At this point in the season, every team is battling through injuries. Some teams obviously have more than others and the Cowboys are actually in better shape injury-wise than they were early in the year, although it's hard to tell that by Wednesday's injury report that included eight players who didn't practice.
Still, this time of year, there are no excuses anymore.
But just looking at personnel and match-ups, getting Miles Austin and Tony Fiammetta back in the lineup will help this Cowboys offense tremendously.
Understatement? Possibly, but in my opinion, had Austin and Fiammetta been healthy and in the lineup last week against Arizona, then undoubtedly the Cowboys would be an 8-4 team with a five-game winning streak looking to clinch the division outright.
Against the Cardinals and THAT defensive scheme, the Cowboys would've beaten Arizona by two touchdowns or more.
The Cards attacked the line of scrimmage with eight players and left the corners in man coverage and dared the Cowboys to beat them deep. Well, as good as Laurent Robinson and Dez Bryant have been, they're not really deep threat. Obviously, that is more of Austin's game. And Austin is better at the slants and crossing routes than both of them. So blitzing the Cowboys like Arizona did, with a healthy Austin in the lineup, is much more dangerous.
San Francisco tried to blitz the Cowboys that way. Fail. Austin caught three touchdowns on them, including one over the middle where the middle was wide open because they tried to blitz.
As for Fiammetta, his presence last week would've been a major contribution to a running game that never got off the ground. John Phillips and Shaun Chapas tried to bring some fullback help, but not like Fiammetta can provide.
The Cowboys would've been able to get much closer into field goal range, especially in the first half and not waste those opportunities like that.
So getting players back on the field is a must here in December. But adding both Austin and Fiammetta give this offense the most complete attack as it's had all year.
