Coming into Thursday night there where a lot of people predicting that the New Orleans Saints would represent the NFC in the Super Bowl while the Dallas Cowboys seemed to be finding themselves, but weren’t considered in the same class as New Orleans. The teams met on Thursday night on Dallas and what happened? Of course the Cowboys held the Saints to a season low 10 points and picked up a 13-10 win. What we have to figure out now is was it just a rough night for the Saints? Or are the Cowboys going to be a serious contender?
We know all of the stats about the Saints. They came into Thursday’s game on a 10-game winning streak and had looked like they where unstoppable. Now the Cowboys came into this game on a modest 3-game winning streak, but they had been playing better and had taken over 1st place in the NFC East.
Even though the Cowboys won this game the question just kept coming. Was it just another fluke game on a Thursday night? Would the or could the Cowboys do this same thing had the game been played in New Orleans? Along those same lines there are people asking if the Cowboys could repeat a performance like this in the playoffs. Now of course we can’t answer any of those questions and it’s really just a way for the people who picked the Saints to win the game to cover up the loss.
Now to be fair I had the Saints winning this game as did Dan the Man and Schaumburg Stu. I never got a pick from Mr. Fantasy; so he gets the automatic “L”. Hopefully the rest of our Week 13 picks go better.
Now I’m sure that everyone fully expects the Saints to bounce back next week as they travel to Raymond James Stadium to face the only other team they’ve lost to this season the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
How about the Cowboys though. They’ll be hosting the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles next week and while the Eagles haven’t played anywhere near as well as they did last season they’re still a threat. Philadelphia could actually do the Cowboys a huge favorite this week if they can beat the Washington Redskins on Monday night. Dallas is in 1st place because of tiebreaker, but an Eagles win would give the Cowboys an actually one game lead in the NFC East. That win would also be huge for the Eagles as it would get them back to .500 and out them right in the race in the NFC East.
Now after the Eagles game the Cowboys have a tough game in Week 15 against the Indianapolis Colts, but they have two very winnable games to close out the season. I Week 16 they’ll host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before finishing the season on the road against the New York Giants. While these look like two games that the Cowboys should win they’ll have to play good defense as the Buccaneers can put points on the scoreboard and the Giants feature two of the best players at their respective positions in wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and running back Saquion Barkley.
How do you see the Cowboy season ending? Do they win the NFC East and make the playoffs? Or do they struggle down the stretch and end up on the outside looking in?
While the Seattle Mariners and the New York Mets work on a blockbuster deal that could get Robinson Cano’s salary off of the Mariners books they did make a smaller deal to keep the rebuild moving along.
Seattle sent reliever Alex Colome to the Chicago White Sox for catcher Omar Narvaez. Colome appeared in 47 games for the Mariners after he was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays. Seattle brought Colome in to set up for closer Edwin Diaz and he did a solid job. Colome ended up going 5-0 with the Mariners while posting an ERA of 2.53. He did pick up 1 save, but more importantly in the set up role he had 30 holds. Colome had been the Rays closer since 2016 and led MLB in saves with 47 in 2017. Colome made $5.3 million dollars last season, but is head into his first year of arbitration; so his salary is expected to take a big jump up.
In return for Colome the Mariners get a catcher in Narvaez who has been playing in a platoon situation for the past two seasons. Narvaez played in 97 games last season for the White Sox and hit .275 with 9 home runs. Narvaez also threw out 24% of runners trying to steal against him. Remember that the Mariners traded their starting catcher from last season Mike Zunino; so it looks like Narvaez will get his first opportunity get a full season of at bats.
Now the Mariners deal that is getting the most attention features Robinson Cano along with closer Edwin Diaz heading to the Mets for a package of prospects. The hang up right now is which players the Mets would be sending to Seattle in this deal.
Some of the names that have been thrown out there are former 1st round draft picks Jarred Kelenic and Justin Dunn. Kelenic was the 6th pick in the 2018 draft while Dunn was selected with the 19th pick in the 2016 draft. David Peterson’s names has also came up; he was the Mets 1st round pick 20th overall in the 2017 draft.
Now there has also been some talk of current major league players being included in this deal. Names like Jay Bruce, Anthony Swarzak and Jeff McNeil have been mentioned. Bruce and Swarzak would be in the deal to help even out the salaries, but the inclusion of McNeil might just be the fat that him and Cano play the same position and there wouldn’t be a spot for him with the Mets. At first there was talk of Domenic Smith being included in this deal, but as of late I haven’t seen his name mentioned.
It does appear as though this deal will happen as reports are saying that the teams picked up “significant momentum” in trying to get something done.
Do you like the idea of the Mets acquiring Cano and Diaz? Or are they other player you’d like to see them target in a trade?
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