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Cowboys at Ravens Preview: You can always tell a Harvard center, but you can’t tell him much…

Oct 12, 2012, 11:24 PM EDT

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COWBOYS (2-2) AT RAVENS (4-1)

By Football Night in America’s Elliott Kalb

The Cowboys are coming off a bye week which followed a 34-18 Monday night loss to the Bears in which Tony Romo threw five interceptions.

Last season, the Cowboys lost to New England in their first game following the bye week.  But they’re 16-7 in franchise history following a bye.

The Ravens have won three straight games, against New England, Cleveland and Kansas City.  In the last two games, the Ravens defense allowed a total of 22 points.

A win this week would give the Ravens just their second 5-1 start in franchise history (2000).

You can always tell a Harvard center, but you can’t tell him much:  Matt Birk will snap the ball to quarterback Joe Flacco on Sunday against Dallas in his 200th career game.

This matchup is the Ravens’ only home game in October.  They head to Houston next week, which is followed by the bye week.  Then they open November in Cleveland before returning home to host the Raiders on November 11.

Including the playoffs, the Ravens have won 13 consecutive regular season games at M&T Bank Stadium, the longest active home win streak in the league.

So far this season, the Ravens have scored exactly twice as many points (130) as the Cowboys (65).

With Romo’s 5:8 TD:INT ratio and DeMarco Murray averaging only 3.9 yards per rush, it’s no surprise that the Cowboys rank 30th in the league in points per game, at 16.3.

DeMarco Murray has 11 carries for negative yardage in his last two games.

In their last three games, the Cowboys have gained a total of 128 yards rushing.  But the Ravens allowed 214 yards on the ground to Kansas City last week–the most since 1997—and have allowed 100+ three times already this season.  Something’s gotta give.

Cowboys punters Chris Jones (knee) and his replacement Brian Moorman (groin) are uncertain for Sunday, so Romo could be the holder on field goal and PAT attempts.  Romo has held the job a couple different times since his famous bobble in the 2006 wild-card playoff game at Seattle.

It’s unclear who will be at center for the Cowboys.  Starter Phil Costa (back) seems ready to return from his injury suffered in Week 1, while backup Ryan Cook hurt his hamstring in the Monday night loss to the Bears, but also appears ready to play.  Either way, the Cowboys’ center will have a crucial matchup against Haloti Ngata.

Ngata will also face off against struggling right guard Mackenzy Bernadeau.  Owner Jerry Jones said on his Tuesday radio show that Derrick Dockery see playing time if Bernadeau doesn’t improve.  According to Pro Football Focus, Bernadeau ranks 68th among 71 guards who have played at least 25 percent of their teams’ snaps.

Nose tackle Jay Ratliff (ankle) should have a big impact as he makes his season debut on Sunday.  “Getting Jay back is like getting three guys back,” end Marcus Spears said.  “In the nickel packages, in the base packages and then teams actually game plan for (him).”

The Ravens have 26 passing plays of 20-or-more yards, most in the league.  But the Cowboys—specifically Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne—will use a lot of press coverage, a tactic used successfully by the Chiefs and Eagles earlier this season to slow down the Ravens’ downfield attempts.

Romo’s next touchdown pass will tie him with Danny White (155) for the second-most in franchise history.  Troy Aikman is first, with 165.

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