With the Green Bay Packers coming to town in a couple of days to create a meeting of the two best teams in the NFC, a game of two 10-1 teams facing off, and a game that may decide who has home field advantage for the playoffs, I thought it would be a good time to explore just how good these 2007 Dallas Cowboys are 11 games into the season.

So, lets start with the offense where the Cowboys boast the 2nd best team in the NFL with 388.8 yards per game and the 2nd in scoring with 358 points. The Cowboys have a balanced offense ranked 5th in passing with 265.9 yards per game, and while they are just 11th in rushing with 122.9 yards per game, they are also tied for 5th in rushing yards per attempt with 4.4.

There’s no surprises as to who the stars on offense are. Tony Romo has the 3rd best QB rating (105.3), is 4th in passing yards (3,043), 7th in completion percentage (66.2), and 2nd in yards per attempt with 8.6.

Who’s he throwing to? Terrell Owens is 2nd in yards (1,093) and 2nd in TD’s (13). Among tight ends, Jason Witten is 3rd in yards (750), 4th in catches (59), and tied for 4th in TD’s (6).

And rumbling, bumbling, stumbling towards the end zone is Marion Barber who is 13th in the league in yards (715) despite splitting time with Julius Jones. Barber is also 4th in yards per carry (4.9) among running backs with at least 100 attempts.

The defense isn’t too shabby either. They are ranked 7th overall giving up 299.1 yards per game and tied for 10th in total points allowed with 221. They are also 4rth against the run giving up only 82.1 yards per game.

Now, against the pass, it is a different story with the Cowboys ranked 21st having given up 2,387 yards. But, stats are strange things. While the Cowboys have given up a lot of yards against the pass, they have also been thrown against more than all but four other teams, and have the 4th lowest completion percentage of opposing quarterbacks. The defense is also ranked 6th in sacks with 30 and tied for 2nd in interceptions with 16.

Among the defensive stars are DeMarcus Ware who is tied for 7th in sacks with 9 and Greg Ellis who is 10th in sacks with 8.5. Anthony Henry is tied for 3rd in interceptions with 5, and Ken Hamlin is in a long list tied at 6th with 4.

The overall picture is a balanced team that can run the ball well, and pass the ball among the best. They can defend the run, and are good at getting to the quarterback and creating opportunities for interceptions, and while they force the quarterback to miss his receiver a fair amount, they do tend to give up some deep balls.

These stats will be tested on Thursday when the Green Bay Packers spread the Cowboys out and try to throw the ball around on them. Make no mistakes, the Packers are going to try to chunk it deep, which means Newman, Henry and Reese will have their hands full, but perhaps more pressure will be on Ellis and Ware who will need to keep Favre from having the time to throw it deep.