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Cowboys Morning After - Week 4: Routine Response
Dallas does what it always does after a loss - gets back to winning
BOB STURM
OCT 2, 2023
There was something comforting about Sunday’s demolition of the New England Patriots, wasn’t there?
The relative merits of the game might be different from week to week, but we saw exactly what we have come to expect from this team in this situation.
They respond with authority.
Whenever the Cowboys lose any game, the noise on the outside remains ever-present. The pain of 10,000 days without a trophy cascades in through the walls and repeats the familiar cries of this team’s lack of quality. The public becomes convinced that leadership is wrong, again, and people need to be fired. The critics question the fiber of the team and conclude it is not good enough, just like the others before them. Start over again, this will surely never do. Hope dies.
This is the spark that fuels crisis. Confidence erodes and soon slumps and losing streaks are present in most NFL cities. Losing franchises find losing is contagious and they have no cure. Some may call it culture, but the findings tell you if you can deal with adversity or if you will just try to get comfortable and concede as it destroys you once again.
What makes the Mike McCarthy administration comforting in these situations is the response. It should tell you he can do this job. Because those things McCarthy demonstrated for years and years in Green Bay have clearly been brought and established in Dallas. It isn’t announced in a press conference or put on a banner, but the pile of evidence is clear for all to see.
It has manifested itself in Dallas in two clear ways that were both on display here on Sunday against New England:
Jason Garrett had big issues with winning at home and during his run at home, they were just 43-37 (.537) in 80 games from 2010-2019. That’s why this team was never able to go to the playoffs in consecutive year with that prior coach.
Now, by this point of the column, you are probably asking why we are talking about these broader issues and not the game that happened yesterday. Well, I am certainly going to get to all of that, but I believe it is important for us to see what we are watching in Dallas. It is a tough and physical team that has a very basic way of winning and is becoming quite good at it. If the foundational piece of the program is that they will almost always take care of business at home and they will almost always respond well to defeats, then you could see yesterday’s freight train coming from a mile away.
Does that mean they are ready to step up in competition, travel to a place like San Francisco, and trade blows in the center of the ring with a team that we think can win the Super Bowl?
Maybe.
We will know the answer by the time I write next week’s Monday Morning piece. But, for this week, the 38-3 mauling of New England was so routine that boredom had set in for many by halftime.
Once again, the Cowboys defense stole the main focus of the day with a number of big plays where they took the football and demoralized an opposing offense. At no point on this day did the Patriots offense look they gained a foothold of rhythm or confidence and it was verified by eleven largely forgettable offensive drives. Not one of them made it to the end zone and not one of them was able to move the chains more than twice. If Dallas refuses to give opponents a short field, then there is no reason this sort of thing won’t be a trend all year. The defense will seldom get marched down the field. A few big plays will happen in this league, but the sign of domination is that long drives are never sustained.
Usually, a defensive architecture is built on one of two distinct roads. Either you are the team that doesn’t allow much in total yardage and points because you are schematically sound or you are trying to be the team that inflicts damage and creates turnovers and big plays from your defense because you are hunting the ball. Rarely can you have both at the same time, but I think we are seeing that Dallas is doing just that so far in 2023.
There are only eleven games in the entire NFL this year where a defense has held an opponent under 300 yards, under 20 points, and taken the ball away three times in a game. We would call that a complete defensive domination. Six defenses have done it once, Buffalo has done it twice, and Dallas has done it three times in four games.
Again, only six teams have done it at all and Dallas has done it three times in the first month of the season.
It is simply ridiculous how easily this defense can play with its food and that led them to getting a big head in Arizona last week, we can at least admit that they do have some pretty rare traits right now.
In this game, we saw the defense take over in the second quarter with three game-ending moments of sheer dominance that would happen on the Patriots’ second, third, and fifth drives.
First, New England would run a 4th-and-1 from the Dallas 41 yard line that tried to cast Mac Jones as Jalen Hurts for the simple conversion of one yard on a QB tush-push. Surely, Bill Belichick knew his chances on that side of midfield would be rare, but the play-call was not inspired. We must give Philadelphia credit for knowing how to execute such a maneuver, because every week another team verifies it must not be as easy as the Eagles make it look. This one never had a chance and New England turned it over on downs.
Next drive starts inside their 10-yard line and on the second play from the 8, Dallas has both backup edges in the game. Patriots are in 13 personnel and Dallas responds with the dime package to play Cover 3.
Lucky for Quinn, the backup edges in this case are Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler, two guys who would be a decent pair of starters in many locales. Armstrong gets some pressure, but Fowler wins on Vederian Lowe easily and chases Jones to the left side where he catches him from behind. It is at moments like these where you realize that the Cowboys have a backup edge rusher who was the 3rd pick overall in the 2015 draft, meaning he has some rare and freaky attributes as an athlete and they were on display here. Fowler chases Jones down, strips the ball on the sack, and the ball is scooped up by Leighton Vander Esch for an easy touchdown. Soon, after a fake extra point that was schemed up on Tuesday because the Patriots were not honoring the right wing player, it would be 18-3 and the game would be nearly out of reach.
The very next drive is a garden variety three-and-out for the Patriots offense, but the third down of this quick 93-second drive is when Mac Jones is late throwing across the field to DeVante Parker. The throw causes Parker to break stride and Bland is chasing underneath. When the throw misses, we see Bland ready to jump it and take it back for a touchdown, but Parker fights for the ball rendering it a close call on Jones. At this point, the young man playing QB is losing confidence fast. This, of course, feeds my general view that many of these opposing QBs look cooked mentally from watching the Dallas defense on film all week. Nevertheless, he escapes catastrophe and they punt.
But, out they came for drive No. 5 and this one is the kill shot. First, facing a second and 16, Jones decides to throw it all the way across the field from outside the numbers on the right to nearly the exact spot on the left and is rewarded when Kendrick Bourne makes a fine ankle-height catch and gets to the sticks after navigating around Bland. Twice, Jones seems to throw caution to the wind and he must be thinking that Bland is no Trevon Diggs to have this amount of nerve.
He was wrong. For on his very next pass to Bourne, he decided to fly too close to the sun. Too close, in fact, as from the far hash he is too late on a throw back across to the left flat where Bourne’s comeback had waited. Bland was offended at the audacity and would make no mistake this time. 54 yards later he is in the end zone, Jones is being scolded for breaking as many QB rules as he can, and the game is a wrap before halftime.
Daron Bland may not be Trevon Diggs, but how he has eight interceptions already with seven of them since last December, is under-reported. I wish to fix that because his play has been a real success story as the 167th pick of the 2022 draft looks like a massive part of this defense. He is a play-maker and a cover guy which might mean they can be ok without Diggs this year. Then, when Diggs return, it might mean they have their guy opposite him. What a Day 3 pick.
The beauty of what Dallas has done under Dan Quinn since the start of 2021 has been well-reported but it is too fun not to report it again.
First in defensive takeaways with 77.
First in defensive touchdowns with 12.
Second in sacks with 109 (Philadelphia has 110).
This is the best defense the Cowboys have had in a long, long time and also the best defense Mike McCarthy has ever had and it may not be very close.
Dak hugs old friend Ezekiel Elliott - Getty Images
Yes, there is much more to talk about here. Dak Prescott played a nearly perfect game and was probably a few inches on the CeeDee Lamb touchdown and a fairly standard Jake Schoonmaker catch from nothing but rave reviews for the red zone offense, too.
Oh well, you don’t want everything to be perfect in a 38-3 win that gives the greatest coach in NFL history his biggest defeat.
It is now San Francisco week and that means our pieces this week will try to look both behind and forward. It will be busy and we will be pushing all the hype to a true showdown game.
Hold on to your hats. The Cowboys have a chance this week to make a statement for all the NFL to see.
Dallas does what it always does after a loss - gets back to winning
BOB STURM
OCT 2, 2023
There was something comforting about Sunday’s demolition of the New England Patriots, wasn’t there?
The relative merits of the game might be different from week to week, but we saw exactly what we have come to expect from this team in this situation.
They respond with authority.
Whenever the Cowboys lose any game, the noise on the outside remains ever-present. The pain of 10,000 days without a trophy cascades in through the walls and repeats the familiar cries of this team’s lack of quality. The public becomes convinced that leadership is wrong, again, and people need to be fired. The critics question the fiber of the team and conclude it is not good enough, just like the others before them. Start over again, this will surely never do. Hope dies.
This is the spark that fuels crisis. Confidence erodes and soon slumps and losing streaks are present in most NFL cities. Losing franchises find losing is contagious and they have no cure. Some may call it culture, but the findings tell you if you can deal with adversity or if you will just try to get comfortable and concede as it destroys you once again.
What makes the Mike McCarthy administration comforting in these situations is the response. It should tell you he can do this job. Because those things McCarthy demonstrated for years and years in Green Bay have clearly been brought and established in Dallas. It isn’t announced in a press conference or put on a banner, but the pile of evidence is clear for all to see.
It has manifested itself in Dallas in two clear ways that were both on display here on Sunday against New England:
- This team, like nearly all of his teams, will seldom lose consecutive games. Yes, there are exceptions and his first year is clearly one of them as are years where his starting QB is out with a broken bone. But, in those other years where a McCarthy team faces a loss and people tell them how bad they are all week, they almost always respond with a win. The run is now 9-1 since the start of 2021 to prove it. When they lose a game, they have a win percentage of .900 the next week. That sort of stat will show you that losing streaks are as rare as cool September days around here.
- Yesterday was his 10th straight home win. Get used to home form because McCarthy teams win 10 straight pretty routinely at home. He had three different streaks of double digits in Green Bay and even had a 41-game stretch where they were 36-4-1, with three of those losses and the tie being when Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone. In other words, they won 36 of 37 with their QB healthy.
Jason Garrett had big issues with winning at home and during his run at home, they were just 43-37 (.537) in 80 games from 2010-2019. That’s why this team was never able to go to the playoffs in consecutive year with that prior coach.
Now, by this point of the column, you are probably asking why we are talking about these broader issues and not the game that happened yesterday. Well, I am certainly going to get to all of that, but I believe it is important for us to see what we are watching in Dallas. It is a tough and physical team that has a very basic way of winning and is becoming quite good at it. If the foundational piece of the program is that they will almost always take care of business at home and they will almost always respond well to defeats, then you could see yesterday’s freight train coming from a mile away.
Does that mean they are ready to step up in competition, travel to a place like San Francisco, and trade blows in the center of the ring with a team that we think can win the Super Bowl?
Maybe.
We will know the answer by the time I write next week’s Monday Morning piece. But, for this week, the 38-3 mauling of New England was so routine that boredom had set in for many by halftime.
Once again, the Cowboys defense stole the main focus of the day with a number of big plays where they took the football and demoralized an opposing offense. At no point on this day did the Patriots offense look they gained a foothold of rhythm or confidence and it was verified by eleven largely forgettable offensive drives. Not one of them made it to the end zone and not one of them was able to move the chains more than twice. If Dallas refuses to give opponents a short field, then there is no reason this sort of thing won’t be a trend all year. The defense will seldom get marched down the field. A few big plays will happen in this league, but the sign of domination is that long drives are never sustained.
Usually, a defensive architecture is built on one of two distinct roads. Either you are the team that doesn’t allow much in total yardage and points because you are schematically sound or you are trying to be the team that inflicts damage and creates turnovers and big plays from your defense because you are hunting the ball. Rarely can you have both at the same time, but I think we are seeing that Dallas is doing just that so far in 2023.
There are only eleven games in the entire NFL this year where a defense has held an opponent under 300 yards, under 20 points, and taken the ball away three times in a game. We would call that a complete defensive domination. Six defenses have done it once, Buffalo has done it twice, and Dallas has done it three times in four games.
Again, only six teams have done it at all and Dallas has done it three times in the first month of the season.
It is simply ridiculous how easily this defense can play with its food and that led them to getting a big head in Arizona last week, we can at least admit that they do have some pretty rare traits right now.
In this game, we saw the defense take over in the second quarter with three game-ending moments of sheer dominance that would happen on the Patriots’ second, third, and fifth drives.
First, New England would run a 4th-and-1 from the Dallas 41 yard line that tried to cast Mac Jones as Jalen Hurts for the simple conversion of one yard on a QB tush-push. Surely, Bill Belichick knew his chances on that side of midfield would be rare, but the play-call was not inspired. We must give Philadelphia credit for knowing how to execute such a maneuver, because every week another team verifies it must not be as easy as the Eagles make it look. This one never had a chance and New England turned it over on downs.
Next drive starts inside their 10-yard line and on the second play from the 8, Dallas has both backup edges in the game. Patriots are in 13 personnel and Dallas responds with the dime package to play Cover 3.
Lucky for Quinn, the backup edges in this case are Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler, two guys who would be a decent pair of starters in many locales. Armstrong gets some pressure, but Fowler wins on Vederian Lowe easily and chases Jones to the left side where he catches him from behind. It is at moments like these where you realize that the Cowboys have a backup edge rusher who was the 3rd pick overall in the 2015 draft, meaning he has some rare and freaky attributes as an athlete and they were on display here. Fowler chases Jones down, strips the ball on the sack, and the ball is scooped up by Leighton Vander Esch for an easy touchdown. Soon, after a fake extra point that was schemed up on Tuesday because the Patriots were not honoring the right wing player, it would be 18-3 and the game would be nearly out of reach.
The very next drive is a garden variety three-and-out for the Patriots offense, but the third down of this quick 93-second drive is when Mac Jones is late throwing across the field to DeVante Parker. The throw causes Parker to break stride and Bland is chasing underneath. When the throw misses, we see Bland ready to jump it and take it back for a touchdown, but Parker fights for the ball rendering it a close call on Jones. At this point, the young man playing QB is losing confidence fast. This, of course, feeds my general view that many of these opposing QBs look cooked mentally from watching the Dallas defense on film all week. Nevertheless, he escapes catastrophe and they punt.
But, out they came for drive No. 5 and this one is the kill shot. First, facing a second and 16, Jones decides to throw it all the way across the field from outside the numbers on the right to nearly the exact spot on the left and is rewarded when Kendrick Bourne makes a fine ankle-height catch and gets to the sticks after navigating around Bland. Twice, Jones seems to throw caution to the wind and he must be thinking that Bland is no Trevon Diggs to have this amount of nerve.
He was wrong. For on his very next pass to Bourne, he decided to fly too close to the sun. Too close, in fact, as from the far hash he is too late on a throw back across to the left flat where Bourne’s comeback had waited. Bland was offended at the audacity and would make no mistake this time. 54 yards later he is in the end zone, Jones is being scolded for breaking as many QB rules as he can, and the game is a wrap before halftime.
Daron Bland may not be Trevon Diggs, but how he has eight interceptions already with seven of them since last December, is under-reported. I wish to fix that because his play has been a real success story as the 167th pick of the 2022 draft looks like a massive part of this defense. He is a play-maker and a cover guy which might mean they can be ok without Diggs this year. Then, when Diggs return, it might mean they have their guy opposite him. What a Day 3 pick.
The beauty of what Dallas has done under Dan Quinn since the start of 2021 has been well-reported but it is too fun not to report it again.
First in defensive takeaways with 77.
First in defensive touchdowns with 12.
Second in sacks with 109 (Philadelphia has 110).
This is the best defense the Cowboys have had in a long, long time and also the best defense Mike McCarthy has ever had and it may not be very close.
Dak hugs old friend Ezekiel Elliott - Getty Images
Yes, there is much more to talk about here. Dak Prescott played a nearly perfect game and was probably a few inches on the CeeDee Lamb touchdown and a fairly standard Jake Schoonmaker catch from nothing but rave reviews for the red zone offense, too.
Oh well, you don’t want everything to be perfect in a 38-3 win that gives the greatest coach in NFL history his biggest defeat.
It is now San Francisco week and that means our pieces this week will try to look both behind and forward. It will be busy and we will be pushing all the hype to a true showdown game.
Hold on to your hats. The Cowboys have a chance this week to make a statement for all the NFL to see.
