What is this team lacking?

In your opinion , is the quarterback. Is it the defense backfield . Is it that we don’t have a great offensive line . Is it the head coach. Is it the defensive line. Is it the linebackers.

I didn’t add the wide receiver group because I think they are great. In my opinion we just don’t have enough play makers. But there aren’t enough play makers in the league to go around. Right now I believe Parsons is the best player on the team. So in my opinion I have to go with coaching. When you’re not consistent . I can’t put that on the players. I have to put that on Coaching. Whether you are a good team, or a bad team, you should at least be consistent.

Leadership on the field.

Fair officiating, and durability.

Key players at key positions..

depth imo.

Whirlwin said:

In your opinion , is the quarterback. Is it the defense backfield . Is it that we don’t have a great offensive line . Is it the head coach. Is it the defensive line. Is it the linebackers.

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Good question.
Even though this team is 7-4, I am actually still confident they can get to the divisional round. To me Dak is who he is. Everyone and their mother was screaming their head off this summer when I was saying don't pay him. So far I guess it has worked out, the FO painted themselves in a corner. They also could not have gotten anyone off the street.
Dak~ Romo~ Cousins, Carr type players.. if everything goes right they become Matt Ryan, Flacco for one post season. To me that is as fair and honest of an assessment that I can give.
This group of QB's is better than a Jimmy G, Bridgewater, Winston, Mariotta type. Paying him is more of a fault of the FO not understanding salary structure and thinking they can outsmart the market. We can't forget Goff & Wentz. The Eagles took the largest cap hit in NFL history to walk away from him and the Rams were not far behind. I think Dak is better than those two.
Now that we agree that Dak has limitations, I don't expect him to Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Manning, even to a lesser degree Russell Wilson us to 2-3 games that we should not win. A man must know his limitations. He is a system QB and their is no harm in admitting it.

Big Mike is really killing us. The boneheaded FG attempts, 4th down calls, lack of in game adjustments. Carr just threw the ball up multiple times on Thursday because he knew the refs would call pass interference. If the play works don't throw it out.. ( Cowboy fans tell me who used that same line).

Not hard to see.....key players
both starting DEs
both starting Ts
both starting WRs
But the good news is most are turning at exactly the right time........you wanna be healthy on the back end of the season

A QB that can elevate the team even when injuries impact the team and doesn't need everything to be perfect around him to flourish instead of being a system QB.

team discipline/fundamentals. That is all.

To me, this team lacks
-confidence
-speed (defensively, we get burnt a lot)
-we don’t finish tackling
-the ability to overcome and adjust
-physicality
-good coaching
-discipline/penalties

We’ve seen this team at it’s best and they are tough to beat, however, I think a lot of this falls on coaching overall. The physicality needs to be taught and emphasized. The ability to finish a tackle needs to be emphasized. Some of our players on defense get burned weekly, and some of our offensive players look hobbled and slow with a select few being exempt. The worst part is the ability to adjust and adhere. When confidence is low, no coach or player does anything to get angry or hype up. When a player is limited, no game plan is made to help fix that limitation. I’m going to use Sean McVay as an example. When Goff was with the Rams, he brought Goff to the Super Bowl despite Goff not really being that well of a QB. He fixed his limitations to the best of his ability. McCarthy or someone on the coaching staff needs to do the same. But alas, he is lazy and will not. Lafleur does the same with the Packers. Good coaches work with what they have. Bad coaches like Garrett and McCarthy do not. In addition to that, the penalties are ghastly. I know some are a bit iffy, but I’ve never seen a team draw so many penalties. This has to stop. You’d think McCarthy would emphasize this but it’s gotten worse over the weeks which tells me all I need to know.

Whirlwin said:

In your opinion , is the quarterback. Is it the defense backfield . Is it that we don’t have a great offensive line . Is it the head coach. Is it the defensive line. Is it the linebackers.

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Missing a ground game.

Consistent pass rush cures a lot of things.

AmariChill said:

To me, this team lacks
-confidence
-speed (defensively, we get burnt a lot)
-we don’t finish tackling
-the ability to overcome and adjust
-physicality
-good coaching
-discipline/penalties

We’ve seen this team at it’s best and they are tough to beat, however, I think a lot of this falls on coaching overall. The physicality needs to be taught and emphasized. The ability to finish a tackle needs to be emphasized. Some of our players on defense get burned weekly, and some of our offensive players look hobbled and slow with a select few being exempt. The worst part is the ability to adjust and adhere. When confidence is low, no coach or player does anything to get angry or hype up. When a player is limited, no game plan is made to help fix that limitation. I’m going to use Sean McVay as an example. When Goff was with the Rams, he brought Goff to the Super Bowl despite Goff not really being that well of a QB. He fixed his limitations to the best of his ability. McCarthy or someone on the coaching staff needs to do the same. But alas, he is lazy and will not. Lafleur does the same with the Packers. Good coaches work with what they have. Bad coaches like Garrett and McCarthy do not. In addition to that, the penalties are ghastly. I know some are a bit iffy, but I’ve never seen a team draw so many penalties. This has to stop. You’d think McCarthy would emphasize this but it’s gotten worse over the weeks which tells me all I need to know.

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the tackling is awful. I agree. It goes back to discipline and fundamentals.

CowboysWillRise said:

Fair officiating, and durability.

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^AMEN^

Where do we start?

1. Zeke specifically being the worst than Pollard, but our coaches insisting that he still gets the bulk of playing time EVEN while clearly injured.
2. Dak not being able to elevate guys at all. He's the same QB he was in 2018 before Cooper got here. He NEEDS players around him to play elite.
3. The O-line does it's job sometimes, but not good enough and commits too many penalties.
4. Consistence in all levels of the defense.
5. Zero pass rush for long portions of time.
6. A head coach
7. Leadership
8. Focus
9. We make too many bonehead penalties all around.
10. Too many slow starts. We always get the ball first, but the offense seems to not wake up until after halftime. It's a real issues with this team.

- Given that Prescott is the QB, as many All Pros and Pro Bowlers being healthy and available on offense.
- A QB able to consistently play well during a game not just when the game has gone in the 4th quarter.
- Leadership on the field, especially on offense. Parsons is doing his bit on defense but we need a cool head and a true leader making good decisions and consistently executing plays on the offense.
- Lawrence and Gregory being healthy would really help the defense especially the secondary.
- Re-establish the running game.
- More of a fair shake with the officiating.

Discipline is the biggest need. Rather that is on coaching or the players, but it is actually on both. And this category involves all aspects of the game. Penalties, and stupid penalties and stupid stuff. Poor tackling is in there also. Dropped passes.
Health.

Better defensive players overall, if not for the turnovers we seen how vulnerable this team is.
Better offensive play calling, as to sticking with the run. Moore is trying to force it, to prove Dak is a great passer more so than a Brady or Rodgers. He does not need to do this. Dak is very good, but they have or had the best RB duo, and now it is lacking. Maybe most of that is the OL play, but something needs to be fixed.
Stop the stupid trick plays at the wrong times. Stop the long passes on short yardage situations, just get the 1st down. Yes on a 2nd and short, take the shot, but not on 3rd and short. It rarely works.

I am not sure about MM, I am not going to defend him, but not going to blame him at this point either. We lost because of the other reasons, not because of him.

A further side effect of the ineptitude with the offense are three and outs resulting in the defense being gassed in the second half having stayed on the field too long. Given the resources committed to the offense, they really need to do more.