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We’re still only in the second week of the preseason, but football that counts will be here before we know it. The Cowboys visit the Carolina Panthers to begin the season, and Dallas is on the positive side of the injury spectrum so far (crosses fingers).
Dallas will host the New York Giants the week after on Sunday Night Football (of course) for their home opener, but the week after they’ll be back on the road facing the Seattle Seahawks. It’s been a while since Dallas visited Seattle early in the season. That 2012 game (Russell Wilson’s first home start) with Golden Tate’s cheap shot on Sean Lee feels like forever ago.
When Dallas visits Seattle, it will be the rematch of what was effectively a playoff game last year as the two squared off in Week 16 in a win-or-go-home situation. Seattle won, Earl Thomas chased down Jason Garrett, and things have been crazy ever since. They could be a little crazier though at least as far as the Seahawks are concerned, especially with their ground game. Seattle finally found what looked like their next franchise runner with first-round pick Rashaad Penny, but he has a hand injury that’s going to sideline him for a while.
Sources: #Seahawks first-round RB Rashaad Penny flew to Philly tonight and is having surgery to repair a finger injury that includes a broken bone first thing Wednesday morning. He’s out 3-4 weeks, which means he’s right up against the start of the season. Hope is he’ll be ready.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 15, 2018
In case you forgot over the last 30 seconds, the Cowboys visit Seattle in Week 3. That’s five weeks from now. Any setback throughout Penny’s recovery could mean that he also misses the Seahawks/Cowboys game. We never root for injuries, but that could be a big deal.
Seattle is already without a star-studded list of offensive playmakers (they’re also missing the still-holding-out Earl Thomas) and if they were to be down Penny that would make things all the more dicy. It’s unfortunate that Rashaad is having to go through this in general, and it’s got to be even more frustrating because he’s a rookie who’s trying to make his mark on a good team.
We’ll see what happens with Rashaad over the coming weeks. For now put a mental bookmark in this and know that Dallas could draw Seattle without their top runner while the Cowboys hopefully take theirs ready to play.