Big picture improvement on offense

[Bobhaze]

so it is a coaching issue.
Thats why I keep saying coaching matters. MM is not very good, and overall the coaching is why they have so many penaltys too.
They cant adjust very well and they dont put the players in a position to succeed.

Against bad teams, dallas can do good, look good, stack up the stats, which inflates player egos and gets fans excited.
Then they play SF, and are overconfident and unprepared for a tough game which you see how those turned out.

Dallas isnt fixing the run game this year.

If dak has 3 seconds to throw the ball, receivers will run 4 second routes lol

op is saying dallas doesnt respond well to being punched in the mouth, well what has changed to prevent that from happening this season?
answer is nothing has changed, and any changes are going to hurt the team more than help.

The Cowboys front office uses “miracles can happen” thinking every off-season. They come out and tell the fan base at every opportunity how confident they are that the people they have hired, drafted and signed will be great. Despite any evidence of strategic planning on how to improve.

They expect to be better because they say they are better. It’s magical thinking rather than actual roster work.

 

[Coogiguy03]

Didnt like giving you ANOTHER like, but you hit it right on. Am offense cant punch back with a sissy soft ground game.

no hard feelings!!

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

no hard feelings!!

 

[CCBoy]

Going into the 2024 season, it’s pretty obvious what the positional needs are for this team: OL, LB, RB, DL. But in this thread I would rather look at what the “big picture” needs are on offense. Teams (not individuals) win championships and on both sides of the ball, what that team is able to accomplish collectively is always more important than individually. Yes you need individual talent of course, but it’s what that talent does as a whole that makes it a great team.

IMPROVING THE OFFENSE
I think this offense needs more than some positional upgrades. I have major concerns about the scheme and its ability to adjust to unfavorable situations or matchups. It collectively does not seem to have the flexibility to win in multiple situations, nor does it seem capable when asked to carry the team in a game where the defense fails.

Heres what I mean:

• If the defense forces multiple turnovers and the team takes an early lead, the offense comes to life and can usually score as needed.
• But if the defense fails early as we saw in the GB playoff game or the SF, Ariz, and Buffalo losses last year, the offense seems limited In its ability to lead a rally. The lone exception I can remember from last year was the Seattle game in which the offense carried the team.

So in other words, this offense has lots of individual talent but collectively they have been most effective only when things are going well for the defense. If the offense gets mouth punched early by an equal or superior opponent, it seems less capable of counterpunching.

When looking improving our offense from a big picture, it must be able to impose its will when the defense cannot. When playing the best teams in the league, especially the playoffs, if the defense gets punched in the mouth early, the offense must be able to counterpunch immediately. That usually requires a really good running game. I‘m not convinced the “Texas Coast” offense is capable of that. I guess we will see soon enough.

It's not...

 

[CCBoy]

They make it sound so easy. Dak played great under center when Zeke was a stud. Pollard was a part time back and we could not pound and ground with anyone on the roster last year. As far as our offense, weren't we one of the top units in the NFL last year?
Sure, we play better when our defense played well, who the heck doesn't. Just throwing the same old darts at the same old dart board and getting fans riled up for a long day of venting.

Run down their throats and blow it open with passing...

 

[75boyz]

so it is a coaching issue.
Thats why I keep saying coaching matters. MM is not very good, and overall the coaching is why they have so many penaltys too.
They cant adjust very well and they dont put the players in a position to succeed.

Against bad teams, dallas can do good, look good, stack up the stats, which inflates player egos and gets fans excited.
Then they play SF, and are overconfident and unprepared for a tough game which you see how those turned out.

Dallas isnt fixing the run game this year.

If dak has 3 seconds to throw the ball, receivers will run 4 second routes lol

op is saying dallas doesnt respond well to being punched in the mouth, well what has changed to prevent that from happening this season?
answer is nothing has changed, and any changes are going to hurt the team more than help.

Spot on.
This is a HUGE part of it.

I know Bob said not to break it down into individual faults with this OP but once again if the coaching and quarterbacking were better the results would be drastically better.

I'll go back into my time out corner now, lol

jmo

 

[charron]

It's bigger than just an OL or RB problem. They've had top 5 OL, top 5 RB, with other good weapons with the same results. The excuse changes but results stays the same, and it's because the main issue hasn't changed.

 

[Blast From The Past]

If any OL is ineffective, how can any QB play under C or in shotgun as well?

Other than a few elite QB's, but they are more successful anyway in the shotgun.

Worked out for Roger just fine when Landry brought out of mothball the shotgun.

 

[Established1971]

Our run game isn’t effective not only because of our Oline, but the fact that Dak can’t play under Center…..

I never thought of that

 

[GMO415]

Going into the 2024 season, it’s pretty obvious what the positional needs are for this team: OL, LB, RB, DL. But in this thread I would rather look at what the “big picture” needs are on offense. Teams (not individuals) win championships and on both sides of the ball, what that team is able to accomplish collectively is always more important than individually. Yes you need individual talent of course, but it’s what that talent does as a whole that makes it a great team.

IMPROVING THE OFFENSE
I think this offense needs more than some positional upgrades. I have major concerns about the scheme and its ability to adjust to unfavorable situations or matchups. It collectively does not seem to have the flexibility to win in multiple situations, nor does it seem capable when asked to carry the team in a game where the defense fails.

Heres what I mean:

• If the defense forces multiple turnovers and the team takes an early lead, the offense comes to life and can usually score as needed.
• But if the defense fails early as we saw in the GB playoff game or the SF, Ariz, and Buffalo losses last year, the offense seems limited In its ability to lead a rally. The lone exception I can remember from last year was the Seattle game in which the offense carried the team.

So in other words, this offense has lots of individual talent but collectively they have been most effective only when things are going well for the defense. If the offense gets mouth punched early by an equal or superior opponent, it seems less capable of counterpunching.

When looking improving our offense from a big picture, it must be able to impose its will when the defense cannot. When playing the best teams in the league, especially the playoffs, if the defense gets punched in the mouth early, the offense must be able to counterpunch immediately. That usually requires a really good running game. I‘m not convinced the “Texas Coast” offense is capable of that. I guess we will see soon enough.

Bullet, we need to stop the run and be able to run the ball. This is the reason why DAL hasn't won a SB in over 29 years. Until this changes, things will remain the same.

 

[Desperado]

Get all the players and scheme right, and you still have a culture issue. When this Offense gets popped in the mouth, they fold. No spine (collectively). They just are not good at overcoming adversity, it seems. You see them deflate on the sidelines.

 

[nalam]

When I watch some of the “modern” offensive schemes like the ones run in SF, Det, Mia, and the LA rams, people seem to get open or in positions of success as much through scheme as individual effort. Here it seems like way too much depends on the individual.

OL success is not only by players but scheme as well , Mark Solari scheme is probably old or too complex to succeed in todays NFL. I can’t believe we can regress from Philbin ( remember we wanted to run him out of the building) but it happened. Also run blocking needs younger OL maulers , fresh blood will help.

 

[nalam]

Get all the players and scheme right, and you still have a culture issue. When this Offense gets popped in the mouth, they fold. No spine (collectively). They just are not good at overcoming adversity, it seems. You see them deflate on the sidelines.

That is what finesse offense and pouting players ( or deer in the lights ) players gives you, physical teams grunt and get it to the other side by playing smash mouth back , but Dak CD etc are not off that mould.

 

[Shannon1]

Our run game isn’t effective not only because of our Oline, but the fact that Dak can’t play under Center…..

He did his first year ,watch the games that’s why are running game was better,Zeke ran better when qb was under center

 

[Shannon1]

It’s about the oc ,Moore liked running everything from shot gun

 

[75boyz]

OL success is not only by players but scheme as well , Mark Solari scheme is probably old or too complex to succeed in todays NFL. I can’t believe we can regress from Philbin ( remember we wanted to run him out of the building) but it happened. Also run blocking needs younger OL maulers , fresh blood will help.

Double like bro.
Totally agree.

 

[Bobhaze]

The offense also needs to get more physical. Teams like SF and Buffalo just beat us up physically and the Cowboys last year did not have an answer. The OL was not particularly physical, Tony Pollard was a finesse runner and Rico Dowdle was not exactly a power back.

In other words, it was obvious last year that teams with a physical defense could just punish the Cowboys offense and there was no physical counterpunch to be found.

 

[doomsday9084]

IMO the issue with the offense can be boiled down to the run scheme. The whole thing. The blocking scheme, the play design, etc.

Given that its the same coaches coming back, I have no thought that it will be better next year regardless of what happens with the personnel.

I'll go into specifics. The most frequent run play was that draw out of the gun. In it, offensive linemen pulled. Pollard usually had to wait for the o linemen to get around and the defense sniffed it out as the play was developing. Even worse, the team frequently left defenders unblocked on the weakside. When defenders read it quick, they just went right at Pollard forcing him to dodge defenders in the backfield before the play even got going.

It would be one thing if they tried that play a few times and gave up on it. Nope. This was the staple of the run game from beginning to end. Remember, its the definition of insanity to keep doing the same thing and expect different results.

 

[NDGAEDE]

Gonna be tough to improve the running game starting a rookie (or two) on the OL and at RB. We are prospectively relying on guys who've never played a single down in the NFL to make us better.

A lot of our success last year was thru the pass, obviously. Losing Gallup was a plus by subtraction, but we need to replace him with someone better than Tolbert. If we didnt need an OT so desperately, we could get that reinforcement in the first round. But again, prospectively relying on a rookie to help us improve.

What else will help us beyond an amazing draft class? I never got the sense that scheme was a big differentiator, and thats not changing. Dak seemed to make something out nothing so frequently.

 

[glimmerman]

We need a few solid O-Line players and a descent set of RBs. We need some bigger improvements on Defense. We need LBs and now DTs. We lost gilmore and Hankins. Diggs is coming back from injury and Overshawn is also along with Overshawn not playing in a real game yet. There injuries are not conducive to being 100%.. We need a majorly big draft. And some luck.