Are The Cowboys The Slowest Offense In The NFL?

[NeonDeion21]

The Cowboys were in fact, the slowest offense in the entire NFL in 2013. The Cowboys ran only 957 plays on offense last year, the fewest in the league. That’s the fewest amount of plays run for the Cowboys since 2002. For comparison sake, the Denver Broncos led the league in terms of total plays run, and had a total of 199 more plays than the Cowboys did. That means Denver averaged more than 12 plays than Dallas per game, and that translates to at least two more drives per game (the average drive in 2013 consisted of 5.6 plays.)

So let’s do some simple math without getting too nerdy. The Cowboys averaged nearly 60 plays per game in 2013. And per 60 plays, the Cowboys averaged 27.4 points per game. That means Dallas averaged .457 points per play. With me so far? Good.

If Dallas would have sped up their offense to add another 193 plays to be similar to Denver, that means Dallas would’ve averaged an extra 12 plays per game. So let’s say we are now at 72 plays a game (60 original plays + the 12 that we added) and we multiple the same .457 points per play. Dallas would’ve averaged 32.9 points a game per 72 offensive plays a game. Phew. Got all that? Those 32.9 points per game would’ve been more than 5 points better than anyone else in the league except Denver.

Read the rest at: http://cover32.com/cowboys/?p=3767

 

[Venger]

Note sure you can just "add another 193 plays" unless the NFL agrees to provide the Cowboys with Fifth Down...

 

[Zordon]

Somebody send this to the trainee. I've been begging for a faster offense for 3 years now.

 

[65fastback2plus2]

and then we could add 2 more series for our lousy defense to be getting blown up on the field and still lose the same amount of games.

 

[jazzcat22]

Did you listen to Norm Hitzges this morning. He was talking about the offense and such. But I'll start a threead about what he siad, as it will be more on the positive side than this one. LOL
You can look back on any team and apply any stats, and make it seem the way you want. More plays doesn't mean more scoring.

 

[MWH1967]

well, Tony does run the clock down to the last sec alot of times, but if we had any kind of 'D" that could actually get off the field. Then we could run a few more plays a game.

 

[Picksix]

Somebody send this to the trainee. I've been begging for a faster offense for 3 years now.

I see it as a double-edge sword. Speeding up the offense would hopefully lead to more points, but it also puts the defense on the field more. As bad as our defense has been, you don't want that.

 

[Nova]

Uhh... what?

Speed of plays called/executed would be figured out like this...

Total Time of Possession / Total Plays

Not how many plays you executed per game. That greatly hinges on how long the defense is on the field and how productive you are with the ball.

 

[Setackin]

Goes back to the D not being able to get off the field... offense isnt slow the D sux.

 

[Afigueroa22]

Romo has stated before that he likes to run the clock down so the defense jumps into it's shell. The man put up 31 TD's, hard to argue with what works for him. Although he does seemingly well when running the hurry up.

 

[NeonDeion21]

Uhh... what?

Speed of plays called/executed would be figured out like this...

Total Time of Possession / Total Plays

Not how many plays you executed per game. That greatly hinges on how long the defense is on the field and how productive you are with the ball.

That's actually the formula for Tempo. I'd argue that there is a difference.

 

[DFWJC]

Not sure you can just "add another 193 plays" unless the NFL agrees to provide the Cowboys with Fifth Down...

That's right.

This is not a 2+2 thing at all.

 

[conner01]

speed of the offense does'nt mean more plays. just less time of pocession. converting 3rd downs means more plays. we had a bad year at converting 3rd downs. everytime you fail to convert a 3rd down thats atleast 3 more plays. that leads to more scoring and better time of pocession. a fast offense has advantages but the number of plays you run in a given year is more about converting 3rd downs than the speed you run plays. if you go 3 and out it really does'nt matter if you did it fast or slow in most cases with the exception of protecting a lead

 

[Nova]

That's actually the formula for Tempo. I'd argue that there is a difference.

How exactly?

I mean, obviously you could say that "speed" correlates to actual on the field speed for our players.

But the article seemed to be referring to tempo/pace.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

I don't understand our offense's "slowness." If in fact it be slow, I wonder if Garrett's and others' on the sidelines indecision half something to do with it.
And, again, if in fact we be slow, that would seem to give the defense more time to adjust. And that would be bad.

I half always wanted the Cowboys to again use "the hitch" on the line but maybe this would slow it down even more.

Interesting post.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Goes back to the D not being able to get off the field... offense isnt slow the D sux.

This. There's no doubt that we run the play clock down on just about every offensive snap, however, the fact that our defense couldn't get off the field also contributed mightily to our running so few offfesive plays. The bottom line is the fact that we ran the fewest offensive plays in the league doesn't necessarily mean our offense is THAT slow. They just didn't get a chance to run as many plays as some of the better teams in the league.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I believe that the Cowboys should try and speed up the offense, but it's a stretch to think that more plays would mean more points.

And using plays to determine the pace of the offense is faulty. If your defense can't get off the field, then you're going to have fewer plays ran.

I would look to FO.com to see the average time they ran off the playclock to determine the speed of the offense.




YR

 

[TheDude]

Did you listen to Norm Hitzges this morning. He was talking about the offense and such. But I'll start a threead about what he siad, as it will be more on the positive side than this one. LOL
You can look back on any team and apply any stats, and make it seem the way you want. More plays doesn't mean more scoring.

BUt it almost certainly doesnt mean less

 

[noshame]

Run the ball and you won't have as many 3 and outs. Also you might use a wee bit more time.

 

[gimmesix]

Uhh... what?

Speed of plays called/executed would be figured out like this...

Total Time of Possession / Total Plays

Not how many plays you executed per game. That greatly hinges on how long the defense is on the field and how productive you are with the ball.

That's where the data got skewed. If the defense can't stop anyone, then the offense has fewer possessions and if the offense doesn't strike gold on some of those fewer possessions, the defense is back on the field not stopping anyone.

Forgot what game it was (Kansas City, I think) where long drives against the defense gave the offense very few shots at doing anything. Then the offense failed to do anything with most of those shots, leading to more long drives against the defense.