PFF weighs in

atlantacowboy said:

Well, that is a thought isn't it? Someone said on another post that next week will tell us a lot about whether last night was an aberration or the first 3 games were the aberration.

Click to expand...

It is a thought but that’s it. I thought we would beat the Saints rather easily and still think we have a top 5 NFC team but last night was definitely an eye opener.

TBH, even though I still think and have thought we have a really good team I’ve always taken these past 3 wins with a grain of salt. The hype and hysteria over beating the worst teams in the league was a little much, typical over reaction for this fan base. The struggle against Miami in the first half was an indication of how bad this team CAN be.

aria said:

It is a thought but that’s it. I thought we would beat the Saints rather easily and still think we have a top 5 NFC team but last night was definitely an eye opener.

TBH, even though I still think and have thought we have a really good team I’ve always taken these past 3 wins with a grain of salt. The hype and hysteria over beating the worst teams in the league was a little much, typical over reaction for this fan base. The struggle against Miami in the first half was an indication of how bad this team CAN be.

Click to expand...

The team needs a JJ or Parcels to keep them grounded and working. I think perhaps they are reading too much of their own press clippings. Garret just isn't that kind of coach. He's never been really good at maxing out the teams talent and motivating players. I think of a spectrum of coaches with belechek on one side and garret on the polar opposite side.

atlantacowboy said:

It was largely an unimpressive night from Dak Prescott. He had a couple of nice throws up the seam (including one to Randall Cobb on that final drive that got them into hail mary range), but his accuracy throughout much of the night was pedestrian, and he just couldn’t get the ball moving downfield consistently.

Ezekiel Elliott couldn’t get anything going on the ground, either. New Orleans stifled him all night. It didn’t matter if the Cowboys were trying to stretch things out wide or hit a gap up the middle. Zeke was unable to convert on a couple of short-yardage situations and he fumbled the ball the one time he picked up enough yards to move the sticks on a key 4th-and-1.

Click to expand...

Common denominator is the offensive line got outplayed for most of the night, but I wouldn't expect PFF to do anything more than talk about skill position players.

DLaw HAS to be hurt still. The guy makes no impact put there

Captain-Crash said:

Dak is great with perfect protection.

Click to expand...

against the Giants, the Skins, and Miami...

xwalker said:

They gave up 12 points.

Click to expand...

I’m really sick of this. The problem with this D is that they let the opponent go the length of the field most every time, before giving up 3. It’s not just about giving up just 3, it’s about getting off the field and giving the offense more possessions and time. This defense is playing far worse than last year.

Hit below the knees on the QB is a bonus penalty, if blocked into the QB. Only should be called if the player goes low to make the play when no offensive player is involved as to blocking them near the QB, pithing 2 - 3 yards.

It is like the bogus PI calls against us last night. what were there 3 of them.

NorthwestDallas40 said:

I’m really sick of this. The problem with this D is that they let the opponent go the length of the field most every time, before giving up 3. It’s not just about giving up just 3, it’s about getting off the field and giving the offense more possessions and time. This defense is playing far worse than last year.

Click to expand...

Agree, and I can't see why some do not see this. Yes we only gave up 56 points in 4 games. But we allowed them to get into how many scoring opportunities also. Including a few missed FG's. Some 4th down conversions that came up short. Yes give the D credit, but don't act like they are playing great.

Brees would have made TD's, Rodger will, even Wentz may get them too. Defense needs to tighten up, get the offense better field position, create turnovers.

atlantacowboy said:

I'd add........

DLAW was invisible. We need more from him. A lot more.

Click to expand...

We need playmakers period. I watch many games when Dallas is not on flipping back and forth and I just see teams picking off passes or picking up fumbles taking it back to the house. I rarely see Dallas getting any much less taking anything back for td's. Another thing I hate about Garrett is that he's so loyal. He still needs to put the best playmakers out there on offense and defense. For example the Oline. I think we ran the ball better last season with Conner out and Xavier Su'a-Filo in. They always talk about the best Oline in football. BS! Nobody stopped the 90's line like this. And everyone knew Emmitt was gonna be running it. Joe Thomas needs more playing time also. IMO Lee is done for. Heath needs to be replaced. Jones should go out and try to get a safety. And as you said. Tank has been MIA all season so far. And again. We need a ball hawking safety-Jerry!!!

Everyone talking about the Cowboys only giving up 12 points take a chill pill. This was a Saints team with Teddy Bridgewater at QB, not Drew Brees. The Saints game plan was clearly to run the football, throw screens and underneath stuff and try not to give it away. The Saints were hoping for a close game where Dallas did not pull away with 30 points. I am sure they did not want Bridgewater in a situation where he had to throw every down. The Cowboys would have killed him if that happened. They knew exactly what they were doing and if not for a lot of holding calls they would have put up a lot more points.

The fact is, with the game on the line and the Saints with the ball in the 4th quarter the Cowboys defense could not pull out a stop to get the ball back with time outs and time on the clock despite knowing the Saints would be running the ball to eat up the clock. And by the way, if the score was 14-12 because Dak hit Cobb on that first drive fore a TD, the Saints would have been in FG range to win that game on their last drive. Bridgewater probably would not have dropped back and taken the sack to preserve the FG. Cowboys lost 15-14. To me, the sign of a good defense is when their offense has to drive and your defense has to stop them and your defense wins most of the time, especially with the game on the line.

This defense seems to lack that shutdown mentality and they rarely get any take-aways - which has been a problems for years.

Having said that, the Cowboys were without Gallup and its clear Cooper was not 100%. He was unable to run routes with quickness and precision like he normally does which is why he was struggling to get open at times. That could be why the Cowboys game plan was a little conservative.

atlantacowboy said:

I'd add........

DLAW was invisible. We need more from him. A lot more.

Click to expand...

Agree. Especially with Quinn

atlantacowboy said:

Well, that is a thought isn't it? Someone said on another post that next week will tell us a lot about whether last night was an aberration or the first 3 games were the aberration.

Click to expand...

Oh the Packers are going to punch this team in the throat and not let up.

Not sold on g.b.

aria said:

It is a thought but that’s it. I thought we would beat the Saints rather easily and still think we have a top 5 NFC team but last night was definitely an eye opener.

TBH, even though I still think and have thought we have a really good team I’ve always taken these past 3 wins with a grain of salt. The hype and hysteria over beating the worst teams in the league was a little much, typical over reaction for this fan base. The struggle against Miami in the first half was an indication of how bad this team CAN be.

Click to expand...

I didn’t expect a win last night especially before Brees’ injury and still didn’t feel good about It after simply because these are the kinds of games they blow. It was a game you go in and steal with one of their best players out. I use the word “steal” because it’s a game when you see the schedule that you chalk up as a loss. This is still a good team just not as good as the first three games lead some to believe. The first half of the Miami game as you pointed out made me raise my eyebrows as well. The game with Green Bay will be really interesting to see whether last night was the start of a downward trend. If someone would have told me they could be going into the Philly game at 5-1 or 4-2(which is very possible) I would have thought it was a real nice start.

SoBlue128 said:

I didn’t expect a win last night especially before Brees’ injury and still didn’t feel good about It after simply because these are the kinds of games they blow. It was a game you go in and steal with one of their best players out. I use the word “steal” because it’s a game when you see the schedule that you chalk up as a loss. This is still a good team just not as good as the first three games lead some to believe. The first half of the Miami game as you pointed out made me raise my eyebrows as well. The game with Green Bay will be really interesting to see whether last night was the start of a downward trend. If someone would have told me they could be going into the Philly game at 5-1 or 4-2(which is very possible) I would have thought it was a real nice start.

Click to expand...

Very well said, couldn’t agree more.

I thought we had open receivers, we just didn't find them or connect with them. JMO

This is really an improvement in the quality of "meltdown posts after a loss". I could save a ton of time and stop reading at seeing "PFF" as the very first word of the thread.

Thanks for saving me a lot of time, very much appreciated.

ABQCOWBOY said:

I thought we had open receivers, we just didn't find them or connect with them. JMO

Click to expand...

The Saints took away Cooper by Lattimore and by scheme, then Cobb had a couple of offtarget passes go off his hands. Its not coincidence that our TEs got most of the receptions with Gallup out.

Denim Chicken said:

Conner Williams is a problem

Click to expand...

Are you seriously going to sit here and criticize The Teflon Con? Don't you know he's only in his second year and once he has yet another off-season to put on weight and learn the game he'll be Zack Martin reincarnated? Shame on you!

Tell you what I saw last night. I saw a team who was not very well prepared to beat a very beatable New Orleans Saints Club. The Blue Print to beat NO is not really all that hard. They can't throw deep, they can't outscore you if you get them into a high scoring game. They can't win a game where you force them to throw the ball 35 times. Don't lose the turnover battle.

What the Saints did last night was put together a game plan to take away Zeke and make Dak beat you with the passing game. Take away what we like to do and make us adjust. In the first three games, we never really had to adjust anything. Last night, we had to do that to win and we didn't do it. I mean, if you really want to know what I think our biggest problem has been for a long time, it's exactly that. We have not been a team that is able to make adjustments on the fly and take advantage of what we see on the field. Last night, IMO, was another example of that play out. Can anybody honestly look at the Saints defense and say that it's dominating? I didn't see that. I don't believe our Offense, as a whole, played very well but Zeke certainly didn't have a great game and I don't believe it was all on the OL. Dak had a poor game IMO, he missed plays that could have won the game. Now, don't get me wrong, he made some nice throws last night but he missed some things and he made some poor throws as well. The biggest thing for Dak is that this was the exact kind of game that he could have put his stamp on and sealed the deal on. This is exactly the kind of game where, if you win it, everybody is on your joke and you are the greatest QB since ever. Now that he wasn't able to do that, it allows detractors to say "See, I told you so", and honestly, you really can't defend against that. Dak is what he is. He's a really good young QB but he's not the guy at this point who is going to win you that kind of game because he would have had to make some calls that identified the weakness and then he would have had to have successfully attacked those weaknesses. That's just the truth and you can't get around that.

I'm not Dak detractor so any of you guys who want to go try and paint that picture, go find another to try and wage that holy war. I'm just telling you what I saw last night. That game was very winnable but we would have had to adjust to what the Saints gave us and we again failed to do this. This is really the problem to me. We have to be better at that IMO. We lost by two points in a 12 to 10 game. That can't happen with the way we have invested in this Offense. It can't happen.

JMO