Kevin Cadle expects Atlanta to make it another miserable episode in the soap opera that is the Dallas Cowboys.
Atlanta ready to rip up the script and make Dallas suffer
After Wembley you can all sit back and tune into the latest episode of the Dallas Cowboys soap opera.
The poor old Cowboys are getting some flack for their start, even though they are 3-2 and have narrowly lost both games, but I don't think that's too harsh at all.
Why? If you play for the Dallas Cowboys, you gotta take the rough with the smooth. You want to be part of that soap opera, then you gotta realise that it is not pats on the back all the way down the line.
If they are getting criticism, then they probably deserve it.
That's not my job, but the one thing I will say is that they are missing TO. His departure has had a bigger impact on Dallas than his arrival has on Buffalo, that's for sure.
Yes, Miles Austin came up with a big game a couple of weeks back, but does that mean opponents are going to double team him? No it doesn't. When TO was there, whatever form he was in, he would demand double coverage. Now he's gone, teams can put an extra body up the front and put more pressure on Tony Romo and that offensive line.
Romo is a guy that seems to split opinion right down the middle. I try to be a Romo fan but the more I listen to people trying to plead his case, the harder it is. I just can't trust him as a quarterback because you just don't know what he is going to do from one play to the next.
Characters
It is also a Romo-friendly offense to coin a phrase, and this season he still has a good, strong running game to help him. Marion Barber is doing what he does and I really do like Tashard Choice, who has come in for the injured Felix Jones. He is just a steady running back, week in, week out.
But, it's on defense where Dallas are letting themselves down. And it is their big characters there that are coming up short. Last season DeMarcus Ware picked up 20 sacks on his own; this year he has two and it's more a case of 'DeMarcus who' than 'DeMarcus where', I'm afraid.
To make matters worse for them, they are up against a Falcons side that is just starting to click.
Roddie White's 210-yard receiving game two weeks back pretty much says where this side is at right now; they have the talent offensively and there are signs that they are starting to put all that together.
Earlier in the season on these pages, I said we were still waiting for Michael Turner to get going and we are starting to see that now.
He is slowly picking up the yards and all of a sudden has six TD's to his name and there have been one or two weeks when we have seen what we all saw last season for most of the football game.
That said, it has to be Turner time for Atlanta because he is going to carry the ball 10 times to the next man's one - whoever it is!
But even if he is not finishing off things, I have got nothing but praise for Matt Ryan at quarterback. This is a young man, just 24, in his second season and he is growing all the time. He is getting better week by week, his concentration levels no longer fall off.
He had some early problems linking up with Tony Gonzalez this season but has put that right and really is progressing nicely - as are the Falcons, as I think we will all see.
CADLE'S CALL: I like Atlanta here. Dallas' new home is the biggest stage of all and I can see them going there and silencing that huge home crowd. And don't think for a minute this Atlanta side are upstarts either; they are a talented football team moving nicely in the right direction. Someone the Cowboys could learn from!
