Week 13 Thursday Night Gameday Chatter | Cowboys vs Vikings | 12-1-2016

Simpleton

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
17,413
I don't agree that we moved the ball just fine last night if you take away the penalties. We were not good.

But it was one game against the best defense in the league and we probably won't see them again. We were also playing our 3rd game in 11 days on the road. They get a pass.
I wouldn't say the offense moved the ball "just fine" but I do think if we played a clean game we would've won by 10+. On almost every single offensive drive we had some kind of debilitating penalty or turnover/near turnover.

Second drive of the game Elliott fumbles, third drive of the game, a questionable hold calls back a huge Elliott run, then Whitehead fumbles in Vikings territory, in the second half on both of our first 2 drives we got a 1st down just two plays into each drive but on the third Escobar was called for questionable penalties, turning 2nd and 5 or 6 into 1st and 20 and 1st and 24, then of course Prescott fumbled on one of those drives, a drive or two later we converted a 3rd to Witten into Vikings territory, it was called back on a holding although this time it was legit. And then of course the cherry on top is on a play that likely ices the game Prescott/Frederick mishandle the snap.

Usually this offense can overcome those things but you can't make mistakes like that on nearly every single drive on the road against a top defense. Every time the offense was starting to get into rhythm they'd get called for a penalty and put into 1st and 20 or make some other kind of mistake. It really is amazing if you go back and look at it, these mistakes were made on almost every single drive, often times just as things were starting to get rolling.
 

Simpleton

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
17,413
[MENTION=70]Simpleton[/MENTION]

This is what I meant about not wanting or necessarily needing a Cowboys loss before the playoffs. You can have your bad game and it still not be a loss and you can take the same types of lessons away from it.

We had our sloppy game vs Philly and found a way to win, then followed it up with a domination of Cleveland, an impressive road win at Pittsburgh, a convincing all around effort vs Baltimore, then a big divisional win against a hot Washington team.

We just played an even worse game last night than we did vs Philly but still came away with a win, so now I'm hoping they respond with the same type of stretch that they did after the Philly game.

It's a mark of a winner when you can go into games like these and still find ways to win.
Perhaps you're right, I have no idea what the mindset of this team is but sometimes when you're winning and not playing your best, even if you think you're still completely locked in and focused, you aren't, and a loss can push you to a new level of focus. I have no clue whether or not that's the case with this team, and most of me saying they'd be better off taking a loss at some point isn't based on anything but instinct/feel so who knows?
 

Cowboysrock55

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
52,453
The penalties directly took two scores away from us. The Elliott run had us ready for a TD and the pass to Witten had us in field goal position. If we had scored 10 more points, would anyone be worried about the offense.

Of course there were more drive killing penalties then that but I didn't see anything concerning about the offense other then the penalties. Elliott still ran for over 4 ypc and Dak had a 108 QB rating.
 

data

Forbes #1
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
50,293
Conspiracy theorists love the way the refs called last nights game. A story leaks that TNF is struggling. Can't have the Cowboys in a blowout the very next game.
 

Simpleton

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
17,413
The penalties directly took two scores away from us. The Elliott run had us ready for a TD and the pass to Witten had us in field goal position. If we had scored 10 more points, would anyone be worried about the offense.

Of course there were more drive killing penalties then that but I didn't see anything concerning about the offense other then the penalties. Elliott still ran for over 4 ypc and Dak had a 108 QB rating.
Not only that but Whitehead fumbled after converting a 1st in Vikings territory. Of course we got 7 from the Vikings fumble, so if you want you can take that away, but even without that, if we had played clean I'm guessing we would've scored at least 23-27 or so points.
 

Cowboysrock55

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
52,453
Conspiracy theorists love the way the refs called last nights game. A story leaks that TNF is struggling. Can't have the Cowboys in a blowout the very next game.
Plus feel good story with Zimmer with a big upset.
 

Simpleton

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
17,413
I definitely think the refs were looking to influence the rhythm of the game but I have to give them credit for swallowing their whistle on the 2 point conversion, especially since it was inconsequential to the play. They also missed a clear hit to Prescott's helmet on 3rd down on the first drive of the game.
 

dallen

Senior Tech
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
8,466
In the light of the morning it feels good that in spite of just about everything going wrong that could have gone wrong against a pretty decent team we still found a way to win. Yeah we got a little lucky recovering the punt fumble, and yeah they probably could have called roughing the passer on the 2pt conversion. But on balance just about everything was going against us in the game and we won anyway.
 

dallen

Senior Tech
Joined
Jan 1, 2000
Messages
8,466
Conspiracy theorists love the way the refs called last nights game. A story leaks that TNF is struggling. Can't have the Cowboys in a blowout the very next game.
If anyone thinks the way the refs treated that game made it more entertaining I'd like to kick them in the nards
 

Genghis Khan

The worst version of myself
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
37,468
It was not so much their defense as the bad penalties and turnovers that stopped us.

Take away half of those and we win comfortably.
Don't you think the penalties and turnovers were in large part caused by their defense giving us problems?
 

Genghis Khan

The worst version of myself
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
37,468
I don't agree that we moved the ball just fine last night if you take away the penalties. We were not good.

But it was one game against the best defense in the league and we probably won't see them again. We were also playing our 3rd game in 11 days on the road. They get a pass.
Agreed, we struggled offensively. Shouldn't even be debatable.

Vikings I believe were in the same boat so I don't give us a pass on that.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,697
You wore it? Can't believe you would chance jinxing them.
Something had to turn the game around. And, right after I put it on we scored a TD. Wondering if I should wear it the rest of year, or consider it just a one game boost the team needed.
 

Simpleton

DCC 4Life
Joined
Apr 8, 2013
Messages
17,413
Don't you think the penalties and turnovers were in large part caused by their defense giving us problems?
The penalties on Free and Escobar had nothing to do with the Vikings defense for the most part and were questionable at best, they also torpedoed three drives, not to mention the Whitehead fumble later on one of those drives which was a relatively routine play that you see almost every game.

The Prescott fumble and the Elliott hold were definitely due to the play of their defense, and their defense played great overall, but there were several times where our offense stopped themselves and it didn't have much to do with the Vikings. The mishandled snap at the end obviously had nothing to do with their defense either.
 

Texas Ace

Teh Acester
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
23,400
Don't you think the penalties and turnovers were in large part caused by their defense giving us problems?
That certainly cannot be discounted, but we played a very good defense vs Baltimore and played a very clean game.

And while the Vikings also played the same amount of games in the same timespan, it's always the offenses that suffer from issues related to rhythm and sluggishness.

Like I said numerous times last night, we'll find out next week whether this was a one off or cracks starting to show in the team.
 

Cowboysrock55

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
52,453
Agreed, we struggled offensively. Shouldn't even be debatable.

Vikings I believe were in the same boat so I don't give us a pass on that.
And if not for the penalties, we didn't really struggle. But I guess you can claim the penaltiez were a result of great defense. But a number of them were pretty questionable.
 

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,697
11-1, bitches. Just let that settle in for a bit. I know that reality hasn't fully sunken in with me yet.
 

Cowboysrock55

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
52,453
So for the people concerned about our offense what exactly was concerning outside of the penalties? A fumble by a guy who touches the ball about one time a game on offense at most? It couldn't be Dak and his 108 QB rating? The only reason he didn't put up bigger numbers was because he only had like 18 pass attempts. Zeke averaged 4.3 ypc. Maybe not his best game but certainly not bad at all.

I guess the concerning part could be the 3 sacks that our offensive line gave up. But this offensive line doesn't concern me at all. Dak had time to throw most passes. The bad one was the strip sack where Free just got beat.

What concerns me are the 5 offensive drives that were killed by some type of a penalty.
 
Top Bottom