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

[JoeKing]

The Cowboys need to chalk this up as a lesson they could only learn the hard way. It will make them a better team if they do their work and correct all the mistakes that were pointed out to them. I equate it to tempering steel in fire.

 

[Sydla]

OL failed but they were also running into a lot of stacked boxes.

To get them softer you have to make some plays down the field. Dak failed there. That's just reality. I worry he's so afraid to make a mistake he's not letting the ball loose down the field.

I don't necessarily like Garrett selling him out but I suspect Garrett is right...... There were plays out there that he missed or quickly opted for the dump off.

Dak is starting to scare me a bit with decision making, etc.

 

[BrassCowboy]

This team basically played awful in all aspects of the game, and coaching staff doesn't have clean hands either. Played soft coverage, runs were all between guards and ineffective, passing game was too conservative, hell even our punting unit was bad (Xavier woods messing up what should of been an easy downing of ball on 1 yard line)

We have to move on from this, learn from it

 

[Cowfan75]

Last season I took back a lot of the harsh things I said about Garrett since he's been here, but yesterday was a an unwelcome blast to the past. The coaching staff was clueless. We had no answer for anything and I refuse to believe we just aren't good enough to compete with Denver. I'm fine with Garrett calling out Dak, but he needed to keep going and call out everyone, including all of the coaching staff.

 

[THEHEREAFTER]

Football is a game of matchups. The things that needed to go right for Denver did and the opposite happened for us. You notice that their offense ran a lot of simple play action. Something we failed to do when their #1 goal was to stop Zeke. ARE OFFENSIVE GAMEPLAN was so horrible. We never ran and we stayed in "empty" shotgun formations far too often. No shotgun play action. No play action period. We made things easier for a really talented defense that simply had our number and matched up well. The refs didn't help us at all but that wasn't the story. Everything that could go wrong did.

 

[jwooten15]

Dak is starting to scare me a bit with decision making, etc.

Same here. Being protective with the football is great - but not when it results in dump off after dump off against stacked boxes.

We obviously couldn't see the whole field, but with 7-8 defenders at the LOS most of the game, there HAD to be shots down the field to be taken.

It's really confusing to me because toward the end of the year last season, Dak would trust his arm and make those downfield throws. It's definitely scary.

 

[Sydla]

Same here. Being protective with the football is great - but not when it results in dump off after dump off against stacked boxes.

We obviously couldn't see the whole field, but with 7-8 defenders at the LOS most of the game, there HAD to be shots down the field to be taken.

It's really confusing to me because toward the end of the year last season, Dak would trust his arm and make those downfield throws. It's definitely scary.

And I should clarify that my issue isn't with him making really awful decisions with dumb passes. Rather, he seems adverse to turnovers and even pressure so he quickly finds Witten or a RB or Beasley on some short route.

Teams that have good defenses like Seattle, Denver, KC even Arizona and Philly will feast on this offense if the game plan and play from Dak calls for runs into stacked boxes and a bunch of short passes.

 

[MRV52]

Football is a game of matchups. The things that needed to go right for Denver did and the opposite happened for us. You notice that their offense ran a lot of simple play action. Something we failed to do when their #1 goal was to stop Zeke. ARE OFFENSIVE GAMEPLAN was so horrible. We never ran and we stayed in "empty" shotgun formations far too often. No shotgun play action. No play action period. We made things easier for a really talented defense that simply had our number and matched up well. The refs didn't help us at all but that wasn't the story. Everything that could go wrong did.

Play action only works when you can run the ball. Who are you going to fool when Denver stacked the box and didn't respect our run game?

 

[Sydla]

Play action only works when you can run the ball. Who are you going to fool when Denver stacked the box and didn't respect our run game?

Stacking the box means they respected our run game. It was Dak they didn't respect.

 

[Macnalty]

Altitude was the least of the problems.

That was without a doubt classic altitude issues. Decisions get sloppy and your lungs dictate the body. Does not affect everyone the same. I do agree it was not the main cause but certainly a contributor, lack of 0xygen is a ***** when you have exert yourself.

They got manhandled; missed tackles, poor angles, drops, penalties, etc just led to a blow out. It happens and it seems to happen a to every team that visits Denver in September so I'm gonna write this off as crap performance and see what the team does against the Cardinals.

Denver's D was awesome - best secondary in the NFL and Von Miller looked All-Pro

I thought DeMarcus Lawrence was great aside from that TERRIBLE penalty

Byron Jones - worst game I've even seen him play

Well Dez, Jenkins gave you a hard time, Talib ran your routes better than you did and now you get Patrick Peterson... You getting paid like a Pro Bowler so no excuses for you 88...

Hopefully we can get some healthy bodies in the secondary

But I'm not sweating this game and expect Dallas to bounce back

 

[Hoofbite]

That was without a doubt classic altitude issues. Decisions get sloppy and your lungs dictate the body. Does not affect everyone the same. I do agree it was not the main cause but certainly a contributor, lack of 0xygen is a ***** when you have exert yourself.

They got manhandled; missed tackles, poor angles, drops, penalties, etc just led to a blow out. It happens and it seems to happen a to every team that visits Denver in September so I'm gonna write this off as crap performance and see what the team does against the Cardinals.

I don't buy it. The Chargers seemed to acclimate well enough to not be embarrassed. Much of the problems you've listed are not things I would even attribute to altitude. Missed tackles, penalties, poor angles, and drops. Those are all the fundamentals so I can't say altitude would be to blame. The team didn't looked to be gassed, they just looked to be horribly unprepared to play a game.

If altitude was such an influential factor it wouldn't be limited to just September. It's hard to imagine any reason why the altitude would be influential in September, but not in the months that follow. If it's that big of a factor, it should be apparent throughout the entire NFL season. Is there some impact from altitude? Perhaps, to what extent I'm not sure anyone could know. Denver has all of the major sports and it's not like that city is celebrating championships any more frequently than the other major sports cities.

Denver's D was awesome - best secondary in the NFL and Von Miller looked All-Pro

Miller looked great towards the end when he was allowed to disregard any sort of positional responsibility outside of rushing the passer. To his credit he did what he supposed to by taking down the QB but he wasn't looking All-Pro for much of the game. He's still a great talent but racking up sacks in the last 5 minutes of a blowout isn't exactly the hallmark of an All-Pro.

I thought DeMarcus Lawrence was great aside from that TERRIBLE penalty

I would agree. He had a great game and is off to a great start. His season could be bittersweet in that he plays at a level that raises his price through the roof. Not sure what to think about a guy suddenly turning it on in a contract year.

The penalty was unfortunate, but as Troy pointed out that penalty became an emphasis in 2016. It's so rarely called it's hard to imagine it being an emphasis, but the league told teams they were going to scrutinize those plays to a greater extent. Only 12 of those were called in 2016.

Byron Jones - worst game I've even seen him play

Well Dez, Jenkins gave you a hard time, Talib ran your routes better than you did and now you get Patrick Peterson... You getting paid like a Pro Bowler so no excuses for you 88...

Hopefully we can get some healthy bodies in the secondary

But I'm not sweating this game and expect Dallas to bounce back

I don't know what to expect. The OL hasn't looked all that good in either game. The DT for the Giants abused the middle OL and yesterday was an all around failure. If Dallas is to bounce back, it's going to have to come from coaching. When your RT is getting overwhelmed, get him some help. This team absolutely refused to deviate from the 2 TE setup for so long when they should have been utilizing more 3 WR formations. They had an excellent QB in Romo and repeatedly limited his receiving options by babysitting the right side of the OL with a TE. Now that they have a QB who isn't the passer Romo was, they're asking him to make due with heavy pressure just so Brice Butler can drop a few more routine passes. It's hard to figure out what the coaches are actually trying to do because they don't seem to know what best suits this team right now. Hurry-up offense and 46 attempts per game is not what this team was built to do, but that is how things have played out thus far.

 

[Doomsday]

I have a really hard time pinning this on the offensive line. There are going to be times where defenses are going to load up vs Zeke and dare Dak to make plays.

They had 8 and 9 men in the box and Dallas still couldn't complete any passes. The Denver coaches stated days before the game they were going to stop Zeke first and foremost and the offense still had nothing ready for them. No misdirection plays, no slants or crossing routes, no outside runs. Just run Zeke 5 times in 2 1/2 quarters right up the gut into a defense with 8 and 9 people all zeroed in on him.

Linehan's idea of getting Zeke involved in the passing game is lining him up wide and throwing basically a WR screen to him. The creativity is mind blowing.

 

[Macnalty]

I don't buy it. The Chargers seemed to acclimate well enough to not be embarrassed. Much of the problems you've listed are not things I would even attribute to altitude. Missed tackles, penalties, poor angles, and drops. Those are all the fundamentals so I can't say altitude would be to blame. The team didn't looked to be gassed, they just looked to be horribly unprepared to play a game.

If altitude was such an influential factor it wouldn't be limited to just September. It's hard to imagine any reason why the altitude would be influential in September, but not in the months that follow. If it's that big of a factor, it should be apparent throughout the entire NFL season. Is there some impact from altitude? Perhaps, to what extent I'm not sure anyone could know. Denver has all of the major sports and it's not like that city is celebrating championships any more frequently than the other major sports cities.



Miller looked great towards the end when he was allowed to disregard any sort of positional responsibility outside of rushing the passer. To his credit he did what he supposed to by taking down the QB but he wasn't looking All-Pro for much of the game. He's still a great talent but racking up sacks in the last 5 minutes of a blowout isn't exactly the hallmark of an All-Pro.



I would agree. He had a great game and is off to a great start. His season could be bittersweet in that he plays at a level that raises his price through the roof. Not sure what to think about a guy suddenly turning it on in a contract year.

The penalty was unfortunate, but as Troy pointed out that penalty became an emphasis in 2016. It's so rarely called it's hard to imagine it being an emphasis, but the league told teams they were going to scrutinize those plays to a greater extent. Only 12 of those were called in 2016.



I don't know what to expect. The OL hasn't looked all that good in either game. The DT for the Giants abused the middle OL and yesterday was an all around failure. If Dallas is to bounce back, it's going to have to come from coaching. When your RT is getting overwhelmed, get him some help. This team absolutely refused to deviate from the 2 TE setup for so long when they should have been utilizing more 3 WR formations. They had an excellent QB in Romo and repeatedly limited his receiving options by babysitting the right side of the OL with a TE. Now that they have a QB who isn't the passer Romo was, they're asking him to make due with heavy pressure just so Brice Butler can drop a few more routine passes. It's hard to figure out what the coaches are actually trying to do because they don't seem to know what best suits this team right now. Hurry-up offense and 46 attempts per game is not what this team was built to do, but that is how things have played out thus far.

I promise you the Chargers felt the altitude. I coached in Colorado Springs and if you could get your opponents stressed at the beginning of a match they were always trying to catch up with their breath between bursts of activity, a big reason we have the Olympic training center in the Springs.
The most common misconception is that the oxygen (O2) content of air mixture is lower in Denver than the rest of the continental United States. Not so. In the DFW metro area as well as Denver, both locales contain roughly 21% oxygen in the atmosphere. However, the higher you go in altitude the less the barometric pressure, which is to say air pressure decreases as elevation increases. The partial pressure over oxygen is lower in Denver and so less oxygen is available for your respiration and recovery. This can lead to breathing difficulties or diminished athletic performance(Dak), especially for those who are not from the area. That is the real reason the Broncos have consistently the best home record in the NFL over the course of 32 years, and most attribute this to the field's unique elevation. I think and correct me if I am wrong but most NFL football players are still getting into shape these first couple of weeks of the schedule ...

Great point on that penalty only being called 12 times in 2016

I think it has less to do with Dlaw turning it on, and more to the point he has little pain in that back. It is amazing how the contract and playing level correspond to each other.

I hope like you the coaches are doing autopsies on their gameplan and have learned something.

I still feel confident we can beat the Cardinals. They struggled yesterday about like we did.

If Dak struggles one more game it may mean we do not have that guy we thought.

 

[Sydla]

One of the things that is also bugging me is the excuse making that starts with, "well we faced two really good DLs, so you should expect a tough game."

Except that's why we INVESTED HEAVILY in our OL. To handle DLs like this. What good is pouring resources into the OL if you are just going to have your OL get manhandled by better defensive fronts?

The OL was a major disappointment yesterday. They are far from an elite OL if that's the type of play we will see.

 

[Bleedblue1111]

Look in the mirror offensive line. Dak will

The offensive line got owned early by the Denver D Line. This is where ALL the problems in yesterday's game manifested from.

 

[4lifecowboy]

Altitude was the least of the problems.

Or the source of......

 

[Staubacher]

I have a really hard time pinning this on the offensive line. There are going to be times where defenses are going to load up vs Zeke and dare Dak to make plays.

They had 8 and 9 men in the box and Dallas still couldn't complete any passes. The Denver coaches stated days before the game they were going to stop Zeke first and foremost and the offense still had nothing ready for them. No misdirection plays, no slants or crossing routes, no outside runs. Just run Zeke 5 times in 2 1/2 quarters right up the gut into a defense with 8 and 9 people all zeroed in on him.

Linehan's idea of getting Zeke involved in the passing game is lining him up wide and throwing basically a WR screen to him. The creativity is mind blowing.

I'd like to see an analysis of the all-22. Was Dak not seeing open receivers quickly enough? I dunno just curious.

 

[eyedoc]

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.

I am right ther with u Hawkeye. It's one game of sixteen. Hopefully we learn from it and move on. Go Cowboys

 

[wssaustin]

We live and die by the running game. Can't run? Well, find way to do it.

Heck, I'd have Zeke run straight against Von Miller in the beginning to get him tired quickly.

Tired of Linehan getting cute, costed us the GB play off game already.