Can the Cowboys Pull Off The Upset Tonight?

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When the Saints have the ball

Here's what we wrote about the Saints last week, before they easily hung 31 points on the Falcons in what was actually a fairly tame performance for their offense:

The Saints lead the NFL with a 37.8 points per game average, just 0.07 points per game behind the highest-scoring offense in NFL history – that of the 2013 Denver Broncos.

But these Saints have actually been even more efficient than that team on a per-play and per-drive basis. The 2013 Broncos gained an average of 6.3 yards per play. The 2018 Saints are at 6.4 per play as of this writing. The 2013 Broncos gained 36.2 yards per drive, scored 2.83 points per drive, and saw 47.9 percent of their drives result in a touchdown or field goal. These Saints are better across the board, with averages of 41.0 yards per drive and 3.57 points per drive, and 62.5 percent of their drives ending in some sort of score.

When the Cowboys have the ball

It's been talked about ad nauseam already but the difference in the quality of the Cowboys' offense since trading for Amari Cooper is pretty stark. Dallas averaged 20 points per game prior to Cooper's arrival in a trade from the Oakland Raiders, but that figure included a seemingly random 40-point explosion against the Jaguars. In the other six games, the Cowboys scored just 16.7 points per game. In four games since acquiring Cooper, Dallas is up at 23.5 points per game, and in the past three games after struggling while trying too hard to force the ball to Cooper in his debut, they're at 26.7 per game. No matter how you slice it, that's a nice improvement.

The effect Cooper's presence has had on the performance of his teammates is stark. Take a look at the following chart, which shows Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott's statistics prior to the Cooper trade, and since Cooper got to Dallas.

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