Titans at Cowboys

These are two teams that are loaded with talent but have not thus far met their lofty expectations meet in a 1:15 p.m. PT contest on CBS hoping to put the panic button back on the shelf.
The Titans' (2-2) issues are easy to identify; they are allergic to the football. Mixed in with two solid victories versus Oakland and the Giants, Tennessee put the ball on the ground nine times in losses (at home) to Pittsburgh and Denver.
As such, the Titans have held on to the ball for only 27:37 a game; bested only by the 0-4 Buffalo Bills.
The Cowboys (1-2) haven't been masters of excution themselves. The 'Boys have been piling up the yardage (391.7/game, fifth in the NFL) but have only scored 54 points in three games. They went a long way to correct this problem two weeks ago in Houston with a sound 27-13 over the Texans that wasn't even that close.
The rebound victory aside, the Cowboys have two other things working for them: the bye week and their 3-4 defense. The Cowboys haven't lost – or even failed to cover – coming out of a bye since 2004.
If it is to be seven years in a row, they have the perfect defensive base to make it happen. Tennessee's two losses came against 3-4 defenses (Pitt and Denver), a scheme Wade Phillips employs in Big D. That said, in the loss Houston's Arian Foster ran for over 100 yards, mostly in the first half.
Bookmaker.com has installed Dallas as 7-point favorites (with a total of 41½). The interconference matchup lacks any interesting head-to-head side trends (aside from the Cowboys being 6-0 off a bye since 2004), but Cowboy games have gone 'under' 11 of the last 14.
With both teams at near full-strength and surrounded by two uninspiring 1 p.m. games, it should be a fun game to cap.