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Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across the NFL powered by SurveyMonkey. Each week, we send 32 polls to 100+ plugged in fans from each team. Cowboys fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.
Will the Cowboys win or lose in Week 1?
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A lot has happened over the course of the offseason for the Cowboys, but there still remains an obvious sense of optimism. We’re talking about a team that is 22-10 over the last two seasons and while that’s obviously inflated by the 2016 season so is the Cowboys identity.
Ezekiel Elliott is back for a full season and that means it’s time to feed him. A less-talented defense benefited from that greatly two years ago, and entering this season that side of the ball has strengthened dramatically. Dallas has the roster to compete and win comfortably if everything breaks right, so six points feels fair.
How confident are you in the direction of the team?
Very confident: 22 percent
Somewhat confident: 62 percent
Meh: 5 percent
Not very confident: 9 percent
Not confident at all: 1 percent
Confidence in the Cowboys typically revolves around the players themselves; it’s hard to trust anything beyond that as these results show. Ask any general fan and they’ll hit you with the “Jerry Jones needs to get out of the way” trope, but those paying attention know things have been different for quite some time.
The collective brain-trust of Stephen Jones, Jason Garrett, Will McClay, and yes, Jerry himself, have certainly earned the right to be trusted, but they’ve also done some suspect things. Releasing Dez Bryant and Dan Bailey are some of the bigger decisions they’ve made since the team last took the field, how the Cowboys perform now will move the needle in one direction or the other.
What is the worst NFL rule?
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Think about this for a second. The helmet rule is actually so bad that the overwhelming majority of football fans everywhere think it’s atrocious.
As Cowboys fans we might be a bit partial to the catch rule being the worst one to ever exist, but the helmet rule isn’t far behind. Hopefully the big deal of it was just for the preseason because if it ripples over into the regular season (WHICH WE ARE NOW AT!) things could get annoying fast.