Continuing disturbing offensive trend

[vaturkey]

Penalties killed us last week and could have killed us this week. The margin for error even with Zeke/Dak playing great doesn't allow us the luxury of committing stupid penalties.

 

[T-RO]

Not to be Debbie Downer amidst this incredible 12-2 season, but there continue to be offensive concerns.

Dallas drove for only one TD against Minnesota, one against New York, and one against Tampa Bay in successive weeks.

This offense has to start finishing drives again to win in the playoffs.

Side effect of dink and dunk and playing better defenses. Occasionally even an All-Pro lineman has to grab a guy.

It's hard to sustain methodical long drives.

I can't complain but if I did I'd wish we took a shot or two more deep.

Dak through a few longer passes that were beauties but we never tried over the top deep even once.

 

[NextGenBoys]

So, not a fan of the jet sweep, eh?

The jet sweep action is huge. Maybe not hand it to Lucky 3 times a game, but the jet sweep action brings such an element of misdirection to the defensive front, that it should remain a staple in the gameplan.

 

[Sepia]

They refused to let us drive down the field unencumbered by a big penalty. I suspect at least a couple weren't legit. Collinsworth commented we looked like a machine last night. I think refs try to keep SNF games interesting when it's clear we would have blown them out.

 

[SDCowboy]

Fixing the regular penalties will mostly solve that.

 

[NextGenBoys]

Not to be Debbie Downer amidst this incredible 12-2 season, but there continue to be offensive concerns.

Dallas drove for only one TD against Minnesota, one against New York, and one against Tampa Bay in successive weeks.

This offense has to start finishing drives again to win in the playoffs.

Also I'd like to add, if we dont dominate the turnover battle 4-0 we lose.

How crazy is that? It came down to the last possession of the game, when we won the TO margin 4-0.

Not exactly a good thing.

 

[Kevinicus]

Even the announcers last night commented on how penalties have really hurt the Cowboys the past few weeks. We definitely need to clean that up for the playoffs.

The announcers are a poor choice for an appeal to authority (which is not a good idea to begin with).

 

[crashintonickdm]

The 3rd and 2 double sweep that was fumbled is still something I'm trying to figure out.

Befuddling

 

[aikemirv]

Even the announcers last night commented on how penalties have really hurt the Cowboys the past few weeks. We definitely need to clean that up for the playoffs.

There weren't a lot of penalties, but man the ones they did commit hurt. Tampa couldn't stop the Cowboys, they kept rolling drive after drive, only to have 10 or 15 yard penalty put an end to those drives. It was frustrating to watch.

There were 8-10 penalties I think.

I just can't seem to figure out how we did not hold in the first half of the season but now all of the sudden we hold 3-5 times a game while the other team gets called for 1 maybe and I see them hold us all the time!

 

[Zimmy Lives]

Not to be Debbie Downer amidst this incredible 12-2 season, but there continue to be offensive concerns.

Dallas drove for only one TD against Minnesota, one against New York, and one against Tampa Bay in successive weeks.

This offense has to start finishing drives again to win in the playoffs.

I agree, it is an alarming trend but only because penalties seem to derail drives with touchdown potential. I'm more concerned about foolish offensive penalties.

 

[crashintonickdm]

Also I'd like to add, if we dont dominate the turnover battle 4-0 we lose.

How crazy is that? It came down to the last possession of the game, when we won the TO margin 4-0.

Not exactly a good thing.

Tampa isn't exactly a Bad team. In fact they're solid with wins at arrowhead and against Seattle.

5 game winning streak snapped.

 

[Bullflop]

Not to be Debbie Downer amidst this incredible 12-2 season, but there continue to be offensive concerns.

Dallas drove for only one TD against Minnesota, one against New York, and one against Tampa Bay in successive weeks.

This offense has to start finishing drives again to win in the playoffs.

Those drive-killing flags we incurred vs. Tampa Bay were thorns in our side throughout the game last night. I'm sure the offensive staff will be reminding them time and again during film sessions that they must avoid that stuff at all costs. We left far too many points on the field in that game to allow it to become habitual. Committing holding the way we doing really isn't indicative of a championship caliber team.

 

[Tabascocat]

When you dink and dunk up and down the field, penalties are going to happen, there will also be more 3rd downs which should equate to a lower percentage in the long run.

The drive-killing penalties are ill-timed, not so much an excessive amount(still too many). Teams make Dallas go on long drives expecting penalties to happen.

It was a lot better last night though. I wish we could get better at quick scoring drives with some deep shots. The jet-sweep wasn't used properly IMO, you do that when you have a longer field to work with. My other problem with it is the predictability. When I see Lucky come into the game, chances are it will be one of his two plays called.......usually without fail(I am sure defenses know this). I think he needs to get more snaps on offense(gasp) to really make the sweep work, maybe go catch some mid-range passes. I would rather see him getting Mayles routes.

Bottom line: the mistakes need to get cleaned up, can't be leaving points on the field in the playoffs. Dak needs to work on taking some deep shots over these next two(maybe 1.5) games and gain some confidence.

 

[links18]

Disturbed fans=fake fans. I am sure I read that here.

 

[bayeslife]

Given the penalties, I'm not going to award style points for a win.

 

[links18]

When you dink and dunk up and down the field, penalties are going to happen, there will also be more 3rd downs which should equate to a lower percentage in the long run.

The drive-killing penalties are ill-timed, not so much an excessive amount(still too many). Teams make Dallas go on long drives expecting penalties to happen.

It was a lot better last night though. I wish we could get better at quick scoring drives with some deep shots. The jet-sweep wasn't used properly IMO, you do that when you have a longer field to work with. My other problem with it is the predictability. When I see Lucky come into the game, chances are it will be one of his two plays called.......usually without fail(I am sure defenses know this). I think he needs to get more snaps on offense(gasp) to really make the sweep work, maybe go catch some mid-range passes. I would rather see him getting Mayles routes.

Bottom line: the mistakes need to get cleaned up, can't be leaving points on the field in the playoffs. Dak needs to work on taking some deep shots over these next two(maybe 1.5) games and gain some confidence.

Did you just call for more Lucky Whitehead? That's probably a first around here. What's next a thread celebrating Dunbar? Oh right
....

 

[dallasfan4lizife]

Not to be Debbie Downer amidst this incredible 12-2 season, but there continue to be offensive concerns.

Dallas drove for only one TD against Minnesota, one against New York, and one against Tampa Bay in successive weeks.

This offense has to start finishing drives again to win in the playoffs.

We should have had 39 points last night if we avoided the penalties that took back a TD and put Bailey out of field goal range.

Against a defense that was allowing 12.8 points per game in the last 5.

Don't think too hard about this. Penalties and suspect play calling are the only reason we didn't run Tampa Bay out of the building.

 

[NextGenBoys]

Tampa isn't exactly a Bad team. In fact they're solid with wins at arrowhead and against Seattle.

5 game winning streak snapped.

That's true. But it doesn't mean there aren't some worries that remain.

Min and NY played press man and forced Dak to beat them deep. Dak struggled.

Tampa played two deep and gave up throws underneath. Dak put up 2nd highest completion percentage ever. We had a plue 4 turnover margin, and still came down to the last possession.

We haven't played our A game in nearly two months, and that bothers me.

 

[Fla Cowpoke]

Weird playcalling. Zeke starts off the game on fire, we go away from him for a while and then come back to him and he finishes the Bucs off. Trick plays when you don't need a change of pace, what we were doing was working.

The penalty yardage doesn't tell the whole story either, because you are just counting the yards of the penalty in the box score, not the yards lost during the play.

Offense definitely has to improve. More runs, more passing down the field. Dak did a great job this week, although I do think there were plays down the field that could have been had. Still playing a very conservative passing offense. We will see if that is good enough in the playoffs.

 

[JD_KaPow]

It's very hard to sustain 10-15 play drives. We were pretty amazing at it earlier in the year, but last night is more typical. One botched play or holding penalty can easily kill a drive when you're not picking up yards in huge chunks. This is why many defenses (like ours) are built on that principle: make a team run 12 plays to score, because they probably can't.