stops everyone all the time. Scoring in the NFL is very easy, and the rules favor scoring in every possible way. However, the defense in Green Bay needs to have a few stops against the Cowboys to show that they can keep up with their offense. If you look at how the Packers play, you notice that they are trying to outscore everyone.
The Cowboys are doing about the same thing, and that leaves this down to their defenses.
A bold prediction
Neither one of these teams can go deep in the playoffs as they are currently constructed. The NFC has teams that can play well on both offense and defense in a balanced manner, but these two cannot. Perhaps one of these teams will have a breakout performance that shows they can be competitive on defense, but that is not likely.
Look at the defenses in Atlanta and Carolina. Those teams play defense much better than either of these teams. The Redskins and Eagles defenses are fantastic, and the Rams and Seahawks also have good defenses. Therefore, it is hard to look at the Cowboys or the Packers and think that they can stop someone in the playoffs.
The Packers will prevail
The Packers are probably a more stable team at this point purely because they have had a better front office and no external distractions. The worst thing that happened to the Packers is the introverted nature of Aaron Rodgers. Meanwhile, the Cowboys are still in court dealing with the suspension of Ezekiel Elliott. The smart money is on Green Bay for that reason alone.
