Are The Cowboys The Slowest Offense In The NFL?

[Sydla]

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.

Bingo

 

[slick325]

Besides running the ball more, I can honestly say that my dislike for the tempo of the offense has been a major gripe of mine for some time...they only seem to operate at a high tempo when they are behind. Hopefully that changes this season. I think it would put a lot more pressure on defenses and with this OL, it should be successful.

 

[Craig]

Who would have thought the team withthe worst defense in the league would also have the offense that ran the fewest plays? Its almost like there would be a correlation between them.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

So we purposely go slow to protect our defense, but we refuse to run the ball to do so?

Makes sense.

 

[BigStar]

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.

This. The playcalls aren't always in on time. Relaying it through 12 people before the QB could do that I guess Romo is frequently seen doing the "quick winding motion" towards the sideline to get him the play. Many times it seems he gave up and went with his own call.

 

[mrmojo]

I wonder who the slowest offense is of all-time? My vote is for either the 1990 Giants or 92 Cowboys. These teams dominated the time of possession. The 3rd qtr of the Giant SB win in for the 1990 season and the 3rd qtr of the Cowboys 92 championship win at Candlestick were probably the greatest uses of the time clock i have ever seen.

 

[BlindFaith]

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

Our defense actually was under the NFL average for number of drives against per game. (184) This ranks them at 14th best. They were 27th in total plays (1116.88) They were 29th in plays per drive. They were 21st in Time of Possession per drive. 30th in Points per Drive.

Our offense was 6th in number of drives per game. (177) They were the worst team in the NFL in number of plays (980.58). They were 21st in in plays per drive. 15th highest in Time of Possession per drive.

So our offense had the 6th highest number of drives, but yet managed to only produce the LEAST number of plays in the NFL. Now they were 4th in points per drive which means they scored quickly, but it means that they put a lot of pressure on the defense, a defense that we all know should not have had that much pressure put on it. This comes down to coaching.

They needed to slow the game down on offense and run more plays to keep the defense off the field more.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

Someone call Kenny Stabler to Valley Ranch and let him teach the offense the 2-minute drill!

 

[lostar2009]

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

Well if you pass the ball all the time it will short your time of possession, if your offense isn't proficient. Dallas could have ran the ball 7 more times a game and that would have given us 112 more plays. Think about it, pass,pass,pass chains don't move but time stop. You turn it over to our last rank defense and the opposing team can do pretty much anything to you. Get the ball back down by 14, pass,pass,pass. The cycles continues, now we are in the 3rd quarter and Romo feel as if he has to do everything and now the pics are coming. Game over

 

[yentl911]

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

This is it. Try to give the D a breather and keep the other teams O on the bench.

 

[Risen Star]

I thought this was about team speed. Which is one legitimate knock you can hang on this offense. There isn't a burner among them.

 

[casmith07]

The offense is not a problem. I don't mind the slower pace, because we still score points.

Still, we have the weapons and the talent on this team to dictate the pace of the game. We should be lining up and just running plays, whipping the defense into submission. I'm all for speeding up the offense a little bit. A slower offense is something that I, in my mind, equate more with a run-first, play-action-passing offense. We are not that kind of offense. We need to speed it up like Denver, New England, or New Orleans.

 

[ufcrules1]

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

It was a lot faster when Orton ran it that last game of the season. At least it appeared that way. Maybe some stat nerd can tell us?

 

[Setackin]

When u have legitimately 6/11 ppl on offense potentially probowlers next year the offense isnt the problem... 1smith 2 fredricks 3 romo 4 dez 5 witten 6 murray. And even a case can be made for 1 or 2 others free and t-will. (And yes I understand its stretching it with those 2.)

 

[casmith07]

It was a lot faster when Orton ran it that last game of the season. At least it appeared that way. Maybe some stat nerd can tell us?

My guess is that Orton doesn't have the know-how or the reps to make the reads and adjustments that Romo does. Therefore, we saw an offense that was dumbed down to a handful of the same plays out of different formations.

 

[ufcrules1]

My guess is that Orton doesn't have the know-how or the reps to make the reads and adjustments that Romo does. Therefore, we saw an offense that was dumbed down to a handful of the same plays out of different formations.

I thought the offense looked great and he apparently had some success too. Threw for over 350 yards, got the defense to jump 3 times, etc. That isn't bad for a guy who has started since 2011. I thought the offense ran very smoothly that night.

 

[casmith07]

I thought the offense looked great and he apparently had some success too. Threw for over 350 yards, got the defense to jump 3 times, etc. That isn't bad for a guy who has started since 2011. I thought the offense ran very smoothly that night.

It did. We had a very solid game plan for that game, and we also were playing for our playoff lives. I liked the way the offense and defense rose to the occasion. It just wasn't enough at the end with the INT.

Hopefully Linehan has more balanced game plans with this talent on offense. I think Jason Garrett finally has assistants in place that he can trust so he can focus more on the overall management role instead of having his hands in all the jars (especially the offensive jar).

I'm pretty excited to see it in the preseason. And I hope we got rid of Bill Callahan's idiotic pistol formation.

 

[5Stars]

I thought the offense looked great and he apparently had some success too. Threw for over 350 yards, got the defense to jump 3 times, etc. That isn't bad for a guy who has started since 2011. I thought the offense ran very smoothly that night.

Yet, no mention of the INT that he threw at the end, right? In your hatred for Romo, he is the only one that does that.

 

[CyberB0b]

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

It's a process.

 

[burmafrd]

Yet, no mention of the INT that he threw at the end, right? In your hatred for Romo, he is the only one that does that.

if he was ever forced to admit Romo is a top QB, he would have to kill himself. No way he could live with that shame....