Cowboys at Panthers 10 Keys To Our Final Score Prediction

This has been a week of Cowboys humiliation. (See "It's A Bad Day To Be A Cowboys Fan.'') Will it be capped by a Sunday of more of the same? Our 10-point Fish Predicts ...

1 - Strength vs. Weakness. Rico Dowdle is averaging 22 touches for 120.7 yards over the Cowboys’ last three games, while Carolina has been the NFL’s biggest sieve when it comes to production by running backs. So there's a win. ... and Rico is surprisingly 269 yards (needed in four games) away from a 1,000-yard season.

2. Cooper Rush is Going to Start. Fine. But if Trey Lance doesn't play - where's that celebrated "Lance Package''? - it'll be a fourth-round pick wasted.

3. But ... Speaking of Fourth-Round Picks Wasted ... whatever happened to Jonathan Mingo? In four games with the Cowboys, Mingo has just 11 targets and just two catches for 10 yards.

4. CeeDee Lamb is Talking Leadership. It's a most natural maturation process. It's about the shoulder. But it's also about the attitude. A $34 million APY contract should if possible, buy leadership.

But statistically? He's going to have to be $34 mil worth there, too. Last week, Jalen Tolbert and Brandin Cooks were the Nos. 2 and 3 receivers and they combined for three receiving yards on six targets.

5. Tight Ends Get Numbers vs. Carolina. So fine. Make Jake Ferguson the real No. 2 receiver ... which he sort of was anyway against the Bengals, coming back from his concussion to run the second-most routes among all Cowboys pass-catchers.

6. Bryce Young Looks Less Lost. But he's still a smallish non-running QB who has thrown multiple touchdown passes in just one of 10 appearances this season.

It was really stupid earlier this year to suggest they should give up on him; he is in his second season as a first overall pick. They've got to Ride or Die with him.

7. It's All Chuba Hubbard. At least in terms of workload. How about in terms of the Dallas defense? The Cowboys are better but are still a bottom-10 defense.

8. Let's Do Leadership, Again. The Cowboys are super-reliant on Micah Parsons, and they should be. I just want all of that passion to be funneled into the right direction. This is a pitfall possibility here, a game and a place and an opponent that could make an ADHD-kinda player lose focus. Funnel, Micah, funnel.

9. Can They Score? The Carolina Panthers have scored 20-plus points in four of Bryce Young's last five starts. Is that "good''? Nah. Is it "good enough to beat Dallas?''

10. Fish Predicts: In this "Screw It Up'' season (yes, I'm thinking of changing from "Blow It Up''), I can just see it now: Dallas, with all the benefits to be reaped by playing the kids and losing, instead rides the leadership of Lamb and Micah while showing on-field support for coach Mike McCarthy and wins a game it has no business winning - in every sense of that phrase.

Fish Prediction: Cowboys 17, Panthers 16.