6 Things I Learned From Week 6 of the NFL Season

Yes, Dallas Is for Real

I was down on the Dallas defense entering the season. After Sean Lee's season-ending injury and moving parts all over the unit, it was hard not to be. But everything's coming together for the Cowboys, and nothing showed that more than their performance in Seattle on Sunday.

We wrote about the legitimacy of this team this past week - in a nutshell, the offense has been incredibly efficient, controlling the football and allowing the defense to rest up. Entering the week, they Dallas D had seen the fewest plays against among all teams that haven't had their bye. As a result, they ranked 18th within our Adjusted (for strength of schedule) Defensive Net Expected Points (NEP) metric.

But there's no denying that they stepped it up against Seattle, the most efficient offense in the league according to our metrics. Russell Wilson ended the day with a -9.81 Passing NEP, which was 23.45 points worse than Tony Romo's total. Romo continues to have one of the most effective seasons he's had in the league, per our metrics.

Things are certainly coming together for Dallas, and it's tough to say otherwise. They have yet to play a divisional game, so things will start to get interesting next week when they host the Giants.