CFZ Can they successfully run the football again?

[CWR]

Last year was a tale of two offenses, one prior to Dak's injury to his calf and the other after the Denver blowout loss. Elite offense to more of a middle of the pack one.

We have discussed this in the past numerous times, teams started taking away the big passing plays and forced the Cowboys to run the football, take the underneath passes and drive the entire field. Several issues happened:

-They just couldn't run the football, even in light boxes. We can point to injuries to both the OL and the RB position, Zeke probably should of been playing more of a limited role as he clearly was hurting the team more then helping it.

-When they did have success on the ground, they just couldn't avoid the big penalty. Penalties were drive killers throughout the 2nd half of the season, in which they led the league.

-Most QB's would struggle moving the chains with consistent 3rd and longs. Add in Dak was reluctant to use his legs, defending this offense became much easier.

-Finally, when drives stalled, they had a very inconsistent place kicker, who missed managable FG's throughout the season, even struggled with extra points.

Have success on the ground and play more clean football will force defenses to get out of that so called shell, coverage defense. Question is, have they done enough to fix this #1 problem area?

-Connor Williams who led the league in penalties is now playing in Miami. However, they are replacing him with Tyler Smith who was a flag machine on the college level. Yes, many of his flags were over aggression, but he still must improve.

-Their TE's must do a better job blocking inline and in space. Not much turnover, but the loss of Jarwin certainly helps as he was more of a big receiver. Ferguson, McKeon and Sprinkle need to help in this area.

-Kellen Moore must be more like his predecessor and stick with the run game to keep teams honest. If you make a team one dimensional, much easier to defend.

-Even if risky, Dak has to threaten teams with his legs. He came into this league as a dual threat QB, he must bring that aspect back to the field.

Great post. I think it's a very accurate explanation of our downfall last season, not the agenda driven, over simplified nonsense we hear far too often. We were let down in so many different ways it's hard to believe we managed to do as well as we did.

Unfortunately I can't answer your question. I wish we'd have locked up a couple FA linemen. We are putting a lot of our success on the shoulders of a developmental rookie and year two players. Cutting LC was reckless with an injury prone LT and no swing in place.

 

[Typhus]

good post, thing is I dont think kellen wants to run alot, just here and there. He is a passing oc, so no telling what we will see.
I also dont think kellen knows how to use a run game .

Even though I am still old school and love to pound the rock, Im also rational and understand KMs desire to be a pass first offense.
Using short routes and screens with Pollard would take up the slack from an absent running game, problem is that KM seems unfamiliar with the concept.

 

[PAPPYDOG]

On paper we look stronger in the run game than last year. The difference this year is teams won't fear our passing game as much so they can focus on stopping the run a little more than what they had to do last year.

Does anyone remember this offense prior to Coop joining us????
Guess not........

 

[big dog cowboy]

Can they successfully run the football again?

 

[Cowboyny]

Great post. I think it's a very accurate explanation of our downfall last season, not the agenda driven, over simplified nonsense we hear far too often. We were let down in so many different ways it's hard to believe we managed to do as well as we did.

Unfortunately I can't answer your question. I wish we'd have locked up a couple FA linemen. We are putting a lot of our success on the shoulders of a developmental rookie and year two players. Cutting LC was reckless with an injury prone LT and no swing in place.

I don't think cutting Collins was reckless, he has become unreliable and his play on the field has regressed. Not worth his price tag.

 

[Risen Star]

Not without cheat sheet Pollard.

 

[Cowboyny]

• One Player
  • One new OLineman can make a huge difference in the play of the overall unit.
  • Jimmy made Erik Williams the starting RT in 1992 and moved RT Nate Newton to OG.
  • That changed their OL from OK in 1991 to the best in the league in 1992.

• Setting the Tone
  • Tyler has some of the Erik Williams on-field demeanor.
  • In college he was determined to flatten the defender before the play was over.
    • The coaches will have to work with him to tone that down in the NFL (EW's style would fly with today's rules).
  • Tyler will not be intimidated by bullies like DT Chris Jones or potential bully rookie Jordan Davis.
  • He showed an uncanny ability in college to go from being completed off-balance to recover and pancake the defender.
    • On some snaps he would get into a bad position with his weight on his heels.
    • Then in 1 step back, he could reset & 'sink his hips' then the defender would start moving backwards.
  • When Connor Williams, Connor McGovern or Biadasz get in that position, they're done. Might as well be on roller skates.

I'm not worried at all with Tyler Smith. Glowing reports about his want to be great. Hell, he attended a pass rushing camp and now hired Duke Mayweather to help with his technique. You don't hear about these type of things from any rookie entering the league. I think he may struggle with quickness, but he will be very good against power players.

 

[CWR]

I don't think cutting Collins was reckless, he has become unreliable and his play on the field has regressed. Not worth his price tag.

A took issue for two reasons. First and foremost I found it difficult to believe we couldn't find compensation in a trade. Secondly, we have no depth at tackle. Had we gone out and signed a FA I wouldn't be so critical of the move.

 

[Cowboyny]

Fans tend to think that run blocking is all about over-powering defenders; however, it's much more complicated.

In 2021 they had issues with both power and execution of blocks.

• Example of Execution Problems
  • They're running off RT with Shultz aligned next to the RT.
  • The DE gets upfield to the outside of Schultz.
  • Schultz makes the block by just staying between the defender and the RB to his inside shoulder.
  • La'el at RT must stay to the outside of the LB for the play to work.
  • Unfortunately, La'el allows the LB to beat him to the outside.
  • At that point the play is done.
  • Power had no impact on the play. La'el can over-power a LB if he is in position.
  • Schultz didn't have to move the DE, he just had to be strong enough to stay in the way momentarily.
• 
  
• Side Note:
  • La'el was very close to Connor Williams in terms of penalties per snap played.
  • Gregory was worse on a penalty per snap basis than either of them.
  • All 3 are gone.

• Power
• Scheming
  • An OL can manage with an under-powered player if the surrounding players offset his issues.
  • They managed in the years that Doug Free at RT and Zack Martin was next to him with Frederick at OC & Leary at LG.
  • Martin aligned about 6 inches closer to Free than normal which meant a bigger gap between Martin and Frederick.
  • The scheme was designed to have Free make 'wall off' blocks similar to the Schultz block in the above example.
  • The Martin 'cheat right' alignment & focus worked because Frederick didn't need which is unlikely most OCs.
• 2021
  • With Connor Williams and Biadasz side by side, there was no way to scheme around their lack of power.
  • CW was actually very good with 2nd level blocks (the ones like La'el frequently missed in the above example).
  • If prime Frederick had been at OC, then CW would have been functional and maybe even above average.
• 2022
  • Tyler Smith has wow power.
  • In my opinion, the most powerful player in the 2022 NFL draft.
  • The coaches can scheme around Biadasz at OC with Tyler and Martin on either side of him.
  • In 2021 CW tended to be the 2nd level run blocker with Biadasz blocking the DLineman.
  • They can reverse that in 2022 with Biadasz more often being the 2nd level blocker.
• TEs
  • Schultz is OK on inline blocking of TEs.
    • The type of blocks that Jarwin couldn't make.
    • The issue with Schultz is open field blocking.
    • He seems to lack agility/fluidity to hit the target.
    • I've seen 320 OLinemen show better agility on open field blocking.
  • Ferguson is known to have good football IQ but was not overly powerful as a blocker.
    • They'll use him on the open field blocks and keep Schultz inline.
    • Keeping Schultz inline more often works better if Ferguson shows to be a decent receiving option.

Excellent insight.

OL have to work together to execute their assignments. You hear that cohesion is extremely important for offensive line units. Having to constantly shift players in and out of the lineman affected this. I think they have a better plan this yr, with predetermining left side and right side players. It's not an easy transition to move to the other side of the line as many think.

Shultz's issues are less inline, but rather more in space. Those WR screens where he has to block his guy, has giving him a lot of struggles. As I mentioned in another post, Cowboys prefer more of a balanced TE, then an athletic one who probably would be better in that area.

Team no doubt has to play more clean football. With both Connor and Collins gone, might be addition by subtraction in that area.

 

[Cowboyny]

A took issue for two reasons. First and foremost I found it difficult to believe we couldn't find compensation in a trade. Secondly, we have no depth at tackle. Had we gone out and signed a FA I wouldn't be so critical of the move.

You aren't going to pay a backup 10 million. This staff views Steele as the starter.

 

[Cowboyny]

You hit on some good points but to me the biggest issue was when Jarwin went down they were unable to run the 12 personnel two tight end set. Teams were unable key on what the Cowboys were going to do. I recently watched first Eagles, Giants games along with the Chargers, Tampa, Carolina, and Patriots games. Those defenses had no clue what Kellen was going to call. We need balance for our offense to be effective. The best way to do that starts with the 12 personnel.

I agree, have to bring balance back to have a fighting chance. 12 personnel is great to keep teams honest and force them to play more base defense.

 

[Cowboyny]

Of course they showed they could do it the first half of the season and mostly due to injuries and OL shuffling and the OC going brain dead it disappeared. It didn't need full page to ask a simple questing to get simple answer

YES and hopefully its due to MM taking more of role in advising KM on this issue and taking over if needed as he knows his jobs on the line..no more hands off, gloves off and Moore needs to go back to run game school with the OL Coaches.

lets be clear its not teh Backs that are the issue, its the other things..

Pressure will be on Kellen and MM to fix this offense, if not, they will not return next season.

 

[Cowboyny]

good post, thing is I dont think kellen wants to run alot, just here and there. He is a passing oc, so no telling what we will see.
I also dont think kellen knows how to use a run game .

Linehan was much better sticking with the run then Moore has been.

 

[baltcowboy]

I agree, have to bring balance back to have a fighting chance. 12 personnel is great to keep teams honest and force them to play more base defense.

You think McKeon can cover for Jarwin? Fans are pumping up the Wisconsin kid but I don’t think the team trust him yet.

 

[xwalker]

A took issue for two reasons. First and foremost I found it difficult to believe we couldn't find compensation in a trade. Secondly, we have no depth at tackle. Had we gone out and signed a FA I wouldn't be so critical of the move.

Having the equivalent of ones of these players would changed your opinion...

Cam Fleming
Cam Erving
Ty Nsekhe

 

[Aven8]

Well to be fair Zeke hurt his knee and Pollard had turf toe.

Having said that Moore gets impatient and wants to throw like he did at Boise. Maybe that will change without Coop and Gallup for a spell.

 

[xwalker]

You think McKeon can cover for Jarwin? Fans are pumping up the Wisconsin kid but I don’t think the team trust him yet.

McKeon was starting to get a decent amount of snaps (peak 47% in game 9) but had a neck injury.
- He missed 1 game with the injury, but his snaps were minimal afterwards.
- Physically he looks like he can do anything that Schultz can do.

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

A took issue for two reasons. First and foremost I found it difficult to believe we couldn't find compensation in a trade. Secondly, we have no depth at tackle. Had we gone out and signed a FA I wouldn't be so critical of the move.

Problem with trades is you have to trade for both the player and the contract. His contract was bad and no one wanted it. Jerry backloaded the thing so he got easy cap hits and then would have traded the bad cap hits to the next team. But this doesn’t mean no one valued him as Cincy gave him a decent deal, possibly implying there was rival interest

Similar to Cooper. Of course he’s worth a 3rd round pick… but his contract was also not worth taking on.

 

[Cowboyny]

You think McKeon can cover for Jarwin? Fans are pumping up the Wisconsin kid but I don’t think the team trust him yet.

TE's have a steep learning curve, I'm not expecting Furgeson to have a major role this season. McKeon was one of the guys in Miami training with Dak, think he will be our #2 TE.

 

[cowboyec]

i think tyler smith will help with that.
just hope k-moore will stay with it even if its only 3 and 4yd gains....by the 4th qtr...they'll be 7 and 8.