Dallas is 0-16 the Last 2 Years When They Don't Score 30

[buybuydandavis]

The D is bad. Granted. But we are 31st in the NFL in terms of cap dollars committed to the D. If you want to look at ROI... look at our inconsistent performances on Offense. That is where we have sunk our money, and they are simply not dominant enough to take leads and control games consistently enough considering the investment.

We have spent more on offense for a long time, but Garrett in particular wouldn't push them to carry the responsibility that should go with just being better.

But while we haven't put money into the defense, we did put in picks. Look at defensive picks 2016-2019, rounds 1-5. They should be the heart of the defense now. That's real resource. Total meh for us this year.

The total collapse on defense in 2020 was draft failure 2016-2019, plus complete FA/Veteran bad ROI in 2020.

McCoy, Poe, Dix, Griffen, Worley, and the worst of all, with the least excuse, Crawford.

Sad, but should add Lee to this. He did nothing this year, for 4.5mil. He was over, and they didn't see it.

I don't include Jaylon because we were stuck with his contract. We aren't now. Time to move on, unless they know legitimate *medical* reasons to expect better.

McClay and his staff need to answer for this complete failure on personnel on defense.

On the bright side, Diggs, Gallimore, maybe Anae showed something. Not a fail for 2020 defensive draft yet.

 

[ondaedg]

Our defense sucks and is a huge reason — the biggest reason in fact— we are not competitive.

But here is another reason we suck. Our “all world” offense consistently gets off to flat, slow starts. They make a lot of dumb mistakes. Their best players routinely turn the ball over.

All this puts us regularly in the place where Dak and the offense have to scramble to come back in most of their games.

The D is bad. Granted. But we are 31st in the NFL in terms of cap dollars committed to the D. If you want to look at ROI... look at our inconsistent performances on Offense. That is where we have sunk our money, and they are simply not dominant enough to take leads and control games consistently enough considering the investment.

You are right to want better from our D. But don’t avoid holding the offense accountable... and especially this front office accountable— for the quality of the product on the field

Lots of teams get off to slow starts and still win because their defense steps up with a big stop or takeaway. Our defense has been among the very worst in takeaways for 11 years and has been bend and try not to break.

 

[MyFairLady]

Jaylon can do it. It's the coaches fault. We like our guys.

 

[Zekeats]

Pathetic. But hey, it's all Dak's fault!!

Stop spotting teams with pot

 

[gjkoeppen]

Our defense sucks and is a huge reason — the biggest reason in fact— we are not competitive.

But here is another reason we suck. Our “all world” offense consistently gets off to flat, slow starts. They make a lot of dumb mistakes. Their best players routinely turn the ball over.

All this puts us regularly in the place where Dak and the offense have to scramble to come back in most of their games.

The D is bad. Granted. But we are 31st in the NFL in terms of cap dollars committed to the D. If you want to look at ROI... look at our inconsistent performances on Offense. That is where we have sunk our money, and they are simply not dominant enough to take leads and control games consistently enough considering the investment.

You are right to want better from our D. But don’t avoid holding the offense accountable... and especially this front office accountable— for the quality of the product on the field

You're full of horse pucky. This thread is about the Cowboys record when they don't score at least 30 and lose and you want to blame the offense when the blame is totally the defense. Want proof, the same defense that when the Cowboys score 30 or more points they also lost games. Then you say the players routinely turn the ball over and this year the rams had the same turnover differential,the bears and Washington a worse and they were playoff teams. Now if Prescott and the offense has to scramble to come back in games is because the defense didn't stop the other team. Now lets see the Cowboys had games where they scored 31 but the defense gave up 38, then there's a game where the offense scored 38 points and in 99% of the time that's enough to win but the defense gave up 49 points. To many times the offense tried to cover for a terrible defense but unfortunately not even an offense that scores 30 or more point could cover that defense.
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[gjkoeppen]

So the trick to victory is to score at least 30 points?

Actually to a large part yes. Most teams that score 30 or more points have a much higher number of wins than losses.
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[QuincyCarterEra]

Our defense sucks and is a huge reason — the biggest reason in fact— we are not competitive.

But here is another reason we suck. Our “all world” offense consistently gets off to flat, slow starts. They make a lot of dumb mistakes. Their best players routinely turn the ball over.

All this puts us regularly in the place where Dak and the offense have to scramble to come back in most of their games.

The D is bad. Granted. But we are 31st in the NFL in terms of cap dollars committed to the D. If you want to look at ROI... look at our inconsistent performances on Offense. That is where we have sunk our money, and they are simply not dominant enough to take leads and control games consistently enough considering the investment.

You are right to want better from our D. But don’t avoid holding the offense accountable... and especially this front office accountable— for the quality of the product on the field

Define slow starts. Using numbers

Also it wouldn't be the best exercise to simply use CAP when that's not the only resource used.

Defensive starters have a 1st(2018), 2nd(2014), 2nd(2015), 2nd(2016), 2nd(2017), 2nd(2020), 3rd(2017), 3rd(2020). Only positions without top 100 picks are NT, and both SAF spots. This doesn't include misses like Taco.
The dispoportion in CAP between both sides is simply due to the offensive draft picks working out and our defensive ones not.

 

[gjkoeppen]

Cavenaugh is full of it.

Here are the point totals in our losses over the last two seasons.
As you can see. In the 18 losses, the offense lit it up (scored over 30) 2 times.
We actually scored 10 or less points 3 times in both years (6 total)

2019
10
22
24
24
9
15
24
9

2020
17
31
38
10
3
9
19
16
17
19

Here's what you didn't say with you lost listings. In 2019 the average score in games for the league was 22.8 and the Cowboys had the 6th ranked scoring offense averaging 27.1 points per game. Now like all averages there are some with higher scores and some with lower scores. Now with 3 games of scoring 24 points, more than the league average for 2019 that should have been enough to win those games but the defense gave up 34, 28 and 31 points in those games, well over the average winning scores. Now just like many teams, offenses have games where they struggle and the Cowboys offense did struggle in some games, but before you try to put the blame for all the losses on the offense you need to take a lot at the whole picture.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/NFL/scoring.htm
https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/points-per-game?date=2020-02-03
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[Hawkeye19]

Well, you’d be confidently wrong. Give me a break.

Agree to disagree...all good bro. We definitely start slow and play inconsistent offensive football to start games.

 

[Hawkeye19]

Define slow starts. Using numbers

Also it wouldn't be the best exercise to simply use CAP when that's not the only resource used.

Defensive starters have a 1st(2018), 2nd(2014), 2nd(2015), 2nd(2016), 2nd(2017), 2nd(2020), 3rd(2017), 3rd(2020). Only positions without top 100 picks are NT, and both SAF spots. This doesn't include misses like Taco.
The dispoportion in CAP between both sides is simply due to the offensive draft picks working out and our defensive ones not.

We went something like 18 straight games without a first drive TD...one of the worst numbers in the league. Our offensive philosophy that worked in 2016 was simple. Run the ball, control the clock, protect the football, and utilize an efficient passing attack. Results? 13-3 and a division title.

The last 3 years, we have not the run ball as well, turned the ball over more offensively (especially 2020), and not controlled the TOP as much. Our passing numbers look inflated because we are always throwing to catch up vs in 2016 when we were running and choking teams out. Results? Mediocrity.

Our OL is no longer a dominant strength. Zeke is no longer a dominant strength. And ur D is an out and out liability.

 

[Hawkeye19]

Lots of teams get off to slow starts and still win because their defense steps up with a big stop or takeaway. Our defense has been among the very worst in takeaways for 11 years and has been bend and try not to break.

For sure. I agree. The D is broken. But in all our quest for accountability, don't leave the inconsistencies and struggles of the offense out of the conversation.

 

[Hawkeye19]

You're full of horse pucky. This thread is about the Cowboys record when they don't score at least 30 and lose and you want to blame the offense when the blame is totally the defense. Want proof, the same defense that when the Cowboys score 30 or more points they also lost games. Then you say the players routinely turn the ball over and this year the rams had the same turnover differential,the bears and Washington a worse and they were playoff teams. Now if Prescott and the offense has to scramble to come back in games is because the defense didn't stop the other team. Now lets see the Cowboys had games where they scored 31 but the defense gave up 38, then there's a game where the offense scored 38 points and in 99% of the time that's enough to win but the defense gave up 49 points. To many times the offense tried to cover for a terrible defense but unfortunately not even an offense that scores 30 or more point could cover that defense.
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Wrong. My point is simple if you care to go back and read. I completely agreed that the D is the main culprit. I am also merely suggesting that the offense has had it's fair share of struggles as well. Don't be binary and black and white. Two things can be true simultaneously: Our D is atrocious. And our offense is inconsistent and turns the ball over too much. I hope I didn't just melt your brain.

 

[Flamma]

Here's what you didn't say with you lost listings. In 2019 the average score in games for the league was 22.8 and the Cowboys had the 6th ranked scoring offense averaging 27.1 points per game. Now like all averages there are some with higher scores and some with lower scores. Now with 3 games of scoring 24 points, more than the league average for 2019 that should have been enough to win those games but the defense gave up 34, 28 and 31 points in those games, well over the average winning scores. Now just like many teams, offenses have games where they struggle and the Cowboys offense did struggle in some games, but before you try to put the blame for all the losses on the offense you need to take a lot at the whole picture.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/NFL/scoring.htm
https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/points-per-game?date=2020-02-03
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I give the defense 95% of the blame for 2020, not 2019. I don't like averages. Because had the Cowboys actually scored 27.1 points per game, they would have been 12-3-1 in 2019. So that average PPG is misleading. Because that offense struggled mightily against most teams with a halfway decent D.

 

[QuincyCarterEra]

We went something like 18 straight games without a first drive TD...one of the worst numbers in the league. Our offensive philosophy that worked in 2016 was simple. Run the ball, control the clock, protect the football, and utilize an efficient passing attack. Results? 13-3 and a division title.

The last 3 years, we have not the run ball as well, turned the ball over more offensively (especially 2020), and not controlled the TOP as much. Our passing numbers look inflated because we are always throwing to catch up vs in 2016 when we were running and choking teams out. Results? Mediocrity.

Our OL is no longer a dominant strength. Zeke is no longer a dominant strength. And ur D is an out and out liability.

So the subset you chose for clow starts is:
Only the 1st drive
Must be a touchdown

Teams score a touchdown on their first drive only 19.7% of the time. This includes kick returns and punt returns which I can't filter out.
Teams don't score at all 66.9% of the time(again including returns), so if you score a field goal on your first drive you are ahead of the sticks, and statistically it is not a slow start at all.

We did score TDs on the first drive in 3 games(2 losses and one win) with Dak under center the past two seasons, 0 without Dak. But with roughly three times as many field goals as the average.

Right our 2016 philosophy was easy in 2016, because our personnel was that good we could have run just about any system and they would have been dominant. That philosophy using the personnel currently would get us killed every week. We are a much more efficient passing team than we are a running team(unless we are talking about our QB rushes which are extremely efficient).

 

[Redball Express]

Pathetic. But hey, it's all Dak's fault!!

This to me is chiefly becuz we have stubbornly adhered to being a run dominating offensive
-style team with Zeke.

The league has shifted radically to a pass first run 2nd league. We have not changed to that as we still try to drive the offense thru Elliott.

And he is wearing down as has the OL required to make it work.

If Dak returns healthy and the OL returns to form..Zeke will get less carries but the running game should improve somewhat as long as the offense can spread the defense with the receivers and stop letting other teams stack the box to stop Zeke.

Zeke can make 1 guy miss or run over him. But 3-4 guys? Nope.

 

[CoachD]

You can argue back and forth about offense and defense but during the early 90's when they won 3 superbowls and went to four straight NFC Championship games the Cowboys had great offenses, defenses, and special teams so you need them all to be in the show!

 

[GMO415]

Our offense has to play mistake free football, because our defense couldn't even shut a door in a one door house.

 

[Buzzbait]

Yeah, who knew Dak sucks at defense.
I forget what position does he play?

He plays 'em all, OL, DL, CB, you name it. He's clearly to blame for all of it.

 

[nightrain]

With all the talk of analytics in sports today, you really have to wonder what the hell the Jones boys are doing. That's some low hanging data that speaks volumes.

 

[MarcusRock]

No, I just showed that 16 of the 18 losses---or almost every single one of them-- we DID NOT have to score 30 to win....not even close in most cases..
The exact opposite of what you just said. 16 of 18.

In fact, 6 of them we would've won only scoring over 10....but we couldn't even do that.

Sure, our offense is usually better than the D, but this thread premise is total bull.

Appreciate your questioning the numbers but you made a semi-misleading statement above although the statement is true. Where Dallas scored 10 points or less the past 2 seasons, they clearly didn't need to barely clear 10 points to win. In those 6 losses, opponents scored 12, 13, 17 (last season) and 38, 25, 23 (this season). Last season they just needed to score in the teens in those games to win so that might support the point you were making. This season you see a huge difference for what the offense needed to do to win those games while getting stomped on defense.

As for your lead statement, that one IS false. In the past 2 years, we needed to score at least 30 points to win 7 times and needed to score 29 in one case, plus needed to score 39 or higher 5 times this season alone (we won 1 of those).

By the way, where were you when the "no holds on opponent passing plays for 8 straight weeks" crap of a tweet was released that "proved" bias against the Cowboys? THAT was a bunch of hooey, especially considering Detroit went through a similar stretch that very same year! Lol.