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The Morning After Week 7 - Establishing The Run
The Cowboys finally prioritize the thing that they must prioritize: Linemen Lead The Way.
Bob Sturm4 hours ago
There are certainly some qualifications that must be stated as we discuss what happened Monday in Philadelphia and it probably starts with the idea that this Eagles team is a shell of it’s former self.
Of the 11 offensive starters from their Super Bowl 59 win 20 months ago, you could only find four of them last night. The rest are either gone or injured and have not been replaced by anything nearly good enough.
The Eagles are not the Eagles, although much of the defense is present and accounted for. Even that returning defensive cast looks diminished and somewhat defeated from their last month. They are a shell of themselves.
And even with that, they were leading the game with 17 minutes left to go, so if you hoped for a Cowboys dominating blowout, it certainly took all three hours to express that on the scoreboard or in terms of getting any stops from this very feeble defense.
The Eagles ran the ball with great ease for much of the night and if it wasn’t for a very tender hamstring from Saquon Barkley, perhaps the night goes much longer.
So, yes, qualifications? There are more than a few.
But, doggone. That was exactly what we needed to see from this offensive performance. The Cowboys finally walked onto a field and remembered what they need to be about. They need to play offense with a forward thrust from the boys up front. They said they wanted to do it. They made shirts that said it. And then they did it. These are all good signs.
“Linemen Lead The Way,” was the slogan.
It was very impressive and long overdue. Why do we not do this more often? Why do the Cowboys need to hear how soft they have been playing and how coaches may be dismissed to respond in this way? Why do we have to follow the same circular patterns to get the best out of the roster of this team?
Surely, that is putting a frustrating tone on a very satisfying performance and that isn’t my intent. But, it seems so obvious as we look at these last two Cowboys game to understand what is built for success and what is a frustrating recipe for defeat. How is this so complicated for the decision makers?
I am positive they didn’t read our game preview — NFL teams are wise and more prepared than that. They spend all week diagnosing their strengths and weaknesses while summing up their opponent and upcoming challenge to create a game plan for success. It should model the best attributes of the construction of this team. What do the Cowboys do well and how can that help them win games?
The idea that they don’t is what makes us wonder where the coaching staff is at in terms of wisdom.
Here, word for word, is what we thought the pregame objective must be for the offense from the pre-gamer:
As if that wasn’t clear enough, here was a bit more:
They were playing a passive offense. They fell in love with the passing game and the pretty stuff. But, if you want to play that way, teams are going to be able to defend you too easily. You won’t make them play defense with fear. You let them play with their own aggression and it starts with hitting your QB. Your line is backing up to protect rather than firing forward with mean intentions.
But, that isn’t why you drafted the Tylers where you did. Tyler Smith was the 24th pick. Tyler Guyton was the 29th pick. Tyler Booker was the 12th pick. All three of them are better at dishing out punishment than they are at taking it. You know why? Because they are offensive linemen. Linemen don’t want to retreat. They want to attack. They want to go right through the facemask of the man across from them and put their guy on his back. That is how big time linemen want to play. All of them.
So, don’t tell them to go up to Lambeau Field and retreat all night and try to catch blitzers through the gap. That isn’t what they want to do. They want to fire forward. They want to set the tone.
Yes, it is more complex than that sometimes, but, other times it isn’t. It seems obvious that one of the real keys of setting the tone and letting the linemen lead the way is by giving them a chance. Take the car out of the garage and start it. It might actually do the job for you. Instead, the last few weeks – especially since Houston – this has been a timid, defensive, and passive offensive effort. I can’t even call it an attack.
Then, after being called out and questioned all week about whether this Cowboys team has anything in terms of being able to challenge the almighty Giants for this mediocre division’s title this year, they actually followed their smartest path to success.
They loaded up on the Tylers and started moving bodies around.
First play of the night tells us plenty. They have all week to look at their situation and come up with a solution. But, the Eagles are tough to run on and have those big DT’s that everyone talks about. The stadium will be loud and they would love to smack Dak Prescott around all night. What should the Cowboys do?
12 personnel. Dak under center. Outside zone to the right with Javonte Williams for 6 yards. Strong run to get them started with a tough runner. Then move the chains with Dak under center, going play-action to his big TE Brevyn Spann-Ford. Two successes in a row. Keep going.
The third play was even better. This would be 12 personnel, but Spann-Ford is joined by a 6th OL with Broderick Jones as the other TE. Cowboys run a physical duo run right at those big DT’s. Huge hole with the Tylers moving bodies and Javonte is into the secondary now. Tyler Booker, in particular, was a straight-up bulldozer on this one. Not saying you get 10 yards running behind those boys there, but you would get something. This is the good stuff. Look at this.
This sort of behavior would continue all night long. Physical runs that set the tone. Firing forward and grinding out first downs. Keeping the defense on the sideline. Showing what you spent all that draft capital on to have a physical team. Dak hardly got touched the entire night. The Eagles hardly made a play on defense. This was their defense with pretty strong availability. They are healthy. But, they got steamrolled because Dallas finally remembered its identity. Or at least what it’s identity should aspire to be.
Look at this beauty in the fourth quarter when the resolve of the Eagles defense seemed to have had enough. How bad do you want to hang in there as the Tylers are leaning on you all night? This isn’t supposed to be fun.
Six offensive linemen moving bodies. Setting paths and tones. Chipping away at how bad you want to do battle with them. They lean on your because they know at a certain point, you will look forward to the game being over.
That is this team’s recipe. And last night, they followed it brilliantly. They ran 31 runs from under center for 168 yards. Overall, they ran for 204 yards when you add in some shotgun runs, too, for 5.4 per carry. It was physical, effective, and punishing. The results are exactly what they know they will be: one that keeps your offense marching up and down the field, keeps your QB’s jersey clean, and then allows him to decide when to throw into very favorable situations where CeeDee Lamb or George Pickens are in coverage with one Eagle DB and then they go to work with three brilliant touchdown throws and catches.
It is the most balanced, terrifying version of the Cowboys offense and is exactly the vision when you put it all together.
So, you see the obvious dilemma that we have as we analyze this.
Why do we have to remind them of these obvious things about once every three weeks? Why don’t they understand this and execute this on Sunday Nights in Wisconsin? Why do they have to be humiliated to remember the recipe? Again, and this is vitally important to understand, they never tried to run the ball in this way in these last few weeks.
Against Tampa Bay, they tried eight runs from under center and were very successful! Before you suggest that they couldn’t run it like this, we must tell you, they had a 63% run success rate in those situations. That is outstanding!
In Green Bay, sledding was a bit tougher, but they only ran ten runs like this and were 50% successful which is still where you want to be. They just stopped.
It would be one thing if they were bad at it. But, they aren’t. They have the Tylers. They have Javonte Williams. They have the beef.
This is not complex. This is basic football theory. Block and tackle. Bust them in the mouth. Quiet the crowd and take the will from your opponent.
Do you know how many games in Cowboys history they have lost by running for 200 yards with zero turnovers? They have been playing football for a very long time (1960) and we have plenty of data to pour through here. 1,089 games in total have been played as of last night.
And they have never lost a single game on those occasions.
17-0 all time. A perfectly dominant and clean game. This reminds you of how they won a decade ago in places like Philadelphia. Go in there and run the rock behind your big offensive line. It must be a priority and you must be stubborn about it.
This is your right guard at the 2025 NFL Combine. You took him 12th overall in the 2025 draft in front of guys like Emeka Egbuka and Matthew Golden. You took him because that was the type of team you wanted to be when he said things like this:
That was the identity last night. What I don’t understand is what takes them so long to arrive at this obvious recipe for success.
Yes, it was a flawed performance and yes there are things we need to examine this week that they could be much better at (yes, defense).
But, I wanted this gamer to be pretty simple - as I think the game plan must be, too. Don’t over think this.
Let the linemen lead. That is football. And that is how this team needs to play.
