- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 120,018
By Bob Sturm 25m ago
Thorough.
That is what you call a win like that. A thorough and decisive beatdown where the final score flattered the team that was steam-rolled.
And when you do it in your home-opener and do it against a hated rival with many important pieces missing — seven starters were out for various reasons — you have to leave AT&T Stadium on Monday night thinking that the 2021 Dallas Cowboys are a different animal.
The Cowboys clubbed the Eagles all over the field, 41-21, and were up double figures almost the entire night after an early gifted touchdown to the Eagles and another pretty clear Dallas touchdown taken away. This game had all the trappings of a 40-point win if cosmetics mattered and you were trying to influence the AP poll voters with style points.
Dallas had a ridiculous 19 first downs — seven more than the Eagles got all night — by the time Ezekiel Elliott waltzed into the end zone with 7:10 to go in the second quarter. At that point, the Cowboys were up, 20-7, and should have had at least eight more points had it not been for a dubious spotting of the ball on the Dak Prescott sneak on the goal line earlier and another disconcerting Greg Zuerlein missed extra point.
In other words, the Cowboys left points on the field in a few spots — hence the gnashing of teeth in the media over no timeouts at the end of the first half when Mike McCarthy was fine taking a 13-point lead to the locker room — and it still didn’t come close to mattering. The Cowboys and the Eagles find themselves on different levels right now.
The Eagles are looking for plenty of things. They seem caught between two identities with a new coaching staff that is pretty anonymous themselves. In fact, if you can identify their offensive “identity”, please advise. Because I cannot tell what they are trying to do. It seems like they want to build an offense around a quarterback who seems incapable of doing the things needed from a true “franchise QB.” Everyone knows Jalen Hurts and he has plenty of valuable skills and talents, but the simple ability to run an offense and to make the plays required of a quarterback at this level seem suspect. But, they also don’t run the ball at all (or even try) and frankly, all of their targets down the field seem to either have to choose between size and speed. So you have smaller targets who are fast and bigger targets who are slow. If you want to run TE crossers when down a few touchdowns, they will be there and the stats will add up, too. After watching the Eagles play the 49ers and now the Cowboys, I don’t see the vision of the Eagles’ offense. I still fully expect them to spend a few more weeks with this before starting to check elsewhere for a quarterback the new administration hand picks. This current idea just doesn’t seem filled with promise.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys continue to look like a team that is content playing the percentages all the way down the field. Against Tampa Bay, the Cowboys looked pretty stressed on how to go about the tasks of putting up points and demonstrating efficiency. But, against an Eagles’ defense that has two dominant defensive tackles, Darius Slay and insists on sitting in conservative zones to eliminate big plays and force long drives, Kellen Moore scans his play-sheet menu with eyes that know there are no poor choices.
Dallas had three drives of 11 plays or more and four drives with five first downs or more. They go on march after march with only the stress of using all of their pieces. One would have to imagine that it is difficult to game plan against the Prescott attack given how often he shows you that he is comfortable using every weapon and every level of the attack. He will look for shots over the top when the numbers dictate, but is also content enough to grind out a situation where they get to halftime with 20:21 time of possession and an exhausted enemy defense that is getting tired of chasing the ball every which way.
The ball is seldom risked because you are forcing the defense to choose its own torture. Keep their defense back, it becomes an attack of the shallow spots on the field with runs inside or quick passes to the perimeter. Bring the defense up and it becomes time for a play-action shot down the field early in the game when Prescott went up top to CeeDee Lamb for 44 yards and a near touchdown as he ran away from corner Steven Nelson. That play came out of 12-personnel and another look at the replay shows that even if the Cowboys hand the ball to Elliott, the numbers indicate he had success waiting, too. The Eagles just don’t have the horses to match up at very many places around the chess board right now.
But, we have seen moments recently when this offense seemed to be able to do this and it still didn’t shoot Dallas up the standings and into contender status. It was 2018 when the Cowboys last sniffed relevance deep in the season and the impatience is understandably high. Since trading for Amari Cooper and adding draft picks Michael Gallup and Lamb, the table has been set for a balanced, high-octane offense that does not lack weapons and mismatches.
Yet, due to unfortunate injuries and some awful defensive disasters, Dallas has won just 16 of 35 games since the start of 2019. All of the offensive production has resulted in winning about 45 percent of their games. It has cost several people their jobs and that list will continue to grow if the proceeds of this collection of talent don’t start winning things.
This is why these first three weeks seem so important. They had a chance to win all three games and have been exactly what you would have hoped this offense would be. In fact, any discussion of Prescott returning from injury or dealing with the pressure of a massive and unprecedented contract weighing on him seems comical at this point. The Cowboys mowed through very good defenses with the Buccaneers and Chargers and split on the road. They detonated an overmatched Eagles’ defense and could have easily gone for 50. They have weapons on top of weapons and the quest to use them all enough is the challenge. They are trying to work through rough patches on the offensive line, but they are also getting accustomed to it and have answers for most of the questions.
In other words, the Cowboys’ offense is exactly what a top-5 offense looks like.
Anthony Brown’s interception Monday night. (Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)
The stated goal was to get the offense back where it belonged in that group and then get the defense to league average —just be ranked somewhere in the mid-teens in the important defensive statistics and this team instantly becomes an NFC contender.
From that piece before Week 1: For now in 2021? What do we want to see? An average NFL defense. With a top-5 offense and an average defense, do you know what you might have? A contender. It has happened. One side of the ball is near the top and the other is right in the middle. That must be the goal for 2021 and if it works out, double-digit wins will follow.
I haven’t budged off that projection at all. I know that Dan Quinn can organize a defense by merely walking into the facility and he will develop a clear and definite idea of what he expects. Then, when you invest in your personnel, the progress will be seen.
And I must ask: How about that rookie class on defense? Between Micah Parsons, Osa Odighizuwa, Chauncey Golston and Quinton Bohanna, the defensive line was made up of all sorts of fresh-faced college kids. That’s 136 snaps from the rookie class on defense. Then you add 183 more snaps from newcomers from other outposts in this league like Jayron Kearse, Damontae Kazee, Brent Urban, Tarell Basham, Malik Hooker and Maurice Canady. The Cowboys were down five starters on defense against the Eagles and were easily able to work around it.
It wasn’t perfect by any stretch and there are definitely weeks when giving up nine plays of 19 yards or more (six of them were for 24 yards or more!) will get you beat. Somehow wide-open tight ends seemed a trend that requires clean-up and that tells us Parsons wasn’t playing linebacker again. But, this is the luxury of a defense that is playing with a big lead. Plenty to improve upon and plenty of reinforcements are going to get back in the mix very soon. Quinn has demonstrated that he has a plan — a massive improvement over the 2020 defense, which did not appear to have one.
There are many things this defense is not very good at and I am looking forward to Week 4 when Carolina Panthers offensive mastermind Joe Brady will have some ideas up his sleeve. Dallas is giving up big plays and definitely still blowing coverages and it better get that emphasized all week.
But, we had two specific objectives for this defense that had to get better to take a step in 2021:
The defense had to get takeaways and it had to stop the run. I promise these were emphasized in meetings since Quinn walked in the door.
How is that going after three weeks?
I am glad you asked. The Cowboys are sixth in the NFL rushing yards allowed per game at 70.3. They lead the NFL with eight takeaways.
They are the top team in the NFL at takeaways and while I would not bet heavily on them ending up at the top, if they stay in the top 10, they will be playing meaningful January football.
Six of their eight takeaways are interceptions. In 2020, the Cowboys got their eighth takeaway on Nov. 22 in Minnesota. The sixth interception? Dec. 20 against the 49ers.
Trevon Diggs has three interceptions and appears a certified ball hawk and playmaker. The team is looking for the ball and it is an exciting time. With six total interceptions, we should point out that the last time Dallas had more than 10 interceptions was 2014. The Cowboys do not get the ball with any regularity in most years, which is why the production of the offense has often been wasted.
Heck, just play positive football with the turnover differential and this team will be excellent. The Cowboys are a “plus-five” turnover team this year. In the previous three seasons they finished the year in “plus” territory, they went to the playoffs each time (2014, 2016, 2018).
Football doesn’t have to be complicated. This team is set up to not be complicated in what is working. March the ball with an offense in full control and bleed you slowly to death. If you want to take away the bleed, then they will hit you up top with the explosives. The Cowboys can do both. Choose your path. Defensively? They are looking for an opportunity. Just like Diggs stepping in front of a stumbling DeVonta Smith on Monday night and housing a 59-yard return for a pick-six, they are finding them when teams have to start becoming one-dimensional.
It is proper complementary football. A coaching staff that seems to get it with a talented young group of hungry players.
That thumping of a rival Monday night was a great sign of potential and also a sign of the quality of the NFC East. Dallas should be able to run away and hide from three teams without reliable offenses or anything close to “top 5” there.
That game showed that isn’t just my rosy disposition. It is a pretty clear marker laid down to their rivals that declares 2020 is over and 2021 is going to be significantly better around here.
