JJT: Dak Prescott Reveals Vision for Cowboys’ Offense

Cotton

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Dak Prescott Reveals Vision for Cowboys’ Offense
By Jean-Jacques Taylor
Published at 7:00 AM CST on Feb 12, 2018 | Updated at 7:59 PM CST on Feb 11, 2018

The Dallas Cowboys’ offense must change this off-season.

We all know it.

Jason Garrett’s offensive scheme, which is essentially the same scheme the Cowboys used to win championships in the ‘90s, is a relic.

It’s a system based on personnel - not scheme, which works just fine when you have the proper personnel at your disposal- and when it doesn’t the Cowboys struggle to move the ball.

When an offensive system is based on scheme - not personnel- then it can absorb key personnel losses a lot better.

All you have to do is look at the teams in the Super Bowl to prove it.

Name all the star offensive skill position players Tom Brady has had, while leading New England to eight Super Bowls.

Look at how Philadelphia won a championship after trading for its starting running back in October, losing its star left tackle midway through the season and quarterback Carson Wentz, who was in the midst of a MVP season, in December.

When an offensive system is built on scheme it’s a lot easier to find plug-and -play players.

When the NFL suspended Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys were in the midst of a five-game stretch where they were averaing 32.4 points and 406.2 yards a game.

But when Elliott went out, they scored fewer than 10 points in three consecutive games for the first time in franchise history.

When left tackle Tyron Smith missed a game against Atlanta, the Falcons sacked Dak Prescott eight times.

Prescott has an idea of how he wants the Cowboys’ offense to look next season.

“I think it just means if you watch a little bit of maybe what the Panthers are doing or what the Chiefs did, just the RPOs, the run-pass options, just allowing me to use my feet if necessary more," Prescott told USA Today in Minneapolis. "Allow me to go out there and be more comfortable in everything I'm doing."

In five years with Kansas City, Alex Smith averaged 66 carries and 350 yards per season. Cam Newton has averaged 118 carries and 617 yards a season for Carolina.

He’s had four seasons with more than 120 carries, including two seasons with more than 130 carries.

No way, the Cowboys want Prescott running that much. He’s averaged 57 carries and 320 yards in his first two seasons.

The problem, of course, with running that much is that it puts your quarterback in jeopardy.

Run-pass options are good plays, but you can wind up taking the ball out of your best players’ hands.

That happened last December against Seattle, which is why the Cowboys had three plays inside the Seattle 5 and Elliott never touched it.

“The Chiefs do a great job of utilizing their running back’s and quarterback's feet,” Prescott told USA Today, “not always running with them, but scaring the defense with it.”

The key is to make the offense difficult to stop by giving it a variety of options.

Garrett is fond of saying the Cowboys like to attack a lot of different ways with a lot of different players. He’ll tell you the Cowboys like to attack horizontally and vertically.

But it’s also based on Prescott finding the best matchup and that player winning his matchup. When he doesn’t, the offense bogs down, the big plays disappear and the Cowboys struggle to score.

We all saw that happen too many times in the second half of the season, which is Prescott averaged 188 yards passing per game with six touchdowns, nine interceptions and a 74.0 passer rating.

In his first 24 games, he averaged 229 yards passing per game with 38 touchdowns, nine interceptions and a 102.4 passer rating.

The goal should be to create more options within the offense, so it creates some easier throws for Prescott. Every pass shouldn’t have to be a contested catch. A scheme with some pick plays and rub routes and bunch concepts can give Prescott a few easy throws every game.

That might just be enough too fix the Cowboys’ broken passing game and earn Garrett another season.
 

boozeman

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JJT is slipping. This was reported a couple weeks ago.
 

Smitty

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I don't really feel like this article outlined what Dak's vision actually is, either.

More RPOs? But then JJT turns around and says, "But RPOs can take the ball out of Elliott's hands, like it did against Seattle." It also goes on to say that Garrett's scheme is currently based on Prescott finding and exploiting the best matchup, and when he doesn't, the offense has struggled. So why would you want to give Prescott more to process in terms of options?

I'm not saying the overall premise, that we need to change schemes or tweak our scheme, isn't correct. I'm just saying this article doesn't explain very well what it thinks the solution should be.
 

Chocolate Lab

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You guys aren't really surprised JJT wrote a poorly structured and supported article, are you?

I do think this is a strange comment:

Dak said:
"Allow me to go out there and be more comfortable in everything I'm doing."
What does this mean? Two years in and he's not comfortable with our basic offense? Is he saying he needs something more like what he ran in college?
 

Cotton

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You guys aren't really surprised JJT wrote a poorly structured and supported article, are you?

I do think this is a strange comment:

What does this mean? Two years in and he's not comfortable with our basic offense? Is he saying he needs something more like what he ran in college?
I think he is saying that they just might be forcing him to be the QB he is not. He is best outside the pocket. Design more plays that get him out of the pocket.
 

L.T. Fan

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It also says Garrett hasn’t made any changes to speak of to the playbook but instead has everyone trying to conform to a system that may not fit the players best abilities. I touched on this sometime ago and as long as Garrett is content with his antiquated system his team will continue to be targets to opponents who also are familiar with his system. Dallas fans even know what the plays will be when the huddle breaks.
 

Cowboysrock55

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I think he is saying that they just might be forcing him to be the QB he is not. He is best outside the pocket. Design more plays that get him out of the pocket.
I think it's a knock on the system. I think a lot of what Garrett wants to do is predetermined prior to the snap based on matchups. If Dez gets a certain look we throw the ball to him. Regardless of if he is open or not. It's this sort of stuff that basically allows a defense to dictate what you do on offense and then they know what's coming. RPO's and things like that bring a level of unpredictability in a simplistic way that makes Dak's job easier.
 

p1_

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It also says Garrett hasn’t made any changes to speak of to the playbook but instead has everyone trying to conform to a system that may not fit the players best abilities. I touched on this sometime ago and as long as Garrett is content with his antiquated system his team will continue to be targets to opponents who also are familiar with his system. Dallas fans even know what the plays will be when the huddle breaks.
It will only speed up his departure to be so stubborn. So be it, a lack of flexibility and resistance to change will be his undoing.
 

ravidubey

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There is no vision. They ain’t qualified for that.

After mixing in a few xeroxed plays, they will fall back to grinding Zeke into the ground and hoping for perfect OL play like 2016.

Then pray Dak takes his game to the next level or else fail in the playoffs (again).
 

mcnuttz

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My vision would be to definitely ride Zeke into the ground. Smith is good enough to let Zeke take a whole series off if he needs to, but keep running the damn ball.

This offense runs through him, I don't give a shit what kind of rookie year Dak had. He clearly showed that he wasn't yet as ready as we'd hoped.

Run the ball, control the clock, and keep your defense off the field.

Boom, Dak's an all-timer again.
 

L.T. Fan

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My vision would be to definitely ride Zeke into the ground. Smith is good enough to let Zeke take a whole series off if he needs to, but keep running the damn ball.

This offense runs through him, I don't give a shit what kind of rookie year Dak had. He clearly showed that he wasn't yet as ready as we'd hoped.

Run the ball, control the clock, and keep your defense off the field.

Boom, Dak's an all-timer again.
Absolutely correct . Prescott is barely through his rookie year and the staff placed the game responsibility in his hands. It was so predictable what would happen if he was put in that position. Then the reaction to Elliot’s suspension was so irresponsible by the staff. Instead of relying on a pretty good group of running backs they placed the entire season on a sophomore QB. Who couldn’t predict the outcome of that when it comes to crunch time for the season. Oh well.
 
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deadrise

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Dak and everyone else will have to wait until the Brain Trust gets finished with its review of what other offenses are doing.
 

Cotton

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Dak and everyone else will have to wait until the Brain Trust gets finished with its review of what other offenses are doing.
:budd
 

Cujo

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Dak and everyone else will have to wait until the Brain Trust gets finished with its review of what other offenses are doing.

Beyond gay. It reeks of desperation.
 

boozeman

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Dak and everyone else will have to wait until the Brain Trust gets finished with its review of what other offenses are doing.
I remember back in the day, Zimmer was sent off on coaching junkets to other teams to learn how to run the 3-4.

This is a little less formal and more sad.
 

deadrise

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Beyond gay. It reeks of desperation.

If your coaching staff is reduced to poaching ideas from other teams, does that not indicate to you, as the owner, that they don't know what the hell they're doing?
 

Chocolate Lab

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I remember back in the day, Zimmer was sent off on coaching junkets to other teams to learn how to run the 3-4.

This is a little less formal and more sad.
Yeah, at least that was an experienced boss who knew what he was doing and really was just making it hard on an assistant so he would grow as a coach.

This is just pathetic straw-grasping.
 

Cujo

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If your coaching staff is reduced to poaching ideas from other teams, does that not indicate to you, as the owner, that they don't know what the hell they're doing?

Seems like it would be fairly clear. It's something I could have forgiven or maybe looked the other way in years 2 or 3 but 8 fucking years? And this is the plan? Doesn't look good.
 

ravidubey

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Seems like it would be fairly clear. It's something I could have forgiven or maybe looked the other way in years 2 or 3 but 8 fucking years? And this is the plan? Doesn't look good.
Garrett’s been here over a decade all told.

Jerry Jones is stupidly stubborn.
 
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