CFZ Can they successfully run the football again?

[Cowboyny]

Last year was a tale of two offenses, one prior to Dak's injury to his calf and the other after the Denver blowout loss. Elite offense to more of a middle of the pack one.

We have discussed this in the past numerous times, teams started taking away the big passing plays and forced the Cowboys to run the football, take the underneath passes and drive the entire field. Several issues happened:

-They just couldn't run the football, even in light boxes. We can point to injuries to both the OL and the RB position, Zeke probably should of been playing more of a limited role as he clearly was hurting the team more then helping it.

-When they did have success on the ground, they just couldn't avoid the big penalty. Penalties were drive killers throughout the 2nd half of the season, in which they led the league.

-Most QB's would struggle moving the chains with consistent 3rd and longs. Add in Dak was reluctant to use his legs, defending this offense became much easier.

-Finally, when drives stalled, they had a very inconsistent place kicker, who missed managable FG's throughout the season, even struggled with extra points.

Have success on the ground and play more clean football will force defenses to get out of that so called shell, coverage defense. Question is, have they done enough to fix this #1 problem area?

-Connor Williams who led the league in penalties is now playing in Miami. However, they are replacing him with Tyler Smith who was a flag machine on the college level. Yes, many of his flags were over aggression, but he still must improve.

-Their TE's must do a better job blocking inline and in space. Not much turnover, but the loss of Jarwin certainly helps as he was more of a big receiver. Ferguson, McKeon and Sprinkle need to help in this area.

-Kellen Moore must be more like his predecessor and stick with the run game to keep teams honest. If you make a team one dimensional, much easier to defend.

-Even if risky, Dak has to threaten teams with his legs. He came into this league as a dual threat QB, he must bring that aspect back to the field.

 

[Hardline]

They better figure out how to run the ball. They aren't going to consistently win through the air.

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

So, Tyler Smith must improve on reducing his penalties in the NFL, when he haven't even been flagged in the NFL?

The point I'm making is... college labels don't always follow a player into the NFL.

 

[john van brocklin]

Last year was a tale of two offenses, one prior to Dak's injury to his calf and the other after the Denver blowout loss. Elite offense to more of a middle of the pack one.

We have discussed this in the past numerous times, teams started taking away the big passing plays and forced the Cowboys to run the football, take the underneath passes and drive the entire field. Several issues happened:

-They just couldn't run the football, even in light boxes. We can point to injuries to both the OL and the RB position, Zeke probably should of been playing more of a limited role as he clearly was hurting the team more then helping it.

-When they did have success on the ground, they just couldn't avoid the big penalty. Penalties were drive killers throughout the 2nd half of the season, in which they led the league.

-Most QB's would struggle moving the chains with consistent 3rd and longs. Add in Dak was reluctant to use his legs, defending this offense became much easier.

-Finally, when drives stalled, they had a very inconsistent place kicker, who missed managable FG's throughout the season, even struggled with extra points.

Have success on the ground and play more clean football will force defenses to get out of that so called shell, coverage defense. Question is, have they done enough to fix this #1 problem area?

-Connor Williams who led the league in penalties is now playing in Miami. However, they are replacing him with Tyler Smith who was a flag machine on the college level. Yes, many of his flags were over aggression, but he still must improve.

-Their TE's must do a better job blocking inline and in space. Not much turnover, but the loss of Jarwin certainly helps as he was more of a big receiver. Ferguson, McKeon and Sprinkle need to help in this area.

-Kellen Moore must be more like his predecessor and stick with the run game to keep teams honest. If you make a team one dimensional, much easier to defend.

-Even if risky, Dak has to threaten teams with his legs. He came into this league as a dual threat QB, he must bring that aspect back to the field.

OL is key.
We better stay healthy.
Not much depth to speak of.

 

[Ranching]

Last year was a tale of two offenses, one prior to Dak's injury to his calf and the other after the Denver blowout loss. Elite offense to more of a middle of the pack one.

We have discussed this in the past numerous times, teams started taking away the big passing plays and forced the Cowboys to run the football, take the underneath passes and drive the entire field. Several issues happened:

-They just couldn't run the football, even in light boxes. We can point to injuries to both the OL and the RB position, Zeke probably should of been playing more of a limited role as he clearly was hurting the team more then helping it.

-When they did have success on the ground, they just couldn't avoid the big penalty. Penalties were drive killers throughout the 2nd half of the season, in which they led the league.

-Most QB's would struggle moving the chains with consistent 3rd and longs. Add in Dak was reluctant to use his legs, defending this offense became much easier.

-Finally, when drives stalled, they had a very inconsistent place kicker, who missed managable FG's throughout the season, even struggled with extra points.

Have success on the ground and play more clean football will force defenses to get out of that so called shell, coverage defense. Question is, have they done enough to fix this #1 problem area?

-Connor Williams who led the league in penalties is now playing in Miami. However, they are replacing him with Tyler Smith who was a flag machine on the college level. Yes, many of his flags were over aggression, but he still must improve.

-Their TE's must do a better job blocking inline and in space. Not much turnover, but the loss of Jarwin certainly helps as he was more of a big receiver. Ferguson, McKeon and Sprinkle need to help in this area.

-Kellen Moore must be more like his predecessor and stick with the run game to keep teams honest. If you make a team one dimensional, much easier to defend.

-Even if risky, Dak has to threaten teams with his legs. He came into this league as a dual threat QB, he must bring that aspect back to the field.

Don't forget Zekes injury as well.

 

[Cowpolk]

Don't forget Zekes injury as well.

And Pollards

 

[DanA]

I generally agree. The three major things that I think need to be fixed:

1. Reduce the drive killing penalties
2. Do better pushing the pile and converting short yardage (other avenues than behind Martin)
3. Zeke’s knee / health must hold out for the season

It’s critical because some of the best things we’ve done with Dak is play action and if the run game isn’t working it holds no threat. We need the run to be feared.

 

[gimmesix]

If Elliott is healthy, we will run the ball better. That's the main difference between how we were running the ball early in the season and how we ran the ball as the season progressed. No one was complaining about the offensive line's run blocking when Elliott was healthy (except maybe in the first game when we chose not to test Tampa's run defense).

 

[DandyDon52]

Last year was a tale of two offenses, one prior to Dak's injury to his calf and the other after the Denver blowout loss. Elite offense to more of a middle of the pack one.

We have discussed this in the past numerous times, teams started taking away the big passing plays and forced the Cowboys to run the football, take the underneath passes and drive the entire field. Several issues happened:

-They just couldn't run the football, even in light boxes. We can point to injuries to both the OL and the RB position, Zeke probably should of been playing more of a limited role as he clearly was hurting the team more then helping it.

-When they did have success on the ground, they just couldn't avoid the big penalty. Penalties were drive killers throughout the 2nd half of the season, in which they led the league.

-Most QB's would struggle moving the chains with consistent 3rd and longs. Add in Dak was reluctant to use his legs, defending this offense became much easier.

-Finally, when drives stalled, they had a very inconsistent place kicker, who missed managable FG's throughout the season, even struggled with extra points.

Have success on the ground and play more clean football will force defenses to get out of that so called shell, coverage defense. Question is, have they done enough to fix this #1 problem area?

-Connor Williams who led the league in penalties is now playing in Miami. However, they are replacing him with Tyler Smith who was a flag machine on the college level. Yes, many of his flags were over aggression, but he still must improve.

-Their TE's must do a better job blocking inline and in space. Not much turnover, but the loss of Jarwin certainly helps as he was more of a big receiver. Ferguson, McKeon and Sprinkle need to help in this area.

-Kellen Moore must be more like his predecessor and stick with the run game to keep teams honest. If you make a team one dimensional, much easier to defend.

-Even if risky, Dak has to threaten teams with his legs. He came into this league as a dual threat QB, he must bring that aspect back to the field.

good post, thing is I dont think kellen wants to run alot, just here and there. He is a passing oc, so no telling what we will see.
I also dont think kellen knows how to use a run game .

 

[plymkr]

And Pollards

Good point. I would say with a healthy Dak, Zeke and Pollard we will be able to be more consistent on offense. I feel we have talked Dak and Zeke's Injuries to death but Pollard's injury goes unmentioned. Dak is looking leaner and lighter. Dak had 3 injuries last year, shoulder, calf and recovery of the ankle break. Dak will be more of a threat in the run game, Pollard will be healthy and I'm not expecting much from Zeke but who knows. Throw in less penalties from mr. Hold em Conner, since he's gone, and we should have a better running team. To be honest I'm more concerned about losing Cooper and the passing game then the run game. But I am/was a big fan of Cooper.

Anyway that's a long post to say we had some bad injury luck in the 2nd half of the season and defenses played us differently. I expect our offense to be more like pre Patriots game then post Patriots game. Unless Dak or Moore can't adjust to defenses playing us different. That's the key to the offense IMO, can Dak and Moore read and adjust to defenses.

 

[PAPPYDOG]

Running is mandatory or we are losing.......

 

[Bullflop]

The FO should be willing to procure better backup RBs to augment our running game. Their refusal to do so confounds me.

A lingering question persists, in that, Ezekiel Elliott has displayed a tendency to diminish in his ability to avoid late-season injuries.

Waiting until 2023 to correct that situation doesn't instill a great deal of confidence in this team's chances of post-season success.

 

[blueblood70]

I generally agree. The three major things that I think need to be fixed:

1. Reduce the drive killing penalties
2. Do better pushing the pile and converting short yardage (other avenues than behind Martin)
3. Zeke’s knee / health must hold out for the season

It’s critical because some of the best things we’ve done with Dak is play action and if the run game isn’t working it holds no threat. We need the run to be feared.

 

[blueblood70]

Last year was a tale of two offenses, one prior to Dak's injury to his calf and the other after the Denver blowout loss. Elite offense to more of a middle of the pack one.

We have discussed this in the past numerous times, teams started taking away the big passing plays and forced the Cowboys to run the football, take the underneath passes and drive the entire field. Several issues happened:

-They just couldn't run the football, even in light boxes. We can point to injuries to both the OL and the RB position, Zeke probably should of been playing more of a limited role as he clearly was hurting the team more then helping it.

-When they did have success on the ground, they just couldn't avoid the big penalty. Penalties were drive killers throughout the 2nd half of the season, in which they led the league.

-Most QB's would struggle moving the chains with consistent 3rd and longs. Add in Dak was reluctant to use his legs, defending this offense became much easier.

-Finally, when drives stalled, they had a very inconsistent place kicker, who missed managable FG's throughout the season, even struggled with extra points.

Have success on the ground and play more clean football will force defenses to get out of that so called shell, coverage defense. Question is, have they done enough to fix this #1 problem area?

-Connor Williams who led the league in penalties is now playing in Miami. However, they are replacing him with Tyler Smith who was a flag machine on the college level. Yes, many of his flags were over aggression, but he still must improve.

-Their TE's must do a better job blocking inline and in space. Not much turnover, but the loss of Jarwin certainly helps as he was more of a big receiver. Ferguson, McKeon and Sprinkle need to help in this area.

-Kellen Moore must be more like his predecessor and stick with the run game to keep teams honest. If you make a team one dimensional, much easier to defend.

-Even if risky, Dak has to threaten teams with his legs. He came into this league as a dual threat QB, he must bring that aspect back to the field.

Of course they showed they could do it the first half of the season and mostly due to injuries and OL shuffling and the OC going brain dead it disappeared. It didn't need full page to ask a simple questing to get simple answer

YES and hopefully its due to MM taking more of role in advising KM on this issue and taking over if needed as he knows his jobs on the line..no more hands off, gloves off and Moore needs to go back to run game school with the OL Coaches.

lets be clear its not teh Backs that are the issue, its the other things..

 

[baltcowboy]

Last year was a tale of two offenses, one prior to Dak's injury to his calf and the other after the Denver blowout loss. Elite offense to more of a middle of the pack one.

We have discussed this in the past numerous times, teams started taking away the big passing plays and forced the Cowboys to run the football, take the underneath passes and drive the entire field. Several issues happened:

-They just couldn't run the football, even in light boxes. We can point to injuries to both the OL and the RB position, Zeke probably should of been playing more of a limited role as he clearly was hurting the team more then helping it.

-When they did have success on the ground, they just couldn't avoid the big penalty. Penalties were drive killers throughout the 2nd half of the season, in which they led the league.

-Most QB's would struggle moving the chains with consistent 3rd and longs. Add in Dak was reluctant to use his legs, defending this offense became much easier.

-Finally, when drives stalled, they had a very inconsistent place kicker, who missed managable FG's throughout the season, even struggled with extra points.

Have success on the ground and play more clean football will force defenses to get out of that so called shell, coverage defense. Question is, have they done enough to fix this #1 problem area?

-Connor Williams who led the league in penalties is now playing in Miami. However, they are replacing him with Tyler Smith who was a flag machine on the college level. Yes, many of his flags were over aggression, but he still must improve.

-Their TE's must do a better job blocking inline and in space. Not much turnover, but the loss of Jarwin certainly helps as he was more of a big receiver. Ferguson, McKeon and Sprinkle need to help in this area.

-Kellen Moore must be more like his predecessor and stick with the run game to keep teams honest. If you make a team one dimensional, much easier to defend.

-Even if risky, Dak has to threaten teams with his legs. He came into this league as a dual threat QB, he must bring that aspect back to the field.

You hit on some good points but to me the biggest issue was when Jarwin went down they were unable to run the 12 personnel two tight end set. Teams were unable key on what the Cowboys were going to do. I recently watched first Eagles, Giants games along with the Chargers, Tampa, Carolina, and Patriots games. Those defenses had no clue what Kellen was going to call. We need balance for our offense to be effective. The best way to do that starts with the 12 personnel.

 

[CouchCoach]

So, Tyler Smith must improve on reducing his penalties in the NFL, when he haven't even been flagged in the NFL?

The point I'm making is... college labels don't always follow a player into the NFL.

College labels have to be erased by the players at the next level.

 

[xwalker]

Last year was a tale of two offenses, one prior to Dak's injury to his calf and the other after the Denver blowout loss. Elite offense to more of a middle of the pack one.

We have discussed this in the past numerous times, teams started taking away the big passing plays and forced the Cowboys to run the football, take the underneath passes and drive the entire field. Several issues happened:

-They just couldn't run the football, even in light boxes. We can point to injuries to both the OL and the RB position, Zeke probably should of been playing more of a limited role as he clearly was hurting the team more then helping it.

-When they did have success on the ground, they just couldn't avoid the big penalty. Penalties were drive killers throughout the 2nd half of the season, in which they led the league.

-Most QB's would struggle moving the chains with consistent 3rd and longs. Add in Dak was reluctant to use his legs, defending this offense became much easier.

-Finally, when drives stalled, they had a very inconsistent place kicker, who missed managable FG's throughout the season, even struggled with extra points.

Have success on the ground and play more clean football will force defenses to get out of that so called shell, coverage defense. Question is, have they done enough to fix this #1 problem area?

-Connor Williams who led the league in penalties is now playing in Miami. However, they are replacing him with Tyler Smith who was a flag machine on the college level. Yes, many of his flags were over aggression, but he still must improve.

-Their TE's must do a better job blocking inline and in space. Not much turnover, but the loss of Jarwin certainly helps as he was more of a big receiver. Ferguson, McKeon and Sprinkle need to help in this area.

-Kellen Moore must be more like his predecessor and stick with the run game to keep teams honest. If you make a team one dimensional, much easier to defend.

-Even if risky, Dak has to threaten teams with his legs. He came into this league as a dual threat QB, he must bring that aspect back to the field.

Fans tend to think that run blocking is all about over-powering defenders; however, it's much more complicated.

In 2021 they had issues with both power and execution of blocks.

• Example of Execution Problems
  • They're running off RT with Shultz aligned next to the RT.
  • The DE gets upfield to the outside of Schultz.
  • Schultz makes the block by just staying between the defender and the RB to his inside shoulder.
  • La'el at RT must stay to the outside of the LB for the play to work.
  • Unfortunately, La'el allows the LB to beat him to the outside.
  • At that point the play is done.
  • Power had no impact on the play. La'el can over-power a LB if he is in position.
  • Schultz didn't have to move the DE, he just had to be strong enough to stay in the way momentarily.
• 
  
• Side Note:
  • La'el was very close to Connor Williams in terms of penalties per snap played.
  • Gregory was worse on a penalty per snap basis than either of them.
  • All 3 are gone.

• Power
• Scheming
  • An OL can manage with an under-powered player if the surrounding players offset his issues.
  • They managed in the years that Doug Free at RT and Zack Martin was next to him with Frederick at OC & Leary at LG.
  • Martin aligned about 6 inches closer to Free than normal which meant a bigger gap between Martin and Frederick.
  • The scheme was designed to have Free make 'wall off' blocks similar to the Schultz block in the above example.
  • The Martin 'cheat right' alignment & focus worked because Frederick didn't need which is unlikely most OCs.
• 2021
  • With Connor Williams and Biadasz side by side, there was no way to scheme around their lack of power.
  • CW was actually very good with 2nd level blocks (the ones like La'el frequently missed in the above example).
  • If prime Frederick had been at OC, then CW would have been functional and maybe even above average.
• 2022
  • Tyler Smith has wow power.
  • In my opinion, the most powerful player in the 2022 NFL draft.
  • The coaches can scheme around Biadasz at OC with Tyler and Martin on either side of him.
  • In 2021 CW tended to be the 2nd level run blocker with Biadasz blocking the DLineman.
  • They can reverse that in 2022 with Biadasz more often being the 2nd level blocker.
• TEs
  • Schultz is OK on inline blocking of TEs.
    • The type of blocks that Jarwin couldn't make.
    • The issue with Schultz is open field blocking.
    • He seems to lack agility/fluidity to hit the target.
    • I've seen 320 OLinemen show better agility on open field blocking.
  • Ferguson is known to have good football IQ but was not overly powerful as a blocker.
    • They'll use him on the open field blocks and keep Schultz inline.
    • Keeping Schultz inline more often works better if Ferguson shows to be a decent receiving option.

 

[CouchCoach]

They have to stay very healthy in order to run the ball.

They have ?'s on the OL with little depth and it is a question of when, not if, for Big Smitty to lose games.

There were two issues with the run game last season, health of the RB's and the OL establishing their presence. They began to disassemble as the season wore on and what was once an asset became a liability.

Critical to that run game is the QB. The D's didn't worry about him like they have in the past because Prescott is very good at finding the crease to advance the chains. While he is not a great running QB, he is an effective one when he can run. Making him a pocket QB is not playing to his strengths.

 

[xwalker]

Last year was a tale of two offenses, one prior to Dak's injury to his calf and the other after the Denver blowout loss. Elite offense to more of a middle of the pack one.

We have discussed this in the past numerous times, teams started taking away the big passing plays and forced the Cowboys to run the football, take the underneath passes and drive the entire field. Several issues happened:

-They just couldn't run the football, even in light boxes. We can point to injuries to both the OL and the RB position, Zeke probably should of been playing more of a limited role as he clearly was hurting the team more then helping it.

-When they did have success on the ground, they just couldn't avoid the big penalty. Penalties were drive killers throughout the 2nd half of the season, in which they led the league.

-Most QB's would struggle moving the chains with consistent 3rd and longs. Add in Dak was reluctant to use his legs, defending this offense became much easier.

-Finally, when drives stalled, they had a very inconsistent place kicker, who missed managable FG's throughout the season, even struggled with extra points.

Have success on the ground and play more clean football will force defenses to get out of that so called shell, coverage defense. Question is, have they done enough to fix this #1 problem area?

-Connor Williams who led the league in penalties is now playing in Miami. However, they are replacing him with Tyler Smith who was a flag machine on the college level. Yes, many of his flags were over aggression, but he still must improve.

-Their TE's must do a better job blocking inline and in space. Not much turnover, but the loss of Jarwin certainly helps as he was more of a big receiver. Ferguson, McKeon and Sprinkle need to help in this area.

-Kellen Moore must be more like his predecessor and stick with the run game to keep teams honest. If you make a team one dimensional, much easier to defend.

-Even if risky, Dak has to threaten teams with his legs. He came into this league as a dual threat QB, he must bring that aspect back to the field.

• One Player
  • One new OLineman can make a huge difference in the play of the overall unit.
  • Jimmy made Erik Williams the starting RT in 1992 and moved RT Nate Newton to OG.
  • That changed their OL from OK in 1991 to the best in the league in 1992.

• Setting the Tone
  • Tyler has some of the Erik Williams on-field demeanor.
  • In college he was determined to flatten the defender before the play was over.
    • The coaches will have to work with him to tone that down in the NFL (EW's style would fly with today's rules).
  • Tyler will not be intimidated by bullies like DT Chris Jones or potential bully rookie Jordan Davis.
  • He showed an uncanny ability in college to go from being completed off-balance to recover and pancake the defender.
    • On some snaps he would get into a bad position with his weight on his heels.
    • Then in 1 step back, he could reset & 'sink his hips' then the defender would start moving backwards.
  • When Connor Williams, Connor McGovern or Biadasz get in that position, they're done. Might as well be on roller skates.

 

[charron]

On paper we look stronger in the run game than last year. The difference this year is teams won't fear our passing game as much so they can focus on stopping the run a little more than what they had to do last year.