Davison: Prescott - "I’m going to run the offense. If Dez is read, Dez is read"

Cotton

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Prescott: I’m going to run the offense. If Dez is read, Dez is read

BY DREW DAVISON
ddavison@star-telegram.com

If Dez Bryant would have maintained possession throughout the catch and scored a touchdown … If Cole Beasley would have come down with a TD catch in the first half. If, if, if....

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott’s debut would have had a much different tone if one of several plays had gone his way in the season-opening 20-19 loss to the New York Giants last Sunday.

Instead, though, Prescott was left answering questions Wednesday about what went wrong, namely Bryant finishing with only one catch for 8 yards.

“That’s our guy; he needs catches; he needs balls,” Prescott said. “He had some balls thrown at him. He wants to bring down, and he’d say it himself, he wants to bring that touchdown down, make that play. If he has that, regardless of two catches or not, he has a touchdown, and I don’t know if we’re still talking about this.

“I’m going to continue to run our offense. If Dez is the read, Dez is the read.”

The Cowboys run a democratic approach on offense under coach Jason Garrett and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan. The quarterback is supposed to find the open receiver, whether it’s an All-Pro such as Bryant or a second-year tight end such as Geoff Swaim.

The Cowboys rarely run designed plays specifically for Bryant, and operate under the mindset that balls will eventually work their way toward “the stars.” That has worked in the past, but people are questioning that philosophy after a game in which Bryant was a relative non-factor.

“I know some people kind of threaten and you’ve got to try to get some of your playmakers the ball, but then you get away from your offense,” Prescott said. “You get away from things that you normally do when you do that. So I think it’s important for us to just make sure that we keep running our offense.

“Dez will have balls throughout our offense. He’ll have balls thrown at him this week, he’ll make some grabs, we’ll make some throws, we’ll get some completions on all the guys. All the guys will have chances.”

Prescott completed passes to eight different receivers on Sunday, and targeted nine overall. Tight end Jason Witten led the team in receiving with nine catches for 66 yards. Cole Beasley was second with eight catches for 65 yards.

Bryant finished with one catch for 8 yards on five targets. But one of the targets happened to be an overturned touchdown pass. It was the second near-touchdown by Prescott on the day, the other coming in the first half when a pass to Beasley was a little high and went through his hands.

Like everybody else, Prescott could only wonder what would have been had those two passes ended differently.

“One, I think we win, so you probably aren’t asking me the same questions for one,” Prescott said. “But it’s completely different [outcome]. We’ll make those catches, we’ll make those throws, we’ll convert that.

“It’s not a panic. We’re in good position. It’s Game 1. You hate to lose the first game, especially a division game, but we have 15 more left.”
 

L.T. Fan

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Interesting. So Dez doesn't run designed plays very often. Does that qualify for ad lib patterns?
 

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Interesting. So Dez doesn't run designed plays very often. Does that qualify for ad lib patterns?
No, what he is saying is that the coaching staff doesn't run specifically designed plays for him.
 

L.T. Fan

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No, what he is saying is that the coaching staff doesn't run specifically designed plays for him.
Yeah they let him go on his own. I know it indicates that they don't say he is a primary target on a given play but he doesnt always seem to be on a prescribed route.
 
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Cotton

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Yeah the let him go on his own.
They use to design plays to get Irvin the ball. Specifically designed plays to make it easier to get balls in his hands. They don't do that with Dez. That's his point.
 

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They use to design plays to get Irvin the ball. Specifically designed plays to make it easier to get balls in his hands. They don't do that with Dez. That's his point.
Understand. Actually all this is due to a comment I made a couple of days ago that Bryant appeared at times to be running ad lib routes and it became a point of contention with Jiggy. I still think he is on his own system part of the time and doing so limits the number of throws he gets. But that's enough of that.
 

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I still laugh at the fact this braintrust of offensive geniuses don't know how to isolate one of the best WR's in the game week in and week out.

What Pittsburgh did the other night with Antonio Brown was a thing of beauty.
 

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I don't think Bryant gets enough blame for not being open. It is as if he is the first WR to ever be double covered.
 

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I don't think Bryant gets enough blame for not being open. It is as if he is the first WR to ever be double covered.
21 go routes out of 44 total routes run. Something isn't right here. Closer to 70% of routes called Sunday were deeper than 20 yards. He isn't being done any favors.
 

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I still laugh at the fact this braintrust of offensive geniuses don't know how to isolate one of the best WR's in the game week in and week out.

What Pittsburgh did the other night with Antonio Brown was a thing of beauty.
Brown, A.J. Green, Julio Jones.

None of them have as many games with one reception as Bryant.

So is it the player or the idiotic machinations of the HC or his puppet OC?
 

boozeman

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21 go routes out of 44 total routes run. Something isn't right here. Closer to 70% of routes called Sunday were deeper than 20 yards. He isn't being done any favors.
Rookie QB not known for his deep accuracy.

Run tons of plays with best WR with deep route concepts that are difficult to complete.

Sounds like a hell of a fucking successful plan.
 

boozeman

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I don't think Bryant gets enough blame for not being open. It is as if he is the first WR to ever be double covered.
Running a ton of go routes is not going to result in a player being open very often unless you are playing an inept opponent.
 

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Rookie QB not known for his deep accuracy.

Run tons of plays with best WR with deep route concepts that are difficult to complete.

Sounds like a hell of a fucking successful plan.
It was almost like they still thought Romo was back there. As nuts as it may sound, Romo hasn't done this coaching staff any favors by being so good as forcing the ball into Dez's hands. They are still calling plays that they did with Romo at the helm expecting a rookie to complete them. I commented on twitter today that he has spoiled the coaching staff, and he has.
 

boozeman

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It was almost like they still thought Romo was back there. As nuts as it may sound, Romo hasn't done this coaching staff any favors by being so good as forcing the ball into Dez's hands. They are still calling plays that they did with Romo at the helm expecting a rookie to complete them. I commented on twitter today that he has spoiled the coaching staff, and he has.
Hey, Linehan came right out and said they were running the same scheme.

Well, it looked like it.

Prescott just happens to be better than Weeden or Cassel.

Otherwise it would be even more glaring.

As for Romo spoiling the staff, well all I have to say is that Garrett is probably just as eager that Romo keep playing because he has zero credentials outside of Romo's shadow. He needs Romo for job security.

Romo was good before his ass got here, and once he is gone, Garrett has nothing to put on his resume because he is not the guy who developed him.
 

Cotton

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Hey, Linehan came right out and said they were running the same scheme.

Well, it looked like it.

Prescott just happens to be better than Weeden or Cassel.

Otherwise it would be even more glaring.
No doubt.
 

data

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If Dez ran more routes into the sun, he'd get thrown to more.
 

mcnuttz

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Running a ton of go routes is not going to result in a player being open very often unless you are playing an inept opponent.
Those are the routes Terrence Williams needs to be running.
 

Carp

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Running a ton of go routes is not going to result in a player being open very often unless you are playing an inept opponent.
He had a chance for a TD, but did not control it through the catch. That is on him.
 

Carp

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21 go routes out of 44 total routes run. Something isn't right here. Closer to 70% of routes called Sunday were deeper than 20 yards. He isn't being done any favors.
So what happened on the other 23 routes?
 
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