This will be the battle that everyone is looking forward to on Sunday Afternoon.  Both teams are both 5-0 and they have only played in one game that was decided by less than 10 points which was Dallas’ miracle win over the Bills on Monday Night.  Could they have been caught looking ahead to this week?  We will soon find out.

The Patriots like to mix it up on offense and it will be interesting to see how they deal with the Cowboys defense which is pretty tight.  Look for Sammy Morris (370 yards rushing, 4.9 ypc, 3 TDs) and Laurence Maroney (252 yards rushing, 4.7 ypc) to challenge the Front 7 of the Cowboys which is only allowing 80.6 yards rushing per game and 3.6 yards per carry.  The Cowboys defense is not likely to be intimidated by Tom Brady and the Patriots passing attack as they already have 10 INTs this season and 12 sacks.  Still, Brady has only been sacked 3 times this season and he has thrown for 1,383 yards with 16 TD passes and 2 INTs (128.7 QB Rating) so far this season.  Look for the Patriots to spread out Randy Moss (34 rec, 551 yards, 7 TDs), Wes Welker (27 rec, 262 yards, TD), Ben Watson (17 rec, 194 yards, 5 TDs) and Donte’ Stallworth (12 rec, 180 yards, TD) and look for mis-matches that Brady can exploit.

The Cowboys will probably come out trying to run the ball in an attempt to control the clock.  Marion Barber (334 yards rushing, 6.0 ypc, 4 TDs) and Julius Jones (217 yards rushing, 3.4 ypc, 1 TD) could have a hard time finding running room against the Patriots defense which is allowing only 74.2 yards rushing per game and 3.6 yards per carry.  The Cowboys offensive line better do a good job of protecting Tony Romo or he could get forced into making big mistakes like he did last week and the Cowboys can’t win if he does.  Still, overall Romo is having a great season with 1,508 yards passing, 13 TD passes and 9 INTs.  The Cowboys also have numerous weapons in the passing game as Jason Witten (29 rec, 407 yards, 4 TDs), Terrell Owens (21 rec, 387 yards, 3 TDs) and Patrick Crayton (19 rec, 335 yards, 3 TDs) are all having great seasons. 

PREDICTION:  This will be a lower scoring game than most people expect it to be because of the defenses of the Patriots and Cowboys.  I like the Patriots by a field goal only because of the fight the Cowboys had to put up to beat the Bills and the short preparation week.