CowboysWire: ESPN thinks Cowboys jumped from bottom-3 offense to No. 6

Cotton

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By: Tony Thompson | 2 hours ago

Entering the 2018 season, the Dallas Cowboys had gone from darlings of the NFL, a team thought to be on the verge of a long and fruitful run, to mostly an afterthought. After missing the playoffs in 2017, the questions around how the offense would move the ball were not only plentiful, but frighteningly realistic.

Quarterback Dak Prescott had fallen right into the famed sophomore slump and running back Ezekiel Elliott missed six games due to a long contested suspension. Hall of Fame tight end Jason Witten retired during the NFL draft and wide receiver Dez Bryant was released. A once-loaded offense suddenly found the cupboards empty.

When ESPN’s Bill Barnwell evaluated offensive arsenals around the league last year, he had the Cowboys ranked No. 30 in the NFL ahead of only the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. [h=1]30. Dallas Cowboys[/h]
When you remove that dominant offensive line and quarterback Dak Prescott from the equation, the Cowboys are left with one excellent running back in Ezekiel Elliott and what must surely be the worst receiving corps in football. The four tight ends vying to replace Jason Witten have 94 combined career receiving yards, all of which come from Geoff Swaim. The team’s best wideout is Allen Hurns, who had one impressive season in four years with the Jaguars and hasn’t been able to stay healthy over the past two seasons. The team is excited about third-round pick Michael Gallup, which is a reflection on the power of hope, but even Tavon Austin has to believe that the organizational plan to give the former Rams wideout 12 to 24 touches per game on offense is too much Tavon Austin.

At the time, Dallas fans scoffed, believing that the strong running game and, an ultimately unsuccessful, plan to have a receiver-by-committee approach would prevail. The assumption was that Prescott would benefit from not having to force feed the ball to his top pass catchers and instead be able to spread the ball around to the open man. What the Cowboys soon found was a pedestrian attack and a 3-5 record to open the season.

How the world turns. Entering this season Barnwell ranks Dallas sixth in the league. [h=1]6. Dallas Cowboys[/h]
Talk about a swing! The Cowboys headed into 2018 with Ezekiel Elliott and a laughably bad receiving corps, but one year later, there’s a lot to like for Dak Prescott. The trade for Amari Cooper revitalized Dallas’s passing game; Prescott posted a 104.6 passer rating with the star wideout on the field and an 86.8 rating with Cooper sidelined or in Oakland. Michael Gallup got better as the year went along, finishing with a 119-yard performance against the Rams during the postseason.

And though Jason Witten might not have much left in the tank at age 37 after returning from a year of broadcasting, Dallas’ starting tight ends last season posted a combined line of 38 catches for 345 yards and one touchdown. Even a limited Witten should be a comfortable upgrade in offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s offense.

Before Cooper’s arrival, there was no receiver commanding any real attention, allowing opposing defenses to lock in on Elliott and force Prescott to throw the ball into tight windows time and time again. With Cooper, everything turned around and Prescott again looked like the quarterback Cowboys fans were hoping for.

The veteran addition of wide receiver Randall Cobb, barring injury, should help replace the loss of former wideout Cole Beasley and help Gallup compliment Cooper in a major way.

Football is a game of inches and small sample sizes, making even the greatest prognosticator look foolish on a regular basis. But there is no reason for Cowboys fans to believe their offense should be a liability at this point.
 

Cowboysrock55

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The term bottom 3 offense is a bit deceiving. There isn't a really good way to grade an offense that runs as conservatively as we do. Total yards for an offense in order to grade them is silly. Which we were sort of middle of the pack to lower half in yards and points last year. But when you kick field goals instead of going for TDs. And you punt instead of trying to go for first downs and when you run the ball a ton with the objective of draining the clock it's going to make your offense look worse than they really are. Of course the objective of those things is to help take pressure off the defense and allow them to succeed which we did very successfully.

Anyway, I don't think we will ever be aggressive enough under Garrett to statistically have a 6th ranked offense according to standard statistics. But it doesn't mean the guys on the field can't perfect to the level of being a top 6 offense.
 

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The term bottom 3 offense is a bit deceiving. There isn't a really good way to grade an offense that runs as conservatively as we do. Total yards for an offense in order to grade them is silly. Which we were sort of middle of the pack to lower half in yards and points last year. But when you kick field goals instead of going for TDs. And you punt instead of trying to go for first downs and when you run the ball a ton with the objective of draining the clock it's going to make your offense look worse than they really are. Of course the objective of those things is to help take pressure off the defense and allow them to succeed which we did very successfully.

Anyway, I don't think we will ever be aggressive enough under Garrett to statistically have a 6th ranked offense according to standard statistics. But it doesn't mean the guys on the field can't perfect to the level of being a top 6 offense.
This is why I am leery about getting hyped about Moore's supposed "new approach". He can run all of the pre-snap movement he wants, but even if he is calling every play, Garrett will still be in charge of whether to go for it on 4th and inches. We will still be as conservative as always when it comes to decisions like this.
 

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As much as I hate Garrett, it's not all him. Dak is very conservative and probably always will be. It's just his nature.

Which isn't always a bad thing. It's just that he's not going to ring up huge numbers at the expense of more turnovers.
 

Cowboysrock55

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As much as I hate Garrett, it's not all him. Dak is very conservative and probably always will be. It's just his nature.

Which isn't always a bad thing. It's just that he's not going to ring up huge numbers at the expense of more turnovers.
I don't know how true that is. Dak wasn't really that conservative as a rookie. And a coach has a big impact on how aggressive or not aggressive his QB is. Dak just doesn't have the skins on the wall that Romo has yet where Romo would basically ignore what was called at times.

But it's not on the QB when you run the ball the majority of the time after a sack. It's ridiculous really and ultra conservative.
 

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The term bottom 3 offense is a bit deceiving. There isn't a really good way to grade an offense that runs as conservatively as we do. Total yards for an offense in order to grade them is silly. Which we were sort of middle of the pack to lower half in yards and points last year. But when you kick field goals instead of going for TDs. And you punt instead of trying to go for first downs and when you run the ball a ton with the objective of draining the clock it's going to make your offense look worse than they really are. Of course the objective of those things is to help take pressure off the defense and allow them to succeed which we did very successfully.

Anyway, I don't think we will ever be aggressive enough under Garrett to statistically have a 6th ranked offense according to standard statistics. But it doesn't mean the guys on the field can't perfect to the level of being a top 6 offense.
That’s why a team kicks field goals instead of getting Touchdowns. Dallas was bad because their offense was predictable and any decent defense could stop then from the 20 yard line on in.
 

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I don't know how true that is. Dak wasn't really that conservative as a rookie. And a coach has a big impact on how aggressive or not aggressive his QB is. Dak just doesn't have the skins on the wall that Romo has yet where Romo would basically ignore what was called at times.

But it's not on the QB when you run the ball the majority of the time after a sack. It's ridiculous really and ultra conservative.
Daks rookie year was choreographed for him. He didn’t have to think about reading defenses etc. All he had to do was execute a predetermined play. The next two years he was executing from the playbook which required he read and react correctly. He had a problem of keeping the ball too long because he didn’t anticipate receivers routes and as equally a problem was guys like Bryant couldn’t get any separation or execute a route. He was as much a sandlot receiver as he was a disciplined route runner. Last season Dallas didn’t have an adequate vertical game to begin the season but at least acquired some help for this area.
 

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I don't know how true that is. Dak wasn't really that conservative as a rookie. And a coach has a big impact on how aggressive or not aggressive his QB is.
Troy Aikman disagrees with you, FWIW.

But I wasn't talking about taking over the play calling. More taking chances down the field vs checking it down. (Or holding it too long and taking a sack.)
 

Cowboysrock55

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Troy Aikman disagrees with you, FWIW.

But I wasn't talking about taking over the play calling. More taking chances down the field vs checking it down. (Or holding it too long and taking a sack.)
You have to design plays to get the ball deep. A lot of it is play calling.
 

ravidubey

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It's irrelevant now. Dak is no longer that guy.

We just have to see how conservative he remains.

I think the unreal protection he received as a rookie slightly hurt his development. When you face almost no adversity, you don't mature.
 

Smitty

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I don't know how true that is. Dak wasn't really that conservative as a rookie. And a coach has a big impact on how aggressive or not aggressive his QB is. Dak just doesn't have the skins on the wall that Romo has yet where Romo would basically ignore what was called at times.

But it's not on the QB when you run the ball the majority of the time after a sack. It's ridiculous really and ultra conservative.
Dak was very conservative as a rookie.
 

Cowboysrock55

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It's irrelevant now. Dak is no longer that guy.

We just have to see how conservative he remains.

I think the unreal protection he received as a rookie slightly hurt his development. When you face almost no adversity, you don't mature.
Unreal as a rookie and terrible last year. The good news is he did pretty well last season with pretty bad pass protection. Our LG spot gave up a pathetic amount of pressure.
 

ravidubey

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Unreal as a rookie and terrible last year. The good news is he did pretty well last season with pretty bad pass protection. Our LG spot gave up a pathetic amount of pressure.
The OL was probably above average all told. There was pressure, but not so much we couldn’t make the playoffs. Dak as you may recall held onto the ball quite often longer than he should. Then there were the spins directly into defenders.

Anyways, that TD pass against the Giants to Beasely in the final reg season game was crazy good, and I choose to build hope on that and his solid playoff performance in LA.
 

Cowboysrock55

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The OL was probably above average all told. There was pressure, but not so much we couldn’t make the playoffs. Dak as you may recall held onto the ball quite often longer than he should. Then there were the spins directly into defenders.

Anyways, that TD pass against the Giants to Beasely in the final reg season game was crazy good, and I choose to build hope on that and his solid playoff performance in LA.
We ranked 28th last season in pass protection according to football outsiders. Our LG spot gave up an insane amount of sacks. So last year we weren't average in pass blocking. But our run blocking was still really good. So all told they were probably average. They ranked is 8th in run blocking which is probably aboit right.

I think having our all pro center back will help both a ton.
 
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