This offseason priority-fix the run game!

atlantacowboy · Jan 5, 2022

Cowboyny said:
He has been struggling too, rewatch the games. Yes, he has a high yards per carry due to a few long runs throughout the season.

You can't give the man 3-5 carries a game and conclude he's not effective. Kellen Moore gives up on the run way too easily. I'll reference the Charger game where Pollard started and got 20 carries. He had a great game.

Even the HOFers Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith did not run for 4.5 yards every carry. No rb does. Emmitt many games would have 15 carries for 50 yards going into the 4th quarter. But more times than not, he got better in the 4th quarter. You give these guys carries to wear the defense down. We don't do that for some reason.

StuckMojo · Jan 5, 2022

atlantacowboy said:
It is not an OL problem. It is a Zeke is playing injured problem. It is a refusal to use Pollard more. It is a pass happy QB and OC problem. We have the best OL in the NFL overall.

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-week-15-offensive-line-rankings-2021

If you think we have the best OL in football then I have some oceanfront property in Arizona I’d like to sell you

Adreme · Jan 5, 2022

Cowboyny said:
I agree about the trenches, but not getting rid of our offensive playmakers. Remember our passing game pre-Cooper? It was awful, perhaps the worst in the entire league.

The thing is there is not really a way to get around cutting Cooper. Basically you need 16 million just to have enough cap space to get under the cap and sign your draft picks from where the Cowboys are. If you want to keep Cooper you have to cut DLaw, Tyron, and Brown, and possibly Jarwin (the latter 2 you likely cut anyway if you plan on resigning anyone).

JoeKing · Jan 5, 2022

Cowboyny said:
Last year's offseason the team's priority was fixing the rush defense, now it looks like the other side of the football:

-Teams are daring the Cowboys to beat them on the ground and they just cannot do so.
-Yes, Zeke is hurt and unproductive, but Pollard also has had his struggles.
-OL is a penalty machine
-Starting TE is a terrible inline blocker
-Playcaller gets away from the run and does little to scheme for it.

-Fixing the Oline will go a long way to fixing the run game.
-Zeke and Pollard are fine when healthy and they will heal in the off-season.
-MM should be the play-caller. KM can't call a "balanced offense" game.

atlantacowboy · Jan 5, 2022

StuckMojo said:
If you think we have the best OL in football then I have some oceanfront property in Arizona I’d like to sell you

No, you are just ignorant of other teams and unable to compare. PFF is excellent at grading OL.

Jfconrow · Jan 5, 2022

I’d draft Kenneth Walker Iii with the first pick, problem solved. They need a new LG because Connor is garbage and a LT Tyron is just too injured. So the entire draft could be offense which is a bummer. Stacking the defense would be fun. I guess they could go LB or CB first round then pull the 3rd round RB.

atlantacowboy · Jan 5, 2022

Jfconrow said:
I’d draft Kenneth Walker Iii with the first pick, problem solved. They need a new LG because Connor is garbage and a LT Tyron is just too injured. So the entire draft could be offense which is a bummer. Stacking the defense would be fun. I guess they could go LB or CB first round then pull the 3rd round RB.

nonsense

Jfconrow · Jan 5, 2022

atlantacowboy said:
nonsense

With the 17 games now, the season is so long. I think they need 3 good RBs. You don’t like the 1st round RB? Walker is pretty good.

atlantacowboy · Jan 5, 2022

Jfconrow said:
With the 17 games now, the season is so long. I think they need 3 good RBs. You don’t like the 1st round RB? Walker is pretty good.

The problem is the play calling. Its a bad mix. We have to commit to the run in the first 3 quarters to wear the defense down. Thats how the run game works. So, you might get 3-4 yards per carry against a fresh defense. But by the 4th quarter those runs are going for 5-6 yards. We gave the ball to Zeke and Pollard only 11 times against the Cards. So, what good is another RB? There isn't a team in the league with a better RB combo, but we are pass happy.

bdk76 · Jan 5, 2022

BleedSilverandBlue said:
Is it possible that our line is actually run blocking well but defenses are scheming us into situations where even if we block 5 effectively there are too many additional defenders to overcome?

Perhaps our offensive scheme/ predictability in the run game is contributing more to our struggles than we think.

This, I believe is the main problem. This off-season I'd look into bringing in a running game coordinator to help Moore. Something surely has to be done, we've all seen what this offense is without a running game and it ain't pretty.

Cowboyny · Jan 5, 2022

Adreme said:
The thing is there is not really a way to get around cutting Cooper. Basically you need 16 million just to have enough cap space to get under the cap and sign your draft picks from where the Cowboys are. If you want to keep Cooper you have to cut DLaw, Tyron, and Brown, and possibly Jarwin (the latter 2 you likely cut anyway if you plan on resigning anyone).

They will be able to create cap space by restructuring some contracts.

Cowboyny · Jan 5, 2022

atlantacowboy said:
You can't give the man 3-5 carries a game and conclude he's not effective. Kellen Moore gives up on the run way too easily. I'll reference the Charger game where Pollard started and got 20 carries. He had a great game.

Even the HOFers Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith did not run for 4.5 yards every carry. No rb does. Emmitt many games would have 15 carries for 50 yards going into the 4th quarter. But more times than not, he got better in the 4th quarter. You give these guys carries to wear the defense down. We don't do that for some reason.

I read something recently, if you take away Pollard's 5 big runs (since Denver), he has almost the identical average by attempt as Zeke. You reference the Chargers as they are one of the worse against the run. I believe the lack of a ground game is more about the blocking then it is at the RB position.

StuckMojo · Jan 5, 2022

atlantacowboy said:
No, you are just ignorant of other teams and unable to compare. PFF is excellent at grading OL.

I watch a lot of other teams play and see much better line play.

Cowboyny · Jan 5, 2022

baltcowboy said:
We have a young CeeDee who should be entering his prime next season. Cooper has had injury issues the last 3 seasons and you can see he is losing his explosiveness. Let’s not have a Zeke situation when you are paying Cooper elite money for 3-5 round draft production. That 20 million cap hit could be divided up on Gregory/Kearse and maybe Hooker if the contracts are done correctly. The future of this team is defense.

You take away both Cooper/Gallup, the offense will be average at best, especially now when they cannot run the football. I believe both Cooper/DLaw get extensions and they spread out their deals not playing at those high numbers for next season.

atlantacowboy · Jan 5, 2022

StuckMojo said:
I watch a lot of other teams play and see much better line play.

I'll go with PFF over your selective observations.

Jfconrow · Jan 5, 2022

atlantacowboy said:
The problem is the play calling. Its a bad mix. We have to commit to the run in the first 3 quarters to wear the defense down. Thats how the run game works. So, you might get 3-4 yards per carry against a fresh defense. But by the 4th quarter those runs are going for 5-6 yards. We gave the ball to Zeke and Pollard only 11 times against the Cards. So, what good is another RB? There isn't a team in the league with a better RB combo, but we are pass happy.

They are injured, you can’t give them the ball. Dallas is trying to cover that up but zeke has a knee and Pollard a foot. Clement is the only chance they have to control the clock and I’m not for giving Clement a bunch of touches either. I’d rather have Dak throw it 50 times. I think that’s where they are at, Cooper and Shultzs plus some Lamb, Wilson and hope the defense can do it.

RonnieT24 · Jan 5, 2022

atlantacowboy said:
You can't give the man 3-5 carries a game and conclude he's not effective. Kellen Moore gives up on the run way too easily. I'll reference the Charger game where Pollard started and got 20 carries. He had a great game.

Even the HOFers Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith did not run for 4.5 yards every carry. No rb does. Emmitt many games would have 15 carries for 50 yards going into the 4th quarter. But more times than not, he got better in the 4th quarter. You give these guys carries to wear the defense down. We don't do that for some reason.

Pollard did not start the Charger game.. but he was great that day. I think that was the first game after Jerry called Boy Wonder out for not running the ball against Tampa.. We ran all manner of different plays that day. Jet sweeps, options, toss pitches, off tackle... the whole gambit and it worked wonderfully.. And we kept at it through the winning streak. But when the Patriots loaded up the box and the running game struggled but we still won Moore saw his opening and took it. We have not really been balanced since. And the reason we don't do anything to wear the defense down is because our OC firmly believes "yards are yards." He thinks a 5 yard flanker screen is exactly the same as a 5 yard run off tackle. Clearly he has never had a conversation with a lineman.

charron · Jan 5, 2022

Seems the OL blocking techniques have changed for the worse causing an uptick in penalties. Does someone have data, OL penalties by year?

Run blocking/ play design scheme sucks. We have set run formations, they crowd the line we run straight into it. Every dam time. We make it as hard as possible on the RB's. That's why pollard gets good grades yet still struggles. The OL looks worse cause 6 guys blocking 8 defenders isn't going to end well. **** I'm amazed we get the yards we do sometimes. Imagine getting an OC who knows how to scheme a run game like shanahan, every back gets 1000 yards a year with him. We'd be ballin.

atlantacowboy · Jan 5, 2022

charron said:
Seems the OL blocking techniques have changed for the worse causing an uptick in penalties. Does someone have data, OL penalties by year?

Run blocking/ play design scheme sucks. We have set run formations, they crowd the line we run straight into it. Every dam time. We make it as hard as possible on the RB's. That's why pollard gets good grades yet still struggles. The OL looks worse cause 6 guys blocking 8 defenders isn't going to end well. **** I'm amazed we get the yards we do sometimes. Imagine getting an OC who knows how to scheme a run game like shanahan, every back gets 1000 yards a year with him. We'd be ballin.

I agree. But I don't think you need to address rb in the draft. There is nothing that needs to be fixed other than the rbs getting healthy.

RonnieT24 · Jan 5, 2022

Cowboyny said:
I read something recently, if you take away Pollard's 5 big runs (since Denver), he has almost the identical average by attempt as Zeke. You reference the Chargers as they are one of the worse against the run. I believe the lack of a ground game is more about the blocking then it is at the RB position.

Interesting point. There was also a point in the season when Pollard had a significant chunk of his big runs off the jet sweep. I don't think that's the case now as we don't even seem to have that play in the play book but I remember reading something similar.. like if you took out the jet sweep runs he actually had a slightly lower average.. but that was before the long one against the Saints.. I think that one put him back over because it was straight from tailback.

This offseason priority-fix the run game!

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