Cowboys' 7 Most Frequent Pass Plays in 2018

[silvrNblue]

Easiest team in the league to scout.

Rams PROVED that point, now didn't they Bob

 

[btcutter]

"The Dallas Cowboys have changed little since 2016. The pass tendencies of this year’s iteration were nearly identical to the team’s tendencies in 2017 and 2016. The screen, bootleg, and clearout were called at almost the same frequency in 2018 as they were the last two seasons."

-- Allan Uy

https://www.cover1.net/dallas-cowboys-pass-plays-2018-most-common/

That's telling you what OC sees as Dak's strength (or weakness).

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

This is just disgusting. If I can predict offensive plays from my couch at home, I can't imagine how seasoned Defensive Coordinators decipher our film.

They do it with a Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring.


Seriously, that's how they do it................................

 

[Wolfpack]

But i was told it’s not coaching.

It was the cleats this year.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Sometimes I think this team is a victim of our own success. Listen guys, Jimmy Johnson was a great, great coach, but he wasn't an Offensive Genius. Norv wasn't either. Jimmy understood the game and he understood what it took to win. Norv was a great teacher of the game and he understood that execution beat scheme if you could do it quickly enough. So yes, if you have the right talent in the right offense and you are good enough to execute at a very, very high level, it doesn't matter what the other teams schemes. That was true back in the day and it's true now.

Every team in the League knew what those Cowboys teams were going to do but it didn't matter. This is the biggest, most influential imprint on Garrett IMO. He lived those days and experience that first hand. This is his coaching philosophy and it's near unbeatable, if you can do it. The problem with us is that we don't have the talent to be able to impose our will on teams because that's really what we are talking about here. On most teams, we can do this but on the very good teams, we are not there yet and that's the problem.

JMO

 

[Irvin88_4life]

Something about this doesn’t seem correct
We run more screens than any other pass play. That doesn’t sound correct to me

I can't remember which game but every 3rd down we ran the same screen play.

 

[Idgit]

It was actually better than most would think, if you include all the games that counted (see sig).

Wow, yeah. That is a bit better than I thought it would be. I’d have guessed we’d have been in the 18-20 range just ballparking it.

 

[blueblood70]

Easiest team in the league to scout.

and somehow we make the playoffs two of three years won the division and won playoff game, we are so predictable we must be 0-16 since everyone knows whats coming..

OR they dont know when its coming and how its used or what formations its coming from..sure we are more basic and vanilla then sometimes but really no real differences except how they run them from what formations and personel groups..I agree SL needs to go or we need more disguise in some of our formations but for such a terrible team we sure are winning enough games to beat a lot of teams.i cant get over within our division , those that know us inside and out we go what 6-0 5-1 4-2 most years..beat the eagles Twice the giants twice and should have got Washington both times , odd we are so vanilla and predictable wouldn't we be 0-6 within the division?

those that want to fit these stats within their Narrative will have to explain how we went what 13-3 or was it 12-4-2016 2017-9-7 with a lot of suspension and injury and 10-6 with playoff win in 2018? Luck maybe?

I myself would like to see change in coaches and philosophy to help utilize Dak and Zeke more but not going to sit here and say all teams know was coming, the rams after game hyperbole..thats it we lost because the defensive coaches called bad game , gaps to wide to many stunts and twists plus nickel against zone blocking team, bad day at the office, we lost by 8..if it were so easy should it not ended 40-7 or something worse? how in the world do we beat the Saints? that personal and players knew what was coming huh? the rams simply called and played better game, enough to win at home given a Bye and more time to prepare on their field..no other real reason..

next?

 

[sean10mm]

People overstate the value of tactics vs. personnel sometimes, sure. Better Xs and Os don't cure everything. Some of the Cowboys giving up infinite rushing yards to the Rams was just their DL getting whipped backwards and forwards.

But the fact is that in the modern NFL the gap between doing just OK and being a champion is smaller than ever. You CAN'T just line up and win with overwhelming roster quality because NOBODY has that anymore. Garrett's entire worldview is seemingly based on an NFL that no longer exists. The Patriots are the most dominant franchise of the last two decades, and not one of their 5 championships was won by assembling a team that simply overpowered everybody. 2007 was the closest to them building a mega-roster and just straight-up whipping people with talent and better execution, and it didn't work.

 

[conner01]

Yea that seemed odd, but it's less than 4 attempts. I guess I could be convinced that they did it that often.

You’d have to go back and watch every play but sure didn’t seem to me we ran more screens than any other play

 

[Ranching]

Since the pattern is for the past three seasons, it can't be argued fully that this was the set up season to make the all in run for a trophy next season...

That's a positive view.

 

[CCBoy]

That's a positive view.

This old soldier has to leave a person's dignity in tact...even a fool has his own story.

 

[cmoney23]

This can't be right, I hear that Dak can't throw the deep ball?

 

[Future]

This can't be right, I hear that Dak can't throw the deep ball?

Why do people always do this?

The critique of Dak throwing deep is that he DOESN'T. When people say he "can't" throw it deep, it's because he doesn't see the field well enough to take chances when they are there. It's easy to have a good QB rating on deep throws when you only throw them to open guys. That's not to mention the fact that the Cowboys offense gets much better opportunities down the field than basically every other team in the league, because Zeke.

 

[cmoney23]

Why do people always do this?

The critique of Dak throwing deep is that he DOESN'T. When people say he "can't" throw it deep, it's because he doesn't see the field well enough to take chances when they are there. It's easy to have a good QB rating on deep throws when you only throw them to open guys. That's not to mention the fact that the Cowboys offense gets much better opportunities down the field than basically every other team in the league, because Zeke.

This is some of the worst analyst I've ever read.

WOW

 

[khiladi]

Yikes.

Eberflus was very familiar with these tendencies. He just sat on these routes in a Cover 2 high, with underneath zones covering our normal route combos.

Not a good look.

No, he did that because he was shifting coverage more to Cooper with help over the top after the two games where he had a couple big catches. It wasn’t because of the ‘tendencies’. That’s why Cooper’s production dropped to end the season when teams used more zone.

Teams pretty much still played Dak press coverage and man with deep safety over the top because of the run game and not fearing Dak’s arm.

 

[khiladi]

Why do people always do this?

The critique of Dak throwing deep is that he DOESN'T. When people say he "can't" throw it deep, it's because he doesn't see the field well enough to take chances when they are there. It's easy to have a good QB rating on deep throws when you only throw them to open guys. That's not to mention the fact that the Cowboys offense gets much better opportunities down the field than basically every other team in the league, because Zeke.

Scapegoating.

Dak’s ‘deep throws’ are normally his first read when he’s decisive. They hardly ever come when he has to go through his progressions and like you say anticipate. It took him half a season to realize that he’s getting the press coverage on the outside with no safety help plenty of times with Cooper to even start throwing it.

 

[khiladi]

This is some of the worst analyst I've ever read.

WOW

Actually it’s spot on and even in his rookie year, and analysis of Dak’s stellar year revolves around the main weakness of not anticipating and pulling back when he has the throw. Even Aikman pointed out his opinion how Dak’s biggest flaw is not his accuracy but lack of anticipation.

QBR rating can be higher for a guy that throws the ball WAY LESS than other guys. Dak rarely throws compared to the average number of QBs let alone gin slingers and when he does throw, its more often short to short intermediate range.

It took Cooper to tell Dak to throw him the ball because the Eagles were just daring Dak all day. Of course they wan’t to blame it on Linehan as if Cooper wasn’t clearly pointing out that Dak was the one that was doing it ‘again’. They act like it was a ‘great adjustment’ when it was Cooper who was basically yelling in the ear of Dak.

https://cowboyswire.usatoday.com/20...-dak-prescott-week-14-one-play-scott-linehan/

It’s not like Dak has been been ‘working on his deep ball’ every training camp year to year because it’s supposedly his biggest weakness:

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.c...t-aims-to-throw-better-deep-ball-this-season/

https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/nfl/dallas-cowboys/article216640490.html

 

[HungryLion]

Why do people always do this?

The critique of Dak throwing deep is that he DOESN'T. When people say he "can't" throw it deep, it's because he doesn't see the field well enough to take chances when they are there. It's easy to have a good QB rating on deep throws when you only throw them to open guys. That's not to mention the fact that the Cowboys offense gets much better opportunities down the field than basically every other team in the league, because Zeke.

I call BS. There is a ton of critique on this board where posters say that Dak literally cannot throw deep, because he lacks the arm strength and accuracy to do so.

If you want to critique his decision making and willingness to pull the trigger that’s one thing, and fair. But saying that is the only flack he gets about the deep ball is just not true.