I guess what I'm doing is applying some logic to the analysis. If Prescott's inexperience was the reason the Cowboys' red zone offense ranked 26th in 2018, then why wasn't it a problem in 2016 and 2017 -- when he had even less experience and Dallas ranked 5th and 7th?
I did not say it was the only reason but I'm pretty sure it's a lot of it. I don't have the stats but I'd be willing to bet that a lot of the Redzone Scoring efficiency was due to the running game and the Cowboys ability to get Dak in space to score off the designed run or scramble. I'd be interested to see how we stacked up, in terms of Redzone scoring via the pass in each of those years.
I don't think that there is any doubt that our OL played a big role in why we saw success in 2016 and 2017 but, if you look at the stats, the efficiency started to go away in 2017 and just continued in 2018. The NFL didn't really know what to expect from Prescott in 16. In 17 the League started figuring it out and you could see it in how they played us. When we took some hits along the OL, we were no longer able to impose our will in the run game, in the Redzone. At that point, we became more like the other 31 teams in the league, which means that you have to be able to get, not only good execution but also have to have a QB who can put you in the right play when opportunity presents itself. As I said earlier, if I saw Dak throwing a lot of balls that were flat being dropped in the Redzone, that's one thing but I didn't really see a lot of that. I saw teams selling out to stop the run against us a lot of times. An OC will call a play and in the Redzone, it's going to be defensed on the initial read, a large percentage of the time. Teams scout and they know our tendencies so what you see is a Defense that is prepared for what you come with and, they have the advantage because they really have only part of the field to cover so the play book is much shorter. This makes it even more important for a team to have a QB who can change the play and really take advantage of the Defense. At that point, if you have a QB who can do that, opposing Redzone Defense becomes an advantage for you, much more of the time. I mean, I'm explaining things that I already know you know percy. I've seen these things discussed with you before so I have to question when you say that you are trying to apply logic here. I mean, yes, the QB was the same but so was the OC in each of those seasons. He didn't all of a sudden, forget how to call Redzone. To be honest, I think there is a much larger percentage of calls that come from the both that are probably Audibled in Redzone situations because the D is always going to have something dialed up against the initial look the Offense gives them. That's when the QB becomes more important to me. If you have a guy who can get you in the right play, that's really a key thing because then, you can't stack the Box. Then you have to play more honest on D and that just feeds into the entire scheme we run. Once you play our OL straight up, forget about it. Zeke is going to eat all day and then you pick your poison. If Dak can get to that point, he can put up numbers that will be super impressive because then, it becomes all to easy to just bookleg in or throw to wide open receivers for TDs. But, he has to be able to get there and I have really seen it on a consistent basis yet.
JMO
