Less than 48 hours away from the Cowboys season opener, let's take a look at the schedule and make some predictions. Here is their 2008 regular-season schedule:
Sept. 7: at Cleveland Browns
Sept. 15 (MNF): Philadelphia Eagles
Sept. 21: at Green Bay Packers
Sept. 28: Washington Redskins
Oct. 5: Cincinnati Bengals
Oct. 12: at Arizona Cardinals
Oct. 19: at St. Louis Rams
Oct. 26: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Nov. 2: at NY Giants
Nov. 9: Bye
Nov. 16: at Washington Redskins
Nov. 23: San Francisco 49ers
Nov. 27 (Thu): Seattle Seahawks
Dec. 7: at Pittsburgh Steelers
Dec. 14: NY Giants
Dec. 20 (Sat): Baltimore Ravens
Dec. 28: at Philadelphia Eagles
The Cowboys' strength of schedule (based on opponents' 2007 records) is 134-122 (.523). Their strength of schedule is identical to Washington's and their opponents had only 1 more win than that of the Eagles and Giants' opponents. So, basically the difficulty of their schedule is the same as the difficulty in the other 3 NFC East teams' schedules.
Aside from divisional games, the opponents that made the playoffs in 2007 are very winnable games - at Green Bay, vs Tampa Bay, vs Seattle and vs Pittsburgh. I actually expect the Vikings to win the NFC North over GB, the Saints to win the NFC South over TB and the Cards to win the NFC West over SEA. Although I think the Steelers will win the AFC North, the Cowboys will have 10 days to prepare as the previous game is on Thanksgiving.
vs NFC East teams: 4-2 (anyone can win against anyone in the division but the Cowboys are clearly the best in the division so we'll give them 1 game above with Giants/Eagles going .500 and the 'Skins going 2-4 in the division)
vs 2007 playoff teams: 3-1 (they are better than all 4 teams and 3 of the 4 are in Big D. Can't see them going 2-2 in those games)
vs 2007 non-playoff teams: 5-1 (none of the opponents scare me although it's just the nature of the game to have an upset thrown in there)
Final Season Prediction: 12-4
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