CFZ Answers to these questions will determine the Cowboys success this season

[john van brocklin]

At the beginning of each NFL regular season, optimism is usually high, especially for teams like the Cowboys who have a realistic shot at raising a Lombardi in February, 2024 if things play out as we hope.

Every team - even the best teams - have questions going into season, and the answers to those questions will ultimately determine a team’s results for that season.

Here are some of the key questions that seem most relevant to me for the Cowboys to have success this upcoming season:

• Will the Cowboys be able to produce a third straight 12 win (or more) season for the first time since the mid-90s?
• Will the Cowboys make the playoffs for the third straight year for the first time since the mid-90s?
• Will Mike McCarthy’s new offensive wrinkles be more or less effective than the Kellen Moore led offense?
• Will Dak reduce the number of interceptions from last year to this year?
• Will the offensive line be able to stay healthy enough to remain effective?
• Will Tyron Smith be able to stay healthy for at least 12 games for the first time since 2019? (If not, will there be enough depth in the OL to compensate for his loss?)
• Will the defense continue to be as good or better than the offense?
• Will Micah Parsons be as dominant or even more dominant than his first two seasons?
• Will the defense improve its ability to stop the run?
• Will new K Brandon Aubrey be a reliable and steady weapon for the entire season?
• Will Mazi Smith, Luke Schoonmaker, Deuce Vaughn, and the other young players on the roster develop into reliable players this season?
• Will this team remain relatively healthy?
• Will the Cowboys be able to give Trey Lance enough opportunities in practice and/or games to develop?
• Will this team be mentally tough enough to handle the adversity they will encounter?
• Will this team prove to be as physically tough (or tougher) than the other physical teams like SF and Philly?

There are probably a lot more questions. What are some q’s you have?

Wow, my heads hurting, lol

 

[Reid1boys]

Reid what happens in the playoffs if the defense plays terrible but Dak plays great? I’m not predicting either of those I’m just curious what you think happens to this team in that scenario?

well.... when my students go crazy with this tyoe of question I ask them, "What happens if the man from space comes down and takes you away." lol

What happens in your scenario??? Ive no idea. Do you mean do we win, or do we lose? Ive no clue.
Dak could play great and us still lose, but Dak can not play terrible and us win.
The defense could play poorly and we could still win.
Go bac to Daks 1st or 2nd year.. whatever it was, Dak played very well and we still lost to GB at AT&T. You can play well and still lose. Last year and the year before, Dak played like crap and we lost. If he would have been decent, we would have won both games.

 

[Rockport]

I think the trenches are always underrated. Sure QB and skill position play are critical too but looking at Joe Burrow and the bengals‘ SB run in 2021, they probably would have won that SB if they had a better OL.

You build from the trenches out.

 

[Bagman]

IMO, the thing that has road blocked this team in recent years from at least getting to an NFC championship game mostly comes down to one thing: we simply have not been as physical as SF and PHI. Hopefully that has changed.

Been saying this for a long time, we won't beat teams that are physically tougher than us. We need an infusion of junkyard dogs.

 

[Momanpr100]

IMO, the thing that has road blocked this team in recent years from at least getting to an NFC championship game mostly comes down to one thing: we simply have not been as physical as SF and PHI. Hopefully that has changed.

And that's something McCarthy been telling the Jones the last couple drafts. We need to be more physical. As we all know, playoff football you gotta be physical.

 

[Bobhaze]

well.... when my students go crazy with this tyoe of question I ask them, "What happens if the man from space comes down and takes you away." lol

What happens in your scenario??? Ive no idea. Do you mean do we win, or do we lose? Ive no clue.
Dak could play great and us still lose, but Dak can not play terrible and us win.
The defense could play poorly and we could still win.
Go bac to Daks 1st or 2nd year.. whatever it was, Dak played very well and we still lost to GB at AT&T. You can play well and still lose. Last year and the year before, Dak played like crap and we lost. If he would have been decent, we would have won both games.

Yeah I was just making the point that it takes a total team to win the playoffs. A QB can play great and they still lose if the defense doesn’t do it’s part.

Even Tom Brady had some bad games where his defense rescued him. In the Jan 2021 NFC championship games, Brady threw 3 pics but the buc defense bailed him out and they went on the win the SB when Brady had a great game. Again, point being, sometimes a defense can carry you and sometimes a QB can too. But if you’re going to win at least 3 playoff games, you can’t just have a great QB.

 

[ArtClink]

It helps to not have a QB gift the other team points, too.

Agreed. Romo and Dak both had their moments throwing winnable games away.

 

[ArtClink]

With the exception of adding Mazi ( who will struggle against great vets) who exactly have we added to the offensive and defensive lines that we should expect different results?

I never expect different results. We are still building castles made of sand on the flawed foundation of the Jones cartel. There hasn’t been significant, fundamental change to that Jones-build foundation in almost three decades. Lather, rinse, repeat and no Div playoff win.

I won’t believe it til I see it and I may not live long enough since there will be a Jones running every facet of the org into perpetuity.

 

[Reid1boys]

Yeah I was just making the point that it takes a total team to win the playoffs. A QB can play great and they still lose if the defense doesn’t do it’s part.

Even Tom Brady had some bad games where his defense rescued him. In the Jan 2021 NFC championship games, Brady threw 3 pics but the buc defense bailed him out and they went on the win the SB when Brady had a great game. Again, point being, sometimes a defense can carry you and sometimes a QB can too. But if you’re going to win at least 3 playoff games, you can’t just have a great QB.

really? Ask the Bills and the Bengals if that is the case about just having the great qb...lol

 

[bigE79]

Dak played very poorly in both of those games for sure. But losing is not all on him. In 2022 we couldn’t stop the run at all. The niners had 170 yards rushing in that game and pretty much told us going into that game that’s exactly what they were going to do…and they did it. We got physically manhandled in that game.

We were better against the run last year in the game at SF but they still averaged 5 yards per play while being led by a rookie QB. We had chances to stop them in critical moments in that game and we just didn’t do it.

I‘m not defending Dak at all. He was not good. But we lost both of those SF games because of more than our QB’s play.

I agree,that's why I stated daks dumb plays and the inability to stop the run

 

[ArtClink]

really? Ask the Bills and the Bengals if that is the case about just having the great qb...lol

We should show some respect to the teams like the Bills and Bengals who can actually reach a Conf championship game.

 

[ArtClink]

I agree,that's why I stated daks dumb plays and the inability to stop the run

Romo played dumb too if you remember your Cowboys history.

 

[MoistMayonnaise]

If there are that many questions.....

 

[Reid1boys]

We should show some respect to the teams like the Bills and Bengals who can actually reach a Conf championship game.

im not talking about either of them.... pay attention....lol

 

[ArtClink]

im not talking about either of them.... pay attention....lol

Indeed lol!

 

[Captain-Crash]

let's keep bringing up Romo like he's still playing and hurting our feelings

 

[Cebrin]

My main concern is health. The injury bug has been the downfall here for years, and depth. We rarely have depth, so health is key.

 

[GoCowboysGo]

I think the trenches are always underrated. Sure QB and skill position play are critical too but looking at Joe Burrow and the bengals‘ SB run in 2021, they probably would have won that SB if they had a better OL.

This. To me, for every team, it’s all about the trenches and equal threats from receivers and runners.

Two years ago did Mahomies suddenly become a bad player because (they not he) didn’t win the SB? No, their Oline was in pretty bad shape. Same happened to Aikman after 1997.

What worries me about this edition of the Cowboys is whether or not they can absorb any injuries, and whether or not opposing defenses will worry at all about the running game.

 

[Wangchung83]

Dak played very poorly in both of those games for sure. But losing is not all on him. In 2022 we couldn’t stop the run at all. The niners had 170 yards rushing in that game and pretty much told us going into that game that’s exactly what they were going to do…and they did it. We got physically manhandled in that game.

We were better against the run last year in the game at SF but they still averaged 5 yards per play while being led by a rookie QB. We had chances to stop them in critical moments in that game and we just didn’t do it.

I‘m not defending Dak at all. He was not good. But we lost both of those SF games because of more than our QB’s play.

19 pts is another stat of that game, our QB didn’t help that as thre interceptions inside red zone. That defense was worn out by 4th quarter bc they were in the field the whole game(our offense had a lot of 3 and outs no one talks about). Most defenses would’ve given up 28 in those circumstances and if we can’t score 20 pt you usually aren’t winning a game. Not hating those are just the facts of that game.

 

[eromeopolk]

At the beginning of each NFL regular season, optimism is usually high, especially for teams like the Cowboys who have a realistic shot at raising a Lombardi in February, 2024 if things play out as we hope.

Every team - even the best teams - have questions going into season, and the answers to those questions will ultimately determine a team’s results for that season.

Here are some of the key questions that seem most relevant to me for the Cowboys to have success this upcoming season:

• Will the Cowboys be able to produce a third straight 12 win (or more) season for the first time since the mid-90s?
• Will the Cowboys make the playoffs for the third straight year for the first time since the mid-90s?
• Will Mike McCarthy’s new offensive wrinkles be more or less effective than the Kellen Moore led offense?
• Will Dak reduce the number of interceptions from last year to this year?
• Will the offensive line be able to stay healthy enough to remain effective?
• Will Tyron Smith be able to stay healthy for at least 12 games for the first time since 2019? (If not, will there be enough depth in the OL to compensate for his loss?)
• Will the defense continue to be as good or better than the offense?
• Will Micah Parsons be as dominant or even more dominant than his first two seasons?
• Will the defense improve its ability to stop the run?
• Will new K Brandon Aubrey be a reliable and steady weapon for the entire season?
• Will Mazi Smith, Luke Schoonmaker, Deuce Vaughn, and the other young players on the roster develop into reliable players this season?
• Will this team remain relatively healthy?
• Will the Cowboys be able to give Trey Lance enough opportunities in practice and/or games to develop?
• Will this team be mentally tough enough to handle the adversity they will encounter?
• Will this team prove to be as physically tough (or tougher) than the other physical teams like SF and Philly?

There are probably a lot more questions. What are some q’s you have?

Too many questions. Run to win, pass to score, and defense wins championships. Win 2 of 3 phases of football game Offense, defense, and special teams and your team will win a game. Score at least one more point than your opponent. Do this and you will win championships. These are the answers to any football question.