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By Bob Sturm 4h ago
The Cowboys’ offense is performing at a very high level. They took apart the Eagles with relative ease that left us with almost no complaints.
Now, there were a few … aside from the problems at each goal line that almost put the Eagles right in the game — the chaos on one end that ended with an Eagles free TD as Fletcher Cox celebrated a rare touchdown — and the touchdown that wasn’t on the fourth-and-goal QB sneak where somehow they couldn’t prove that Dak Prescott clearly broke the plane of the end zone.
The biggest ongoing concern is at center. Second-year man Tyler Biadasz is still wildly unproven at this level. He had moments where we checked the center depth chart to see who else was available. By the way, after a bit of a film study, I would say there is a lot of good there over the course of the game and it makes sense to ride out his rough patches if the offense can be productive. It clearly can handle the parts of his game that he can’t currently handle. But, he is also the NFL center who leads the league in the dubious category of “most pass pressures allowed” through three weeks. How many had Vita Vea on their schedule? Fair question. But there are big boys in almost every city and they all see he doesn’t have the anchor to drop and the defenses to being tossed back into the knees of the quarterback. Biadasz may be from Wisconsin, but that is where the Travis Frederick comps end. He has to respond quickly or he will be tested and attacked every week. In fact, it might be too late.
Beyond that, the offense has been strong. Yes, Connor Williams took a few penalties, but overall his game has been a positive. Terence Steele had one bad pressure allowed (13:58 1Q) that got Prescott hit hard, but turned in his best performance. The Cowboys certainly are attracted to his run blocking and you can see why. He has real bulldozer tendencies on these zone-run plays. You can start to see the vision in why they stick with him.
As a group, it is obvious that the Cowboys’ offense — even without La’el Collins and Michael Gallup — has more than enough to be among the best offenses in the NFL. They have no apparent weaknesses that hold them back and it simply comes down to the execution.
The sample sizes are small, but after three challenging defensive tests, you can see the spot they hold in the NFL. These are the 10 key statistics I track every week, but there are plenty more where they are even leading the league. For instance, no team has more first downs. The Cowboys are best.
Check the comparisons in league rankings from last year to this year and note that it is nice to have your quarterback back in the saddle again:
NFL team rankings (1-32)
Dallas will continue to rise through those ranks and turn those yellow categories (middle third of the league) into green (upper third) and avoid the red altogether (lower third).
I believe this is the best marriage I have seen since covering this team with three great offensive minds allowing the Cowboys to design tactics and strategies that make defending this offense a very difficult task. You have an offensive-minded head coach who has overseen some of the most lethal offenses in this generation on several occasions with several quarterbacks. You have a young offensive coordinator who seems to understand the play-sheet and the symphony of using one play to set up three others in succession. And you have a quarterback who has been in the system long enough that he has put in the 10,000 hours to master it and has seen all the logical ways teams try to slow him down and knows the counter moves to defeat it.
With McCarthy, Moore and Prescott as the triangle of offensive power, I submit that you will be hard-pressed to find many offensive meeting rooms with a better collective understanding of what this job calls for — these guys get it.
Week 3 vs. Philadelphia
As you can see, the Eagles’ main objective is to smother explosive plays. If there was something Dallas did not get a ton of, it is those big chunks. But, I would not downgrade the Cowboys much for this as they were more than content to let the Eagles deploy deep and then paper-cut them to shreds for three hours. It was a name-your-score affair from midway through the second quarter on, so the cosmetic stats may not tell the whole story, but the drive chart indicates that if the goal was to get to 50, it was well within range.
Next Gen Dak Prescott Passing Chart
Anytime your completion percentage is above 80 percent and you also have a few of the incompletions that were a matter of a player getting his foot down on a long sideline pass (Cedrick Wilson, in this case), you can plainly see that Prescott is putting the ball where he wants to put it in almost every moment.
We liken playing quarterback in the NFL to getting your education and it sure seems that this eager student has been told to start teaching the class at this point.
The Cowboys are using their personnel just like you would expect. They are in 11 personnel 57 percent of the time and 12 personnel 30 percent this season. That is nearly 90 percent of the plays in those two basic sets which will switch your third receiver and your second tight end for each other. Everything else stays constant. The other 10 percent is for “specials” which can range from Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott on the field together (21 personnel), to short-yardage plays (23 personnel) and even the odd Connor McGovern-as-your-fullback moments when we see a variation grouping (6 OL).
What is interesting about that is the other 10 percent is often found in the opening drive — where suddenly Dallas has found its groove. So let’s make that the focus of our Film Study this week.
In 2019, there was a game in Chicago in Week 14 when the Jason Garrett administration was making its last stand. After a 3-0 start where the Cowboys were breaking the league’s offensive statistical records, they promptly went 3-6 over their next nine games. With a 6-6 record, the Cowboys played a Thursday night game against the Bears to demonstrate they could still save their season. This was the epitome of a must-win and anything short of it would miss the playoffs and seal the fate of the decade-long quest to attend the playoffs in consecutive years.
It was in that game where the Cowboys turned Mitch Trubisky into an unstoppable force. You would be hard-pressed to find a better single-game performance from the 2017 No. 2 overall pick who was the only quarterback selected before Patrick Mahomes (10th overall). He was fantastic and built a 24-7 lead over Dallas entering the fourth quarter and the Bears won, 31-24. That also was the last game where the Cowboys had scored an opening-drive touchdown to start a game before last week in Los Angeles — a ridiculous mark of 20 consecutive games without an opening-drive TD.
I certainly am not someone who sees the first drive as the “be-all, end-all” stat that some seem to consider, but I do love that it is often the only part of the game where lots of week-long studies are being dedicated to the early scripting of such a mission. If the opponent is asking what we will do, how do we use that against them to start the game? How can we counter their study of us with our study of them? And this is where the overthinking, or as we call it in football — “game planning” — gets to top speed.
Here is how it went Monday from the opening kick as Dallas had the Eagles spinning in place:
Play No. 1 – 15:00 – first-and-10 from Dallas 25 – 12 personnel
The Cowboys open in 12 personnel and motion Elliott out of the backfield to wide right to help confirm the Eagles are in a zone — which they almost always are these days. The Cowboys snap the ball from an empty backfield in shotgun and Blake Jarwin (89) and Amari Cooper (19) seem to run a route that is on top of each other which suggests a mistake was made by one of them. That said, Prescott hits Dalton Schultz (86) for a quick hook for eight yards.
(Photos: Courtesy of NFL Next Gen)
Play No. 2 – 14:26 – second-and-2 from Dallas 33 – 12 personnel
Tight splits on the second snap and that means Cooper and CeeDee Lamb are both very close to the tight ends, but still a balanced line which suggests they can run in either direction. It is also a good spot for play-action and the Eagles are playing their base defense against 12 personnel. Why? Because that third linebacker allows them to feel good about having enough big bodies to make sure they don’t get run on. Patrick Johnson (48), Alex Singleton (49) and T.J. Edwards (57) are linebackers for the Eagles and they were going to do that every time the Cowboys had Schultz and Jarwin on the field together.
The Cowboys have a zone that starts left and cuts back inside and Elliott hits it for five yards for a first down.
Play No. 3 – 13:58 – first-and-10 from Dallas 38 – 21 personnel
Pollard runs on and Jarwin off, so the Cowboys are in 21 personnel. Traditionally, this would mean that the Eagles would stay in base (three linebackers), but Pollard is certainly not Moose Johnston. If I am the Eagles, I would treat Pollard like a WR and therefore I would get into nickel. They did not. Their three linebackers remain on the field.
They use Pollard as a wide receiver with a jet sweep motion to see what the Eagles do (for future reference).
It works well. Pollard widens Johnson (48) and Steven Nelson (3) on his side and what this does is leaves Schultz (86) wide open down the numbers. Prescott will come back to that later in the game. This is the play where Steele loses badly and Josh Sweat (96) almost crushes Prescott, who doesn’t have time to get the ball down the seam so he takes the dump-off to Elliott, who gets eight yards while Prescott gets a bruise.
Play No. 4 – 13:14 – second-and-2 from Dallas 46 – 6OL/11 personnel
Now, the Cowboys have second-and-2 and they bring in Connor McGovern (66) as a fullback. OK, wasn’t expecting that. The Eagles again do not budge out of their 4-3 and this says they are going to play-action pass this for a big shot.
That is the point here. Second-and-short may say shot play and you might be trying to sell the run so hard that nobody will buy it.
However, it is a run and McGovern gets such a huge piece of Singleton (49) that you could drive a truck through that hole. Elliott gains nine yards and the Eagles are reeling. Dallas is doing just what you feared — running the ball right down your throat and feeding Elliott. The Eagles have seen this episode enough.
Play No. 5 – 12:36 – first-and-10 from Philadelphia 45 – 12 Personnel
And this is why we love football. Plays 2 through 4 were all to set up play 5. They were all middle to Elliott to occupy the hearts and minds of the Eagles’ defenders. They were selling it and selling it. We all know what happens next.
The Eagles remain in base personnel. The Cowboys motion out Elliott to make him the centerpiece of the focus. And then the play-action fake along with collective “oh expletive” from the Eagles’ safeties.
At this point, they are rolling into a single-high safety with K’von Wallace (42) as the lone player and Cooper’s route is designed to run right at him. Watch Anthony Harris (28) sneaking down in the box to get the eighth defender on the run. If Harris is up and Cooper is getting Wallace, that leaves Lamb all by himself vs. Nelson (3) on the outside. You simply allow him to play his outside leverage as every Cover 3 will teach and you should have the entire middle of the field to yourself because no safety can cover both verticals from opposite sides of the ball.
You can also see that Elliott is wide open in the flat and that if Prescott can put a little more on the pass it is a walk-in touchdown. Instead, Lamb is down at the 1-yard line.
What is more beautiful than a well-sold and set-up play-action pass?
Play No. 6 – 11:52 – first-and-goal from Philadelphia 1 – 6OL/13 Personnel
The last play was finished as you might expect. Get McGovern back in there with three tight ends and give the ball to Elliott.
And then find one yard.
I loved this drive because the Cowboys kept it simple, but with some complexity. They planted the trap and then placed delicious cheese right in it. The Eagles stayed firm to their plan, the Cowboys got their early lead and established what the night was going to be like.
For the second consecutive game, the Cowboys took a 7-0 lead before the opponent was given a turn and in back-to-back games, the Cowboys left with a win.
This offense has a chance to be really fun this year.
