Chips are down for Cowboys

THE heat may be on young halfback Jake Clifford to perform this Thursday night, but let’s not forget he wasn’t the only chef in the kitchen when it burnt to the ground against Parramatta.

The playmaker struggled to stamp his authority on the match, but some of the great halfbacks would have been up against it to have their say on the onesided affair.

The Eels’ forward pack were all over the Cowboys from the 10-minute mark, coming up with 22 offloads, eight line breaks and 2073 run metres.

That’s nearly double the Cowboys’ output in those three key statistics.

Backrowers Shane Wright and Coen Hess ran for a combined 86m while Eels pair Shaun Lane and Ryan Matterson contributed 261m.

Meanwhile up front Josh Mcguire and Francis Molo made 179m compared to Junior Paulo and Reagan CampbellGillard’s 379m.

Not too many number sevens would be able to kick their side out of trouble when the boys in the middle are tossing up those numbers.

The side’s poor ball control, they had 13 errors to the Eels’ seven, meant they made nearly 100 more tackles than their opposition.

It doesn’t get any easier this Thursday night either, taking on two-time defending premiers the Sydney Roosters.

Heartbroken after their golden point loss to the Melbourne Storm last week, the Roosters will be ready to fly at Queensland Country Bank Stadium.

While the Chooks may have a busted wing, with Victor Radley out for the season and Daniel Tupou, Boyd Cordner, Jared Waerea-hargreaves and Lindsay Collins all under an injury cloud, they will expect to come to Townsville and win.

North Queensland are getting in the ring with the heavyweight champion this week and they need their middle men to stand up or they’ll suffer another knockout blow.

Maybe then the boy from Tully can produce what we all know he is capable of.