Actually more concern about the offense!

[blueblood70]

They didn't just struggle against good defenses, they had issues even against a team like Arizona who had no business dominating us like that.

Yes I'm aware of that but I'm only talking about the better teams I don't care about those egg layers that every once in a while every team loses to a bad team it does happen quite often You lose one on your schedule that's a head scratcher we already know about Denver and Arizona it's a constant mystery to why no matter how bad those teams are or how good they are we lose to them That scenario will flip someday just like the Giants are gonna end up beating in the Cowboys More often in Washington's gonna get better think about how much we beat them and how you think that they don't feel the same way the Cowboys sucked last year and they struggled to beat us Hell the Eagle struggled to beat us the Cowboys almost swept the Eagles we were a bad team last year right we almost swept the Eagles we should have swept the Eagles so I don't want to hear about all these better teams don't lose games to teams like that I only want to discuss the better teams.

That's why you bring up the Bears game yes it it was a weird start to that game and we lost CD lamb right I mean isn't that the game he got injured didn't come out in the second half That was a good reason why we kind of lost our scoring There were more to it than that yes Williams fumbled over there near the sideline early and it really set the tone it ruined that dry that was momentum just got burned out so sometimes those things happen..

But yes against playoff caliber teams I need this defense to say we got you and don't worry about how much you can score today because we're going to keep the score down.

Do it in Houston, NE seatle, Oh wait a minute they do it with the Rams and the Eagles I mean they build their defenses even Pittsburgh has had some abysmal offenses but really when you look over there all the money they spend on defense they were winning games under 20 points all the time they were asking their very spare part offense and very mid to bad quarterbacks to win games and they were doing it at times with nothing on offense Naji Harris is a spare, Oh the quarterbacks they ran out and yet they had them in the game better coaching staff better defense poised festival teams I mean I can go on and on I want to see our team do that look what the Rams did they didn't just go out and say OK we we are an NFC championship team and we have a great offense it's gonna be the same offense as this year Now they went out and spent all their money on defense and made all the big moves on defense.

As many good things as the Cowboys have done this offseason the Rams did more All things being equal our offenses are probably equal but in in most peoples minds they have a better coaching staff and then they have the GM just went out and just got two new corners They got Miles Gary talk Aaron Donald out of retirement I mean there might be some moves I'm missing They are literally all in and they're not worried about how much scoring is going to come from their offense I guarantee there's going to be games in which there often struggles and it's not going to matter.

You want a scenario 'cause you probably not reading this far but how did Matthew Stafford lead the league in interceptions throw two interceptions nearly 3 in the Super Bowl and come away with a title?

Tell you why it was defense special teams and coaching they weren't worried about how much they could score they were worried about the rest of it they knew they can score most times when they needed to but they shouldn't need to score more than 20 points a game to win games you are not a championship level team if your defense constantly gives up more than 20 points a game in this league nowadays even yes with this passing game the Ravens only gave up 11 points a game I believe in their Super Bowl year that had one of the best defenses to ever put on the field the Bears I think it was 13 i'm telling you we're looking at this the wrong way because we've been hypnotized into believing in the offense is that important yes offense is important but the other parts of the team are more important..

 

[zrinkill]

Dak era playoffs

In the 2 games the team has won he had 5 TD's and 1 INT while scoring an average of 27.5 points (Good, Dak played well vs a 10-6 team and an 8-9 team.)

In the 5 games the team has lost he had 9 TD's and 6 INT's while scoring an average of 22.8 points (Poor, with most of those points coming in the 3rd - 4th)

In example of the 3rd and 4th scoring

2017 vs Packers 18 out of 31 points scored in the 4th Quarter after being down by 3 scores

2022 vs 49'rs 10 out of 17 points scored in the 4th Quarter after being down by 3 scores

2023 vs 49'rs 6 out of 12 points coming in last play of third and 4th Quarter after being down by 2 scores

2024 vs Packers 25 points out of 32 points coming in the 3rd and 4th Quarters after being down by by 41 points

 

[DuncanIso]

Kind of crazy, with the defense being historically bad last season, I am actually worried more about the offense:

-Tackle position scares me to death. I do like the addition of Jones, but the position can potentially wreck the season
-Slow starts. They cannot take a quarter off to get it going. Cannot be shut out in a half.
-Inability to finish drives. Lack of execution, penalties, turnover, drops, play calling.
-Have to become more aggressive in going for it on 4th downs, settle too much for long FG's.
-Need more production in the passing game from the TE position. Ferguson has to start connecting with the seam routes.
-depth at running back, Williams wore down in the 2nd half of last season, don't trust our depth behind him
-Have to be more competitive against the elite teams

Both Jones and Steele are terrible at pass blocking.

Per PFF

And Guyton.

 

[blueblood70]

The Chiefs have had real struggles from time to time. All teams do.

Right we seen Patrick Mahomes look like Tim Tebow when his offensive line wasn't blocking, he had no run game and his defense didn't show up to bail him out yes it happens...

I think the short point is I'm not concerned about the offense because I know they have the ability i'm still concerned about the other 2/3 of our team That's the big question mark did the defense improve how much did they improve can Christian Parker call a game make adjustments if he has injuries And can the special teams be improved this year I mean that's a lot of real questions i'm not worried about our offense one bit...

 

[Kwyn]

Kind of crazy, with the defense being historically bad last season, I am actually worried more about the offense:

-Tackle position scares me to death. I do like the addition of Jones, but the position can potentially wreck the season
-Slow starts. They cannot take a quarter off to get it going. Cannot be shut out in a half.
-Inability to finish drives. Lack of execution, penalties, turnover, drops, play calling.
-Have to become more aggressive in going for it on 4th downs, settle too much for long FG's.
-Need more production in the passing game from the TE position. Ferguson has to start connecting with the seam routes.
-depth at running back, Williams wore down in the 2nd half of last season, don't trust our depth behind him
-Have to be more competitive against the elite teams

I agree on pretty much every point. Good post.

 

[morasp]

Certain defenses gave them a lot of trouble last season. I hope practicing against CPs scheme will help that.

 

[darthseinfeld]

Kind of crazy, with the defense being historically bad last season, I am actually worried more about the offense:

-Tackle position scares me to death. I do like the addition of Jones, but the position can potentially wreck the season
-Slow starts. They cannot take a quarter off to get it going. Cannot be shut out in a half.
-Inability to finish drives. Lack of execution, penalties, turnover, drops, play calling.
-Have to become more aggressive in going for it on 4th downs, settle too much for long FG's.
-Need more production in the passing game from the TE position. Ferguson has to start connecting with the seam routes.
-depth at running back, Williams wore down in the 2nd half of last season, don't trust our depth behind him
-Have to be more competitive against the elite teams

I just dont think this system utilizes a TE like that. It was very rare to see Ferg down field last season. I think in this system your TE is basically a safety valve

 

[darthseinfeld]

Kind of crazy, with the defense being historically bad last season, I am actually worried more about the offense:

-Tackle position scares me to death. I do like the addition of Jones, but the position can potentially wreck the season
-Slow starts. They cannot take a quarter off to get it going. Cannot be shut out in a half.
-Inability to finish drives. Lack of execution, penalties, turnover, drops, play calling.
-Have to become more aggressive in going for it on 4th downs, settle too much for long FG's.
-Need more production in the passing game from the TE position. Ferguson has to start connecting with the seam routes.
-depth at running back, Williams wore down in the 2nd half of last season, don't trust our depth behind him
-Have to be more competitive against the elite teams

I think Davis is a good fit for this system. He doesn't have measurables, but he has good vision, balance and patience. If we had to feature him, I think he could do well.

 

[DuncanIso]

Certain defenses gave them a lot of trouble last season. I hope practicing against CPs scheme will help that.

Yup.

Jerry basically ignored the OT problems in the draft.

Problems Jerry caused. Guyton. Steeles contract.

The Shelton kid was a worthy try, but he lacked AllConf /AllAmerican awards. I.e scrub

Team needs a GM. This is ridiculous.

 

[blueblood70]

I think Davis is a good fit for this system. He doesn't have measurables, but he has good vision, balance and patience. If we had to feature him, I think he could do well.

agreed... But I am curious to see this new guy that I once again can't pronounce somebody's name but he looks like bigger faster version of Davis so he might slowly take some reps away during the regular season but I'm glad we got a guy with a little juice back there too but I do agree Davis looks like a guy who can run the ball in the emergency if you needed to actually get a heavy snap load but in that case then yes you would use Hunter as your short yardage guy and still keep the new guy as you change a pace but I think our running game is improved this year our room is just better.. Even though it's made up of mostly the same players I think it's gonna be it more impressive as far as I think there's gonna be some bigger plays come from it..

 

[shabazz]

Kind of crazy, with the defense being historically bad last season, I am actually worried more about the offense:

-Tackle position scares me to death. I do like the addition of Jones, but the position can potentially wreck the season
-Slow starts. They cannot take a quarter off to get it going. Cannot be shut out in a half.
-Inability to finish drives. Lack of execution, penalties, turnover, drops, play calling.
-Have to become more aggressive in going for it on 4th downs, settle too much for long FG's.
-Need more production in the passing game from the TE position. Ferguson has to start connecting with the seam routes.
-depth at running back, Williams wore down in the 2nd half of last season, don't trust our depth behind him
-Have to be more competitive against the elite teams

I get your concern but they were the #2 offense in the entire NFL and they haven't lost any key players.

Theoretically they should be just as effective if not more so because of continuity.

The rest of the teams are always adding players to improve so the only argument would be " what have we added to MAINTAIN effectiveness "?

 

[jblaze2004]

Kind of crazy, with the defense being historically bad last season, I am actually worried more about the offense:

-Tackle position scares me to death. I do like the addition of Jones, but the position can potentially wreck the season
-Slow starts. They cannot take a quarter off to get it going. Cannot be shut out in a half.
-Inability to finish drives. Lack of execution, penalties, turnover, drops, play calling.
-Have to become more aggressive in going for it on 4th downs, settle too much for long FG's.
-Need more production in the passing game from the TE position. Ferguson has to start connecting with the seam routes.
-depth at running back, Williams wore down in the 2nd half of last season, don't trust our depth behind him
-Have to be more competitive against the elite teams

Our offensive tackle play scares the crap outta me. 2 very big mysteries and Steele has looked terrible in camp. We may need to keep TE's and RB's in to help constantly. The Giants defensive line will be a decent test for us.

 

[INCowboysFan]

I think what you saw in Jake Ferguson reception wise last season is what he is. A high catch, low ypc TE that is consistent, a good leader and has a huge connection with his QB. Solid blocker as well. I like Span Ford's upside and that's where the improvement at the TE position will come from.

Every time Ferg gets tackled I fear he is going to fumble

 

[BrassCowboy]

Kind of crazy, with the defense being historically bad last season, I am actually worried more about the offense:

-Tackle position scares me to death. I do like the addition of Jones, but the position can potentially wreck the season
-Slow starts. They cannot take a quarter off to get it going. Cannot be shut out in a half.
-Inability to finish drives. Lack of execution, penalties, turnover, drops, play calling.
-Have to become more aggressive in going for it on 4th downs, settle too much for long FG's.
-Need more production in the passing game from the TE position. Ferguson has to start connecting with the seam routes.
-depth at running back, Williams wore down in the 2nd half of last season, don't trust our depth behind him
-Have to be more competitive against the elite teams

I agree with all you said, with the exception of being more aggressive on 4th down and settling for fg. I think the bigger problem is we seem to get conservative in even earlier downs when we are in FG range. Kinda what we term "playing for the FG".

 

[Pentagruel]

They have to become more consistent. Cannot have halves when they don't score a single point.

That’s just reality in the NFL sometimes. Even the Rams had dry spells in games which cost them. There’s always room for improvement; if you don’t get better you are getting behind, but by and large I am not worried about the offense for next year.

 

[J-man]

Seattle and New England had more scoring from their STs ie Fgs.. It's odd that Seattle can win a Super Bowl They also won a Super Bowl leading the league in penalties one year with Russell Wilson It's it's odd that when you try to squeeze this and push it all on Prescott and the offense and try to come up with all these weird scenarios and situations that seem like it was just a mirage no it was not Other teams use their field goal kickers just as much That is one of the worst narratives that get talked about in here is that we rely on the kicker too much when most teams do it a lot of the better teams last year that finished in the top 10 overall the playoff teams used their kicker as much or more seattle led the league in field goal attempts and they had a better defense and they won the damn Super Bowl if you looked at the Super Bowl that's what they did there was almost no scoring in the first half That's what great defense looks like..

Most Cowboys need to get in field goal range that means they're moving the ball efficiently to even settle for these field goals But most teams use their field goal kicker as part of their concept for winning games that is part of the NFL You do realize it's called Football Capital FOOT Foot a lot of things are done with their foot including kickoffs kicks punts If the kicking game is a vital part of every team it's important to have a great kicker why because they're used a lot..

No I am not agreeing with anything you said and even at Prescott dips a little yeah he had MVP type numbers many times he doesn't need to play like that but he won't be outside the top 10 he'll still be inside the top 10 but at least we expect the defense to be better and the special teams to be better or it's going to be back to them being one dimensional and being forced to play like that they're being forced to play like that..

False narrative is that the Cowboys are somehow alone in using the kicker too much when there were better teams playoff teams like I have to go with the Super Bowl champions that use their kicker more and they won the damn Super Bowl with great defense great special teams and not asking their offense to score 35 points a game yes that's a funny concept isn't it..

Wow, this is a very long, but actually a pretty useless take, since it basically missed the entire premise of my post.
Kicking a lot of FGs is not a problem at all. Having a weapon like Aubrey is a very good thing for this team. And not once did I mention Dak and this being on his shoulders.

But my point is that even with our prolific offensive numbers, Dallas was below league average inside the red zone. There were worse than more than half the teams inside the 20.
You don't think that's an issue? One that they should attempt to improve on?
They scored TDs on 56.9% of their trips. I think was 18th in the league.
They also had 11 turnovers. 6 of them being turn overs on downs! That's a big issue IMO.
And they settled for 17 FGs inside the Red zone.
These are the numbers that I am talking about needing to improve on. Because IMHO, a great offense would score more TDs inside the 20 than we did.

 

[J-man]

I think having such a bad defense inflated their stats as they had to keep scoring to have a chance.

If they truly want to be an elite offense, they have to consistently score TD's not settle for FG's. They were ranked in the middle of the league inside the redzone, that's not good enough.

I definitely think the defense was a factor for sure.

 

[J-man]

Defense doesn't translate year-to-year, offense - specifically passing offense - does.

If the offense isn't dragged down by such a poor defense, it will actually be better.

The defense being so bad did two things:

1. Never gave any short fields. Dallas was, I think, dead last in drives starting in opponents' territory and had poor starting field position.
2. Forced the offense into being one dimensional. Doesn't matter how good the offense is if they can't be balanced.

People do not realize how much this offense was held down by the defense.

It is pretty galaxy brained for the offense to be a bigger concern.

I agree with you Lou. The D definitely played a factor in some of their stats. And also some of the decision making because of the poor D, that led to them.
All I'm saying is they need to improve their redzone numbers this year. I don't care how they do it.

 

[InPhiltraitor]

Through years of futility, I think some of you have been understandably stricken with Pathological Doubt.

While you may have Steele concerns, consider the growth that’s taken place by an already very good interior triumvirate, and the strides that are believed to have been taken by Guyton. Should be no dip in the WR room. The RB room, although not dynamic, should compliment the passing game well enough. And, the QB is still in his window and can run this in his sleep.

If you wanted to spy anything, make it the TE group. Ferg’s YAC has dropped every year and last year his depth/target was very shallow w/his YPC being less than any Jason Witten 3-yard out mocked season w/the Cowboys (his #’s did dip with the Raiders). But, no worries, BSF will step up if Ferg’s #’s fall off.

Verdict = Easy top 10 offense and barring injury most-likely top 5 once again. If the D can be in the top half of the league, it will get very interesting in Dallas.

 

[LouBrown]

I agree with you Lou. The D definitely played a factor in some of their stats. And also some of the decision making because of the poor D, that led to them.
All I'm saying is they need to improve their redzone numbers this year. I don't care how they do it.

Eh, I mean yea it needs to be better but the Red zone issue is mostly exaggerated.

The Cowboys had 65 red zone attempts last year and 37 touchdowns (56.9%). Three more touchdowns (61.5%) puts them just outside the top 10. You can mostly chalk that up to randomness.

Not for nothing, but the Cowboys were 10% better than both Seattle and NE last year. Washington, Indy, and Atlanta were all in the top 10, and they all stunk.

Getting to the red zone is a lot more important than being highly efficient in the red zone, and Dallas was T-4 last year (Buffalo) despite getting no help from the defense or special teams.