It’s a special game for a lot of reasons. It will give fans their first look at new Leighton Vander Esch Jersey wide receiver Amari Cooper who the Cowboys acquired via trade with the Oakland Raiders. It will also be a time to honor legendary tight end Jason Witten as he makes his first ever broadcast of the team he’s spent the last 15 years playing for.While those things bring some excitement for Cowboys fans Youth Customized Dallas Cowboys Jerseys , it’s very important that the Cowboys come away with the W on Monday night so they can stay in the playoff hunt at the midway point. How can the Cowboys emerge victorious? Well, the BTB writing staff offers up their guess as to who will be the x-factor on Monday night.Tom Ryle: Michael GallupI’m going back to the same X-factor I had in the Washington game, Michael Gallup. If Scott Linehan uses Amari Cooper correctly, his arrival can really change the ways other defenses approach the Cowboys. Before this, the main receiving threat other teams focused on was Cole Beasley. Now, he is likely to become the number two concern, with Cooper the big gun. And that means there won’t be a lot of double coverage for Gallup to contend with. We saw the first glimpse of what he can become in the first half of the last game. Now, with the attention split with the other receivers, Gallup is going to be open more than ever. I think he is going to make the most of that.Michael Sisemore: Tyron SmithFor this week, give me Tyron Smith, the All-Pro left tackle. If we’re to believe some of the whispers www.cowboysauthorizedshops.com , Tyron wasn’t a fan of his now former line coach or his technique preferences. Well, Alexander is now unemployed so he’s out of the picture and it’s time for Tyron Smith to show that he’s still that guy. The Titans defense may be long in the tooth but it’s still a group of talented veterans. Smith and his counterpart La’el Collins need to prove that their regression this season was just a product of a bad marriage. If it truly was just a styles clash in philosophy, expect Tyron Smith to go back to that aggressive style that has allowed him to dominate his opponents.Danny Phantom: Jaylon SmithWhen Day 2 of the 2016 NFL Draft arrived, I was expecting the Cowboys to select one of the top defensive ends remaining on the board - either Emmanuel Ogbah or Kevin Dodd. Surprisingly both those players were the first two guys picked in the second round. The Titans actually picked Dodd, much to the dismay of many Cowboys fans who felt that the front office panicked when all the edge rushers were gone, and took too big of a risk by selecting injured linebacker Jaylon Smith.Well, Dodd isn’t in the league anymore, but Smith is and he’s finally making fans feel good about the pick.The Titans don’t have many weapons on offense, but the ones they do have are going to test the Cowboys linebacker group. With the quick receiving back in Dion Lewis combined with the elusive Marcus Mariota, the trio of Smith, Sean Lee Dallas Cowboys Womens T-Shirt , and rookie Leighton Vander Esch will need to make plays to keep the Titans offense from moving the ball. Jaylon has come up big against both of the Cowboys AFC South opponents this year, with a forced fumble and key fourth down stop to his credit. Look for Smith to have another swipe-worthy play against the Titans.Dave Halprin: Scott Linehan. Yup, I said it. The much-maligned offensive coordinator is going to look like a genius by the end of the night. The Titans have a great scoring defense, but the Cowboys are going to explode on offense. Amari Cooper will be seen as the main reason, everyone will say he opened the offense up. But much of the credit should go to Linehan as he uses the bye week to re-tool some things in the offensvie game plan and the Cowboys players will take advantage. Troy Aikman was there for the great years, and he was there for the struggles that followed.And what he sees from the Cowboys at the moment is closer to the latter than the former.The former Cowboys quarterback and current FOX analyst said during an interview on 1310 The Ticket that the team needs a “complete overhaul.”Considering the owner is also the General Manager, that seems unlikely, and Jerry Jones has said that he doesn’t intend to make a coaching change during the season.“Go through the list and this team, over a long period of time, has been what it’s been,” Aikman said Dallas Cowboys Hats , via Todd Archer of ESPN.com. “It hasn’t always mattered who the head coach has been. So to me, if you’re asking me, I’d say there has to be a complete overhaul of the entire organization.”Aikman clearly doesn’t expect Jones to let anyone else run the place, as he leans on his son Stephen Jones, along with vice president of player personnel Will McClay and coach Jason Garrett for personnel matters.“I’ve heard Jerry say, ‘OK, look, we’re going to do it differently. I’m going to do it differently,’ . . . but it’s the same. Nothing changes,” Aikman said. “And that to me is the bigger issue beyond, yes Dallas Cowboys Womens Hoodie , coaching is important, personnel, all those things are important, but how are you going about evaluating how you’re going about running the organization? Whatever that looks like 鈥?and everyone has an opinion on what it does look like, but I’m not in the building. I have no idea. I talk to people. I talk to people who have been inside the building and have a pretty good understanding how things are run and in a lot of ways there’s a lot of dysfunction and that has to change if this team is going to be able to compete on a consistent basis like the teams that you look to around the league that seemingly are in the hunt each and every year.”Aikman may have a personal relationship with Garrett (they were teammates during the ’90s), but he also has a unique opportunity to see behind the curtain at other franchises, the good ones and the bad ones.One former Cowboys coach likes to say, “You are what your record says you are.” The Cowboys are 3-5 at the moment, 70-58 in nine years under Garrett, and have exactly two playoff wins since Aikman beat the Vikings in the 1996 wild card round.