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Morning After Week 2: The Saints Destruction
New Orleans may not have had everyone's attention in build up, but they sure do now.
Bob Sturm
Sep 16, 2024
The job is to attempt to articulate the game in such a way that it makes cogent sense and follows a somewhat predictable narrative and offers clues to how things were ultimately going to turn.
After a night to sleep on it and ponder how to best describe a thorough and resounding 44-19 pounding of the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, I would like to concede at the top that I am not full of confidence that words can explain too much. Seldom in this league does one team – a pretty significant underdog – arrive at the stadium of the home-standing favorite and not only beat them in front of their own frustrated fans but humiliate them in such a way that almost everyone is just speechless.
Yet, this is the second time in a row this has happened to the Cowboys. Their last two games played in this stadium – which has many more bad memories than good – have followed this exact script. The road team that was considered inferior on many levels prior to kickoff saw every single idea they had work perfectly on both sides of the ball. Meanwhile, the Cowboys, who clearly did not lose a playoff game yesterday, could hardly do anything right. Their goal was to put an effort out there that made everyone forget last January’s debacle that weighs so heavily on the minds of everyone. Instead, they basically reenacted it in amazing detail and emotional pitch.
The Saints did something very rarely done in this league by scoring 42 offensive points on just six drives (yes, the Packers pretty much did the same thing in January, but they settled for 42 offensive points on seven drives). Those six drives fit neatly into the first three quarters of the game and amassed a ridiculous 379 yards, an average of more than 63 yards per drive. Five of those drives started with kickoffs as the Cowboys were scoring, too. But the points they were conceding were mostly field goals and while they do matter, they don’t matter enough. Any 4th grader should be able to confidently tell you that six times seven (42) is going to work out better than six times three (18). You cannot stay in a track meet doing that, and Dallas was falling further and further behind.
Shell-shocked would be a reasonable way to describe the vibes inside the stadium again as the blank stares returned. Just seven days since winning a road laugher themselves, where the home side in Cleveland looked rather disgusted with the arrival of another home opener, Dallas had the tables turned on them in a merciless destruction that seemed to reveal some painful realities yet again.
They appear to be the same team. And that is very disappointing.
We know there was very little to confirm the “all-in” offseason around here other than the normal empty words and platitudes that come out of the owner’s and general manager’s mouths. They did not attempt to fortify their roster in any meaningful way prior to the draft. After the draft, they sorted through the unemployment line to find some veterans who would play for the minimum and had previously played for Mike Zimmer, as the only real solutions to a defense that ended 2023 as a bit of a laughingstock for how teams would get after them.
If you somehow have put the specifics out of your head, allow me to refresh for all, but I would offer a broader look from last season’s final DQ Report to get the chapter and verse in great detail.
Essentially, it is this: Dallas is thought of as a fast and terrifying pass-rush team that can spook opposing QBs before the game even begins. If you are playing Dallas, you want to avoid that, and with each passing loss, it sure appears the word is circulating. Now, many opponents are not built in the correct way or do not have the personnel to cook the recipe properly. But many opponents are. And we found out which bin the Saints are in with great clarity as the game went on yesterday.
The recipe is this: Despite 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs) being the league’s default personnel in modern times, which is defended with nickel or dime defense, the Cowboys are usually just fine against that. Where they struggle is when these teams take off one of those wide receivers and replace him with a fullback or second TE and play bigger personnel. These groups—12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE), 21 personnel (2 RB, 1 TE), 22 personnel (2 RB, 2 TE), and 13 personnel (1 RB, 3 TE)—are what ate Dallas’ lunch in 2023.
They were too small and too finesse to defend it. In fact, here are the numbers from those four horrible losses last year:
The Cowboys saw this and seemed to lose faith in Dan Quinn. They were in a weird spot where they were hoping he would be hired by a divisional rival because then they could get a different coordinator in here without having to fire a guy who had made the defense very, very good. And it was true! They were a very good defense, but this cancerous tumor had been discovered, and the league was going to make it spread.
But, here comes Mike Zimmer. Here comes a guy who told us early in the spring that he was very determined to get this defense to a spot where teams don’t think they can run right at them. He wanted to be bigger and more physical as he said here:
“Well, I think, you know, first off we're gonna try to have at least two linebackers in there all the time and sometimes three. A lot of things offense is doing now with some of the jet motions and they're trying to get nickel backs in the run fits.
And so, you know, now you got a DB in a run fit and you got another DB in a run fit, you know, you're just, you're just not as physical as you need to be. And so, we'll have deals where most of the time we're gonna have at least two linebackers in the ball game. As far as getting bigger, you know, it, you know, Kendricks isn't the biggest guy in the world, but he's instinctive and he makes plays and, you know, he, he flies around to the ball. But yeah, I mean, football is a big man's game.”
And now we fast forward to yesterday and the absolute onslaught at the expense of Mike Zimmer’s defense which is a pass-rushing problem…unless you never allow them a chance to rush the passer because you are ahead and running at will on them.
On Sunday, using those big personnel groupings, the Saints had 231 yards out of just 12 personnel, 123 more out of 21 personnel, and 40 yards from 22 and 13 combined. That is a total of 395 yards out of non-11 personnel in a league that averages about 103.
Last year, those four games averaged 217 against Dan Quinn’s defense, and Mike Zimmer’s guys barely stayed under 400 against a Saints team that has never been thought of as a team of bullies. But on Sunday, using motion, shifts, and play-action, they had the Cowboys out-flanked again, and some of these plays were blocked up so easily that Alvin Kamara looked like he was 24 again.
We talked Friday about how the motion and shifts were going to test this new defense in a way that Cleveland never would:
The offense started with some productive drives and tried to slow down the pace and ease back into the game. They did not have explosive moments, save for the long touchdown to CeeDee Lamb on their third drive, but that was to cut the score to 21-13. Now, trust me, if you score on all of your opening three drives, you should not be behind by that much, but there were a few things at work here.
For one, the early drives stalled and settled for field goals. One was a Tyler Guyton holding penalty, and the next was a sack conceded way too quickly by Terence Steele as Prescott needed another split-second to find KaVontae Turpin. Instead of two touchdowns, you take two field goals, and now you are down 21-6 before you touch the ball a third time.
From there, Jalen Brooks falls down for the first interception, and it goes to 28-13. Then 35-13, and we aren’t even to halftime.
Now, you see the issues with the all-in offseason as it pertains to the offense. The front office had trepidation about payroll and salary cap because they needed to lock in Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, and the price is incredibly stiff for both. But where are they adding juice to the offense? By bringing back Ezekiel Elliott for Tony Pollard? Was a single skill player who could make a play added to this offense, or did they just think paying those two more money would make the offense more explosive?
Yes, they rebuilt the offensive line, but you mean to tell me that your exact same group of playmakers minus Pollard was thought of as formidable enough that they took the rest of the offseason off as a front office? Then, you lose one tight end for one game, and now your offense looks like either Lamb makes all the plays, or you are going to be covering about four yards at a time.
Do you know how easy it is for a reasonable NFL defense to crowd Lamb and let someone else try to beat you? Of course, they are going to be setting traps all day, hoping Dak eventually gets frustrated with trying to lead a rally with few playmakers and throws the ball to Lamb while Tyrann Mathieu is waiting for the ball to pick it off. It was a forced throw, for sure, but this is why throwing the ball when you are down three touchdowns is so difficult. There is no threat of the run, and there is only one place for Prescott to look for a big play.
Again, since trading Amari Cooper, they have been one playmaker short, and that does not appear to be any better in 2024. Jalen Tolbert is showing flashes, but why did they not take this need more seriously? Please tell me your biggest addition to your playmakers was not bringing back Zeke. Please.
Let’s end with this. The leadership on this team – perhaps the coaches, but in a player’s league, I would like to see this more from the players – has to handle early game crises better. Yes, allowing a touchdown on every single drive is demoralizing, but this collection of good football players just never looks much like a team when things slide in the wrong direction.
The Cowboys' culture gets called “front-runners” from the outside. As in, they are a pack of crazy dogs when things are going right, but when things are off, they all stare quietly and alone into the distance. I don’t know the remedy for that, but doggone, in these two games we keep referencing, they never even show life enough for the thought of a rally. At least in the old days, you would see a glimpse of a big comeback after the mess was made. Now, in this game and the playoff disaster last year, they just meekly go ever so quietly. There is no belief in even the slightest rally. There is no outrage from the defense that is now out for blood.
There is just…nothing.
They seem to beg for a running clock and for the pain to end as quickly as possible. I don’t like that at all, and while last week I described a core of this team that is, besides Dak, all at or below age 25 at the same time – Micah Parsons, CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs, even young Tyler Smith – if those are the guys you are building this entire operation around moving forward, then they need to be the guys that take ownership in these matters and show some more pride and emotion when there is still time to do that on the field.
I don’t need your 1,000-yard stares or headshakes. I need leadership and action. That is what separates the legends of this franchise from those that just made a lot of money. Adversity reveals character more than it builds it. And that specific group needs to take these – hopefully rare – situations by the scruff of the neck and let us on the outside know that they aren’t going out like that.
I know, I know. It sounds like I am asking for some performative emotional outbursts or something, but culture is about holding yourself responsible. And what I saw yesterday – a virtual replay of the most humiliating loss in recent Cowboys history from last January – simply cannot happen in consecutive home games if the leaders on this team are running things properly. If I am Mike McCarthy and staff, that meek second half from our roster might be what bothers me the most. It sent a disconcerting message.
And that message might just be, “the 2024 Dallas Cowboys look an awful lot like the 2023 Dallas Cowboys.” You would have thought that the last eight months would have been about making sure that they moved past that, which evidently, the Saints proved to us that Dallas had not.
Perhaps everyone was too concerned with their own personal contractual affairs to leave the cultural issues untouched. Because from all accounts, this was all too familiar.
New Orleans may not have had everyone's attention in build up, but they sure do now.
Bob Sturm
Sep 16, 2024
The job is to attempt to articulate the game in such a way that it makes cogent sense and follows a somewhat predictable narrative and offers clues to how things were ultimately going to turn.
After a night to sleep on it and ponder how to best describe a thorough and resounding 44-19 pounding of the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, I would like to concede at the top that I am not full of confidence that words can explain too much. Seldom in this league does one team – a pretty significant underdog – arrive at the stadium of the home-standing favorite and not only beat them in front of their own frustrated fans but humiliate them in such a way that almost everyone is just speechless.
Yet, this is the second time in a row this has happened to the Cowboys. Their last two games played in this stadium – which has many more bad memories than good – have followed this exact script. The road team that was considered inferior on many levels prior to kickoff saw every single idea they had work perfectly on both sides of the ball. Meanwhile, the Cowboys, who clearly did not lose a playoff game yesterday, could hardly do anything right. Their goal was to put an effort out there that made everyone forget last January’s debacle that weighs so heavily on the minds of everyone. Instead, they basically reenacted it in amazing detail and emotional pitch.
The Saints did something very rarely done in this league by scoring 42 offensive points on just six drives (yes, the Packers pretty much did the same thing in January, but they settled for 42 offensive points on seven drives). Those six drives fit neatly into the first three quarters of the game and amassed a ridiculous 379 yards, an average of more than 63 yards per drive. Five of those drives started with kickoffs as the Cowboys were scoring, too. But the points they were conceding were mostly field goals and while they do matter, they don’t matter enough. Any 4th grader should be able to confidently tell you that six times seven (42) is going to work out better than six times three (18). You cannot stay in a track meet doing that, and Dallas was falling further and further behind.
Shell-shocked would be a reasonable way to describe the vibes inside the stadium again as the blank stares returned. Just seven days since winning a road laugher themselves, where the home side in Cleveland looked rather disgusted with the arrival of another home opener, Dallas had the tables turned on them in a merciless destruction that seemed to reveal some painful realities yet again.
- This operation overall still has many of the same issues they had in 2023.
- The defense looks exactly like they always do against a Shanahan-tree offense.
- The offense still seems to lack big play-making juice besides CeeDee Lamb.
- When they fall behind, instead of determined anger fueling a response and comeback, the 1,000-yard stares return.
They appear to be the same team. And that is very disappointing.
We know there was very little to confirm the “all-in” offseason around here other than the normal empty words and platitudes that come out of the owner’s and general manager’s mouths. They did not attempt to fortify their roster in any meaningful way prior to the draft. After the draft, they sorted through the unemployment line to find some veterans who would play for the minimum and had previously played for Mike Zimmer, as the only real solutions to a defense that ended 2023 as a bit of a laughingstock for how teams would get after them.
If you somehow have put the specifics out of your head, allow me to refresh for all, but I would offer a broader look from last season’s final DQ Report to get the chapter and verse in great detail.
Essentially, it is this: Dallas is thought of as a fast and terrifying pass-rush team that can spook opposing QBs before the game even begins. If you are playing Dallas, you want to avoid that, and with each passing loss, it sure appears the word is circulating. Now, many opponents are not built in the correct way or do not have the personnel to cook the recipe properly. But many opponents are. And we found out which bin the Saints are in with great clarity as the game went on yesterday.
The recipe is this: Despite 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs) being the league’s default personnel in modern times, which is defended with nickel or dime defense, the Cowboys are usually just fine against that. Where they struggle is when these teams take off one of those wide receivers and replace him with a fullback or second TE and play bigger personnel. These groups—12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE), 21 personnel (2 RB, 1 TE), 22 personnel (2 RB, 2 TE), and 13 personnel (1 RB, 3 TE)—are what ate Dallas’ lunch in 2023.
They were too small and too finesse to defend it. In fact, here are the numbers from those four horrible losses last year:
The big number to take away here is that 103 yards is the per-game average in the league, but Dallas was giving up 217 per game against those four teams – and three of them were running the Shanahan offense specifically. Buffalo was not, but they were just bullying a Dallas team that looked like they didn’t care for cold weather and big linemen pulling right at them.
The Cowboys saw this and seemed to lose faith in Dan Quinn. They were in a weird spot where they were hoping he would be hired by a divisional rival because then they could get a different coordinator in here without having to fire a guy who had made the defense very, very good. And it was true! They were a very good defense, but this cancerous tumor had been discovered, and the league was going to make it spread.
But, here comes Mike Zimmer. Here comes a guy who told us early in the spring that he was very determined to get this defense to a spot where teams don’t think they can run right at them. He wanted to be bigger and more physical as he said here:
“Well, I think, you know, first off we're gonna try to have at least two linebackers in there all the time and sometimes three. A lot of things offense is doing now with some of the jet motions and they're trying to get nickel backs in the run fits.
And so, you know, now you got a DB in a run fit and you got another DB in a run fit, you know, you're just, you're just not as physical as you need to be. And so, we'll have deals where most of the time we're gonna have at least two linebackers in the ball game. As far as getting bigger, you know, it, you know, Kendricks isn't the biggest guy in the world, but he's instinctive and he makes plays and, you know, he, he flies around to the ball. But yeah, I mean, football is a big man's game.”
And now we fast forward to yesterday and the absolute onslaught at the expense of Mike Zimmer’s defense which is a pass-rushing problem…unless you never allow them a chance to rush the passer because you are ahead and running at will on them.
On Sunday, using those big personnel groupings, the Saints had 231 yards out of just 12 personnel, 123 more out of 21 personnel, and 40 yards from 22 and 13 combined. That is a total of 395 yards out of non-11 personnel in a league that averages about 103.
Last year, those four games averaged 217 against Dan Quinn’s defense, and Mike Zimmer’s guys barely stayed under 400 against a Saints team that has never been thought of as a team of bullies. But on Sunday, using motion, shifts, and play-action, they had the Cowboys out-flanked again, and some of these plays were blocked up so easily that Alvin Kamara looked like he was 24 again.
We talked Friday about how the motion and shifts were going to test this new defense in a way that Cleveland never would:
What we saw on Sunday was such a painful takedown of the new-look defense that we might allow it to be the only takeaway from the game, but there is much more.
The offense started with some productive drives and tried to slow down the pace and ease back into the game. They did not have explosive moments, save for the long touchdown to CeeDee Lamb on their third drive, but that was to cut the score to 21-13. Now, trust me, if you score on all of your opening three drives, you should not be behind by that much, but there were a few things at work here.
For one, the early drives stalled and settled for field goals. One was a Tyler Guyton holding penalty, and the next was a sack conceded way too quickly by Terence Steele as Prescott needed another split-second to find KaVontae Turpin. Instead of two touchdowns, you take two field goals, and now you are down 21-6 before you touch the ball a third time.
From there, Jalen Brooks falls down for the first interception, and it goes to 28-13. Then 35-13, and we aren’t even to halftime.
Now, you see the issues with the all-in offseason as it pertains to the offense. The front office had trepidation about payroll and salary cap because they needed to lock in Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, and the price is incredibly stiff for both. But where are they adding juice to the offense? By bringing back Ezekiel Elliott for Tony Pollard? Was a single skill player who could make a play added to this offense, or did they just think paying those two more money would make the offense more explosive?
Yes, they rebuilt the offensive line, but you mean to tell me that your exact same group of playmakers minus Pollard was thought of as formidable enough that they took the rest of the offseason off as a front office? Then, you lose one tight end for one game, and now your offense looks like either Lamb makes all the plays, or you are going to be covering about four yards at a time.
Do you know how easy it is for a reasonable NFL defense to crowd Lamb and let someone else try to beat you? Of course, they are going to be setting traps all day, hoping Dak eventually gets frustrated with trying to lead a rally with few playmakers and throws the ball to Lamb while Tyrann Mathieu is waiting for the ball to pick it off. It was a forced throw, for sure, but this is why throwing the ball when you are down three touchdowns is so difficult. There is no threat of the run, and there is only one place for Prescott to look for a big play.
Again, since trading Amari Cooper, they have been one playmaker short, and that does not appear to be any better in 2024. Jalen Tolbert is showing flashes, but why did they not take this need more seriously? Please tell me your biggest addition to your playmakers was not bringing back Zeke. Please.
Let’s end with this. The leadership on this team – perhaps the coaches, but in a player’s league, I would like to see this more from the players – has to handle early game crises better. Yes, allowing a touchdown on every single drive is demoralizing, but this collection of good football players just never looks much like a team when things slide in the wrong direction.
The Cowboys' culture gets called “front-runners” from the outside. As in, they are a pack of crazy dogs when things are going right, but when things are off, they all stare quietly and alone into the distance. I don’t know the remedy for that, but doggone, in these two games we keep referencing, they never even show life enough for the thought of a rally. At least in the old days, you would see a glimpse of a big comeback after the mess was made. Now, in this game and the playoff disaster last year, they just meekly go ever so quietly. There is no belief in even the slightest rally. There is no outrage from the defense that is now out for blood.
There is just…nothing.
They seem to beg for a running clock and for the pain to end as quickly as possible. I don’t like that at all, and while last week I described a core of this team that is, besides Dak, all at or below age 25 at the same time – Micah Parsons, CeeDee Lamb, Trevon Diggs, even young Tyler Smith – if those are the guys you are building this entire operation around moving forward, then they need to be the guys that take ownership in these matters and show some more pride and emotion when there is still time to do that on the field.
I don’t need your 1,000-yard stares or headshakes. I need leadership and action. That is what separates the legends of this franchise from those that just made a lot of money. Adversity reveals character more than it builds it. And that specific group needs to take these – hopefully rare – situations by the scruff of the neck and let us on the outside know that they aren’t going out like that.
I know, I know. It sounds like I am asking for some performative emotional outbursts or something, but culture is about holding yourself responsible. And what I saw yesterday – a virtual replay of the most humiliating loss in recent Cowboys history from last January – simply cannot happen in consecutive home games if the leaders on this team are running things properly. If I am Mike McCarthy and staff, that meek second half from our roster might be what bothers me the most. It sent a disconcerting message.
And that message might just be, “the 2024 Dallas Cowboys look an awful lot like the 2023 Dallas Cowboys.” You would have thought that the last eight months would have been about making sure that they moved past that, which evidently, the Saints proved to us that Dallas had not.
Perhaps everyone was too concerned with their own personal contractual affairs to leave the cultural issues untouched. Because from all accounts, this was all too familiar.
