News: Cowboys' ugly loss to Broncos reveals potentially serious flaws

[CCBoy]

Cowboys' ugly loss to Broncos reveals potentially serious flaws
https://sports.yahoo.com/cowboys-ugly-loss-broncos-reveals-potentially-serious-flaws-020712397.html



...The 2016 season was really very simple for the Cowboys. They ran the ball as well as anyone. They controlled the clock. Their quarterback hardly ever turned the ball over because he rarely had to force anything down the field, and opponents had to fear — not respect, fear — the run game. It was a straightforward route to success, a route they rode to a 13-3 regular-season record.

It’s also a route they veered off of on Sunday afternoon against the Broncos, who punked the Cowboys up front on both sides of the ball. It wasn’t only a frustrating loss, but one that exposed a lot of potential issues for Dallas.

The numbers aren’t pretty: Ezekiel Elliott ran for eight yards. His previous low was 51, which came in his NFL debut, which his team also lost. The Cowboys lost the time-of-possession battle by nearly eight minutes. They converted three of 14 on third down, while the Broncos converted nine of 15, including seven straight at one defining point of the contest.

There are two big issues, and they go hand-in-hand. The first: The Cowboys couldn’t run the ball — a tenet upon which they are built — so their offense couldn’t stay on the field. Then there’s issue No. 2: the defensive problems, which were often masked by a dominant offense last year. The Cowboys whiffed on tackle after tackle. They missed assignments. They lost one-on-one matchups. Trevor Siemian looked like John Elway, C.J. Anderson like Terrell Davis.

 

[waving monkey]

Look in the mirror offensive line. Dak will

 

[BrassCowboy]

yeah the offensive line let everyone through, Dak did not have the nice clean pocket he usually does. Defense was just exposed for what it really is and that is young defensive backfield and a patch job line.This was basically the entire team did not play very good at all.

 

[Alohawg1]

The poor tackling was the most inexcusable because it's as fundamental as football gets.

 

[Hawkeye19]

This was a total team loss. Period. The great Tom Brady and the NE Patriots looked awful week one against the Chiefs and they gave up 42 points. At home!

Just not gonna panic or freak out over a road loss against a very good defense.

 

[csirl]

We dont know if we couldnt run the ball - we never tried. It was a coaching mistake to abandon the run too early when we went behind. Pounding away may have worn the Broncos down. You also want to reduce the number of plays in the game to keep the Broncos offense off the field and counteract the altitude advantage.

 

[Cmac]

Headlines on Undisputed and First Take today.

 

[AmericanCowboy]

There were a billion issues in this game.

Tackling was atrocious. These Broncos Wide Receivers were WIDE open half the time. I mean, I could have made some of those throws and on top of that there were like three other times when coverage was busted and Simien didn't see it.

Absolutely inexcusable. I don't understand. You have a very limited quarterback back there in Simien, yet our plan was to rush 4 and play soft zone coverage?

I have no idea why we continually do that against bad QBs. I know Sanders and Thomas are good but Jeez-from the beginning we played terrified of them.

Byron Jones has absolutely zero awareness on the football field and hasn't made a play in a full calendar year-SOMEONE needs to be benched, or someone should have been benched but of course it didn't happen.

And again, choosing to punt when you can go for it when your defense is ALWAYS on the field for 7 minutes at a time is such as terrible terrible decision.

We have the worst Head Coach in football and it will go down as another wasted season.

We went the whole first half without a penalty called for us- Hey Garrett- how about talking to a ref about it and getting in his face?

He just has this bravado that everything is fine all the time and it is sickening. Hearing him say he wanted us to relax during the weather delay was ridiculous when we were playing awful to begin with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[AmericanCowboy]

We dont know if we couldnt run the ball - we never tried. It was a coaching mistake to abandon the run too early when we went behind. Pounding away may have worn the Broncos down. You also want to reduce the number of plays in the game to keep the Broncos offense off the field and counteract the altitude advantage.

No man. Garrett said altitude didn't matter at all- so much so that he didn't even discuss it with the team because he didn't want them thinking about it.

That makes perfect sense.

 

[Sarge]

Team wasn't ready to play AGAIN. played poorly in all aspects of the game.

 

[noshame]

They only thing I noticed we ran last night was linehan's base offense, you know the one we ran in 2015. What happened to the hybrid they implemented last year, it was effective it was never stopped and yet it disappeared.
Denver played us the same way teams played us in 2015 move everybody up and challenge us to get the ball down the field.

So, we played a really good defense in a really loud Stadium but we knew what was coming we Shoulda rolled Dak out more, we should have pitched to Elliot and let him get to the edge but we did none of it. Obviously the offensive line read their own press in the off-season.

And I'm done with the play it safe Rod Marinelli defense.

 

[AmericanCowboy]

They only thing I noticed we ran last night was linehan's base offense, you know the one we ran in 2015. What happened to the hybrid they implemented last year, it was effective it was never stopped and yet it disappeared.
Denver played us the same way teams played us in 2015 move everybody up and challenge us to get the ball down the field.

So, we played a really good defense in a really loud Stadium but we knew what was coming we Shoulda rolled Dak out more, we should have pitched to Elliot and let him get to the edge but we did none of it. Obviously the offensive line read their own press in the off-season.

And I'm done with the play it safe Rod Marinelli defense.

We should be utilizing Dak as a rusher more especially against these elite defenses

 

[Gaede]

We dont know if we couldnt run the ball - we never tried. It was a coaching mistake to abandon the run too early when we went behind. Pounding away may have worn the Broncos down. You also want to reduce the number of plays in the game to keep the Broncos offense off the field and counteract the altitude advantage.

Exactly. 10 mins into the third quarter, we had run the ball 5 times

 

[Macnalty]

No man. Garrett said altitude didn't matter at all- so much so that he didn't even discuss it with the team because he didn't want them thinking about it.

That makes perfect sense.

That was a classic game where altitude came into play. Still no excuse for the coaching and execution.

 

[John813]

When Sean Lee has a bad game you know the defense is going to be terrible.

 

[AmericanCowboy]

When Sean Lee has a bad game you know the defense is going to be terrible.

seriously he was awful

 

[TheBigEasy]

The poor tackling was the most inexcusable because it's as fundamental as football gets.

And I'll be the first one to admit, that after last week's game, I took note of how well they were tackling & FINISHING tackles. I was beyond ecstatic to be a fan of a team that actually worked on the 'basics' in the offseason. False advertising at its finest.

 

[Hoofbite]

That was a classic game where altitude came into play. Still no excuse for the coaching and execution.

Altitude was the least of the problems.

 

[Sydla]

There were a billion issues in this game.

Tackling was atrocious. These Broncos Wide Receivers were WIDE open half the time. I mean, I could have made some of those throws and on top of that there were like three other times when coverage was busted and Simien didn't see it.

Absolutely inexcusable. I don't understand. You have a very limited quarterback back there in Simien, yet our plan was to rush 4 and play soft zone coverage?

I have no idea why we continually do that against bad QBs. I know Sanders and Thomas are good but Jeez-from the beginning we played terrified of them.

Byron Jones has absolutely zero awareness on the football field and hasn't made a play in a full calendar year-SOMEONE needs to be benched, or someone should have been benched but of course it didn't happen.

And again, choosing to punt when you can go for it when your defense is ALWAYS on the field for 7 minutes at a time is such as terrible terrible decision.

We have the worst Head Coach in football and it will go down as another wasted season.

We went the whole first half without a penalty called for us- Hey Garrett- how about talking to a ref about it and getting in his face?

He just has this bravado that everything is fine all the time and it is sickening. Hearing him say he wanted us to relax during the weather delay was ridiculous when we were playing awful to begin with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rod loves him those soft zones with ten yard cushions

 

[DFWJC]

The oline was playing 5 or 6 on 8

We didn't make them pay for that

Minnesota did the same thing last year with success.
Most teams cant pull it off though