Continuing disturbing offensive trend

[MikeT22]

Gonna need to be more disciplined and limit the mental errors if we go deep in the playoffs. I realize our ball control style of offense results in long time consuming drives which also lends itself to more opportunities for mistakes. But these last few weeks we've been having more of these drive killing mistakes than earlier in the year. Not sure the reason, but I attribute much of it to coaching. Garrett and the staff is responsible for keeping the players focused and disciplined.

Going forward my two biggest concerns are the continued drive-stalling mistakes and play-calling. If it's not a penalty that stops us, it's getting too cute in play-calling and getting away from our strength. If we're smart and limit our mistakes and play to our strengths pounding teams into submission then we have a chance to advance far. Otherwise I think one or both of these issues will ultimately be our downfall.

 

[conner01]

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.

Except we had 2 last night

 

[erod]

Except we had 2 last night

Nope.

One drive for a TD. The other was created by the defensive turnover in the red zone.

 

[erod]

Dumb penalties kills drives...happened twice before I went to sleep....dumb penalties. Look up Tsmith and Dfree for that.

Big play offenses have fewer opportunities for dumb penalties.

 

[NextGenBoys]

And was completely unecessary. The threat of jet sweep is one thing but to keep putting ball in Whiteheads hands instead of the guy that was just chewing up TB was startlingly stupid.

Well to be fair, you have to run it a few times in order to keep them honest. But yeah, I agree,

2 of those turnovers ended the halves so that stat is misleading. There were only 2 turnovers that we could've capitalized off of.

Fair point

 

[dallasfan4lizife]

Big play offenses have fewer opportunities for dumb penalties.

The argument on the other side is, big play offenses can't sustain drives and control TOP as consistently. Putting more responsibility on the defense if those big plays aren't working.

 

[NextGenBoys]

Offensive performance last night far exceeded the games in Minnesota and New York - 264 yards, 260 yards, 449 yards. Penalties have been a problem that needs cleaned up but the offense's ability to drive the ball was fine last night.

The original post was about finishing drives, not putting up yards.

 

[MRV52]

Linehan enough said.

 

[LowTech]

Has anyone mentioned we played good defenses the last 3 weeks?

But I understand what folks are seeing

 

[DenCWBY]

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.

Yes they seem to get across the 50 just fine and then go into pass mode and drop the run, which triggers a hold or sack and boom out go the lights on the drive. Very frustrating!!

 

[ghst187]

Yeah it was not a win without worry. We left a lot of points off the board. It can't happen in the playoffs.

Yep can't get cute in the playoffs. I remember 3rd and one with about two minutes left against Green Bay and they hadn't stopped a run for under three yards all day. We throw an incompletion, stop the clock, and miss the FG. Green Bay marches down and scores right before half in a game they looked lost and outmatched. That drive gave them life and instead of a multiple score game at half with GB lifeless, it's one score and the game was never the same.

 

[percyhoward]

This offense is devoid of big plays, so penalties and mistakes derail drives.

One of the reasons we've been so successful with our methodical attack is that we've usually overcome negative plays. We've been the best in the NFL on passes with more than 10 yards to go.

>10 yards to go, any down
Yards per play (passes)
Dal 9.1
GB 9.0
Det 9.0
Atl 8.4
Sea 8.3

Strangely enough, running in these situations, we only average 3.6 yards per play, which ranks 25th.

 

[loublue22]

Another problem is that if we do get a penalty and it's 2nd and 18 or whatever, Dak is taking the check down every time, which the other team is waiting for and we pick up 4 or 5 yards max.

 

[Risen Star]

It's been hit on in the thread.

This offense is devoid of big plays, so penalties and mistakes derail drives.

Devoid of big plays because of the QB.

 

[DandyDon52]

We pretty much had 100 yards of penalties. That's a ton.

Penalties (Number-Yards) 8 - 91 that is quite a bit !
and most of time they kill the drive.

 

[erod]

One of the reasons we've been so successful with our methodical attack is that we've usually overcome negative plays. We've been the best in the NFL on passes with more than 10 yards to go.

>10 yards to go, any down
Yards per play (passes)
Dal 9.1
GB 9.0
Det 9.0
Atl 8.4
Sea 8.3

Strangely enough, running in these situations, we only average 3.6 yards per play, which ranks 25th.

Lately, the Cowboys have been awful on these situations.

And the big plays from this offense are rare.

 

[erod]

The argument on the other side is, big play offenses can't sustain drives and control TOP as consistently. Putting more responsibility on the defense if those big plays aren't working.

ToP is overrated. It loses as much as it wins.

 

[percyhoward]

Lately, the Cowboys have been awful on these situations.

And the big plays from this offense are rare.

Lately we've played better defenses, but we still lead the NFL in average gain on pass plays with more than 10 yards to go. With a rookie QB. That's a big part of why this year's points per drive is the same as 2014, even without all the long TD passes.

The $64,000 question is what happens in the playoffs.

 

[dallasfan4lizife]

ToP is overrated. It loses as much as it wins.

Tell Chip Kelly that. This mentality is coaching him out of the NFL....

 

[gmoney112]

Penalties. That's really it.

I'm more of the opinion that in Primetime games the NFL doesn't want viewers turning it off, and we play a ton of Primetime games, so we usually get more "keep it close" kind of penalties. We could have been up 20 points at half last night if it wasn't for penalties. The Vikes game, with their offense, was probably over in the 3rd if they didn't.

Some are justified, some are terrible officiating.

But that's it. Otherwise, the only team stopping us on offense is ourselves. And the Giants heh heh (until next time).

If we can clean up the penalties, I don't think there's a team in the league that can stop us right now, at home anyway.