81* Second Half Yards

[Hoofbite]

How?

Well, actually to clarify it's not even 81 which is why I put the asterisk in there.

The racked up 30 yards through 29:24 of play in the 2nd half and then tallied a bunch of worthless garbage yards during a time when they should have just taken a knee and saved face.

So 30 yards is all they could really muster after halftime.

Simply unacceptable.

The offense as I have said numerous times is boom or bust. There is no consistent grinding and moving the ball with each possession. It's either banging on all cylinders or it's not even turning over.

Just look at today. After the defense holds to the FG that was given to them by Felix, offense rolls out a nice fat 3 & Out leading to the blocked punt.

Next possession, things start to move a bit and then the INT.

Following possession, holy hell we have a long drive.

From that point on they punted, only gaining like 2-3 first downs, IIRC.

All told, from the 11:00 mark in the 2nd quarter Dallas pulled in a whopping 82 yards of offense before getting the garbage yards in the last 40 seconds.

It's almost unreal that they could be that horrid.

 

[Tabascocat]

Garrett seems to have no feel for the game in progress. He may write up an excellent gameplan, but once the ball is kicked, he is shaky (at best) adjusting to the opponents defense.

My gripe is what took place at the end of the half. It came down to 4th and I think 3 or 4 in their territory (with improper clock management). We had a chance to make a statement saying "we are here and will win" by going for it and possibly going into the locker room up 14-13. Even if we failed to convert, there "should" have not been enough time for them to drive 35 yds for a last second FG.

That whole last series in the first half was an image of the whole game, no drive or passion to put forth a winning effort. That moment there I knew we were in trouble, the fight was gone.

 

[Deep_Freeze]

Well the offense was pretty out of sorts today, but credit should also be given to the environment they were playing in and especially the Seattle D.

Seattle is a team that is built to maintain and keep leads with a great secondary and good running game. If we had jumped out to a lead on Seattle and forced them to have to comeback, this is a totally different game (which is also why we wanted the ball first....fail).

Our early mistakes and the hole we dug, put us in our grave. We played into exactly what the Seahawks wanted by getting down early, getting the crowd excited, having to throw the ball against one of the best secondaries in the league, and letting them just run the ball down our throats.

We played right into their hands, and thats really the reason for the loopsided defeat.

 

[Cowboys&LakersFan]

Well that's what happens when you have a high school caliber offensive line and receivers who can't catch a flu.

 

[kramskoi]

How?

Well, actually to clarify it's not even 81 which is why I put the asterisk in there.

The racked up 30 yards through 29:24 of play in the 2nd half and then tallied a bunch of worthless garbage yards during a time when they should have just taken a knee and saved face.

So 30 yards is all they could really muster after halftime.

Simply unacceptable.

The offense as I have said numerous times is boom or bust. There is no consistent grinding and moving the ball with each possession. It's either banging on all cylinders or it's not even turning over.

Just look at today. After the defense holds to the FG that was given to them by Felix, offense rolls out a nice fat 3 & Out leading to the blocked punt.

Next possession, things start to move a bit and then the INT.

Following possession, holy hell we have a long drive.

From that point on they punted, only gaining like 2-3 first downs, IIRC.

All told, from the 11:00 mark in the 2nd quarter Dallas pulled in a whopping 82 yards of offense before getting the garbage yards in the last 40 seconds.

It's almost unreal that they could be that horrid.

For my money. there were too many times when things were upside down that Garrett was content to hide behind his play card and pretend Rome was'nt burning around him. A pitiful performance and one that proves that the Cowboys are still having trouble stacking "good days" together. Eleven days is a rather long time to prepare for an opponent but what they turned in today was more a result of cramming for a college final while on crack. Putrid, acrimonious, deplorable, fecal and any other host of adjectives might not adequately capture the foul stink that surely followed them back to Dallas. How much of it they can wash off before next week is a bet I would'nt make with someone else's money.

 

[Future]

All three units failed today. The only common factor is the head coach.

 

[ConstantReboot]

Well the offense was pretty out of sorts today, but credit should also be given to the environment they were playing in and especially the Seattle D.

Seattle is a team that is built to maintain and keep leads with a great secondary and good running game. If we had jumped out to a lead on Seattle and forced them to have to comeback, this is a totally different game (which is also why we wanted the ball first....fail).

Our early mistakes and the hole we dug, put us in our grave. We played into exactly what the Seahawks wanted by getting down early, getting the crowd excited, having to throw the ball against one of the best secondaries in the league, and letting them just run the ball down our throats.

We played right into their hands, and thats really the reason for the loopsided defeat.

Yes I felt that same way too. Opportunity knocks only once in the NFL and I think that Garrett wasted a golden opportunity there to score some points. Even though they failed at least show the effort like they wanted to win.

Not calling timeout was bad on a crucial 3rd down. That to me was a telling sign Garrett doesn't have a feel and seems too carried away with other things on his mind. He needs to let someone else call the plays so that he can focus on making this team focus on whats important: winning. So far, he failed.

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

I'm giving a lot of the credit to Seattle. Those two early turnovers and scores really played right into their hands on defense and they stayed patient with their plan on offense. They physically put in on the Cowboys in the second half.

 

[Hoofbite]

Garrett seems to have no feel for the game in progress. He may write up an excellent gameplan, but once the ball is kicked, he is shaky (at best) adjusting to the opponents defense.

My gripe is what took place at the end of the half. It came down to 4th and I think 3 or 4 in their territory (with improper clock management). We had a chance to make a statement saying "we are here and will win" by going for it and possibly going into the locker room up 14-13. Even if we failed to convert, there "should" have not been enough time for them to drive 35 yds for a last second FG.

That whole last series in the first half was an image of the whole game, no drive or passion to put forth a winning effort. That moment there I knew we were in trouble, the fight was gone.

I'm wanting to go back and look at that sequence again because I was wondering what the hell was going on myself.

I've checked the box score and there was less time than I had thought, pissing me off more than I was initially.

So it was 3rd and 3 at the Seattle 40. Seattle had 2 timeouts, Dallas had 3.

Dallas passes the ball incomplete and then promptly punts.

0:51 seconds left when the ball was snapped.



I fully believe Dallas should have ran here.

1) If you get the first down, you burn a timeout. Best case scenario. Couldn't ask for anything more.

2) If you don't get the first down but get some positive yards, you can reassess.

2a) Short distance to go: If Seattle calls a timeout, you're essentially in a slightly better position than if you had passed and had an incompletion. Seattle still has the same time but they've burned a timeout. You could punt if you like and you're much better off than simply punting to them with 2 timeouts, or you can go for it and they'll have 42-43 seconds maybe to get within FG range if you fail. Keep in mind, the defense held them to 96 yards in the first half.

2b) Roughly same distance. You've just ran the ball so the clock is moving. Why not eat the clock down a few seconds, maybe put it into the 15 second range and then call a timeout? You're left with 15 seconds, 4th and 3 and you can go for it without really worrying that Seattle is going to pick up the 30 yards that they would need in order to try a long FG.

If you get the first down, you have 10 seconds and 1 timeout after stopping the clock on the first down play. You can easily take a shot if you like or your can sure up the FG attempt and go into the half feeling good about putting some points on the board.​

IMO, this was a missed opportunity by Dallas. Running the ball either gets them the first down or puts them in a position to control the clock and determine if they want to take another stab, leaving the Seahawks with squat for time should they fail again on 4th down.

I find it interesting that Garrett would have faith in the defense to get an immediate 3 & Out in order to give the offense one last shot with the ball, although he was likely just hoping to get Dez a return, but he didn't have enough faith in the defense to prevent the Seahawks from gaining 30 or so yards for an attempt at a long FG with very limited time.

This is where OTJ training can't happen. 3 points to close the half would have been a good finish to a rather rotten first half. Instead, they went in at half time and basically decided to pack it up and go home.

 

[Lonestar94]

Well the offense was only on the field for like 5 minutes in the second half.

 

[VThokie7]

Well the offense was only on the field for like 5 minutes in the second half.

Are you using that as a defense for the offense? Because if they were actually able to get a first down and sustain a drive for more than 3 plays they could've kept the ball longer.

 

[links18]

Boom or Bust with this offense. Its been like that for 5 years. Yesterday was a total bust. We will win our share of games under Garrett, but we will also lose in miserable fashion more than a few times also.

 

[Lonestar94]

Are you using that as a defense for the offense? Because if they were actually able to get a first down and sustain a drive for more than 3 plays they could've kept the ball longer.

Yes I am, got a problem? Seahawks did a good job of it.

 

[CyberB0b]

Why do you still have a pic of Carr in a Chiefs jersey? Surely, there is a new pic you can find.

Here:

 

[Hoofbite]

Why do you still have a pic of Carr in a Chiefs jersey? Surely, there is a new pic you can find.

Here:

Because I don't care what is in my signature line.

I'd likely just have it blank but it makes it hard to find old posts that I have written.

 

[Future]

Well the offense was only on the field for like 5 minutes in the second half.

That's what will happen when you only hand the ball off 3 times.

 

[AdamJT13]

How?

Only four possessions, none of them very good, and the fourth one didn't come until there were 36 seconds left in the game.

The Seahawks had the ball first, then we got it, picked up one first down and punted. The Seahawks then drove 90 yards for a touchdown.

We got the ball back, picked up a couple of first downs, then had the pass for negative yards and Smith's false start to put us in second-and-20 and had to punt again with less than a minute left in the third quarter. The Seahawks then drove 88 yards for a touchdown.

We got the ball with less than eight minutes left, went three-and-out, and the Seahawks had another long drive that ate up almost seven minutes.

The offense couldn't sustain the few possessions it had, and the defense couldn't stop the Seahawks from using up the clock and marching down the field.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Defensively, three things stood out in my mind.

1. We really lost a great deal when we lost our starting DEs.

2. As has been the case for years IMO, when we play teams that are strong at DT, we get handled up front.

3. This is the first time, I believe, that our WRs have played a team that is physical in the secondary.

I watched them and none of our WRs looked like they understood how to deal with that aspect of the game. Dez is used to physically dominate whomever he is lined up across from. Yesterday, he couldn't do that and it wasn't just Dez. All our WRs seemed to suffer from this. This is why it is so important to to be able to run good routes. A team like Seattle, IMO, is vulnerable to that kind of passing game. A game where you try to out physical them in the secondary, they are going to win every time.

 

[rwalters31]

Well that's what happens when you have a high school caliber offensive line and receivers who can't catch a flu.

Sad, but true. Well said.