Dallas lost because they were tactically outcoached

[SteveTheCowboy]

Outcoached?

How about we just suck. It's that simple.

 

[Cmac]

First, let's start with the defense



Its painful to watch but relevant. If you look at the running plays, the Packers are frequently running the same blocking scheme that has killed the Cowboys for a while. All of the linemen immediately go one direction. There is no pulling or complicated scheme. What is happening here is that defenders are trying to hold their gap as the gap rapidly moves to one side. With the size limitations of the defenders involved, eventually one of the gaps opens and Jones is free to pick it. GB isn't running plays into specific holes as much as just letting Jones go where the defense isn't. This isn't new. Teams have been doing this and it worked. There are fixes for this, like putting 8 in the box, 5 linemen, etc. and but I have seen no effort by Quinn to fundamentally change the tactics to address this weakness.

The issues with the team for some reason starting the game in a soft zone have been well documented. I have no idea why this was tried, much less why Dallas kept doing it when it obviously was not working.

......

When Dallas was on offense, GB didn't copy recent teams. I'll give them credit. They sat down and figured out a good number of Dallas' plays at a fundamental level. Dak has publicly commented that they were changing at the snap. If you have followed him all year, what Dak does is he gets a pre-snap read and that tells him which side of the field to throw to. He then usually has a single high/low read leading to a quick throw. This has been the offense all year and for the most part, it worked well. What GB did is figured out a way to break Dak's read progression. That's why he had the deer in the headlights look. The offense is set up for quick throws off 1 2 reads. Again, like the defense, there are fixes for this that can be done with playcalling and personnel. McCarthy didn't do anything and just kept feeding the players into the meatgrinder.

..........

Before the game, McCarthy was quoted as saying something to the effect of "you do what got you here". Quite frankly, this is reminiscent of a lot of Garrett's philosophy of just line up and beat your man. On offense, the team seemed to have absolutely no game specific plays or plans. McCarthy seemed to be treating it like a preseason game while LaFleur had prepared like it was the super bowl.

I do not blame the players nearly as much as others here do. I didn't see a ton of fumbles or missed assignments or dropped balls leading to a loss. Dak wasn't air mailing balls 10 feet over people's heads. They were put in a bad situation tactically and were not prepared to play. The NFL is a coach's league in that regard. GB took guys like Parsons and CeeDee out of the game which is possible when the Cowboys staff just sits on their hands and ignores the game being played in front of them.

I think McCarthy has done some good things in Dallas. Same with Quinn. That said, they both seem to have the same fundamental flaw in that they are not great preparers or in game coaches. If their base tactics don't work or things start going against them, they are powerless to change things up. This was a knock against them prior to their time in Dallas and it all came together on Sunday. This was also a knock on Garrett, who also was no tactical or game preparation genius.

As others have said, this all eventually falls back on Jerry but I'll be specific about it. Jerry doesn't know enough about football apparently to evaluate if the coach talking in front of him knows what he is talking about. As a result, he just falls for their lines about "analytics" hook line and sinker. Dallas is going to keep falling into the same trap as a result. Until the cowboys have a disciplinarian head coach backed up by tactically smart assistants, they will always fall short.

Relevant old article that really shows how brain dead Jerry is regarding coaching:
https://www.espn.com/blog/dallas-co...lls-2005-cowboys-staff-has-seventh-head-coach

As said......the definition of insanity......"doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results". There you have it.

 

[Whirlwin]

I’m about time somebody put the blame where it actually belongs, thank you

 

[Whirlwin]

Yep, I agree. Looked like mike was ordering takeout from a menu.
Quinn was lost playing zone, when all season he played man to man…

But as much as I want blame the coaches…
The players and their country club attitude draw my ire the most.

Aside from Dak laying a stinker
Where was that loudmouth parsons? The so called lion, more of a house cat than anything else

You scored 30 something points you should be winning a football game. Another one blaming Prescott oh my God.

 

[Whirlwin]

Being out-coached is part of it, but there are more problems than just coaching facing this team. And, unless serious changes are made this off-season, we can expect the same outcome again next season.

Your players can only be put in a position to win if they are coached properly. Period.
One of the youngest teams in the league. And we played like it mentally. And that is 100% percent on coaching.

 

[FoxF]

Great read.

 

[silvernblu]

First, let's start with the defense



Its painful to watch but relevant. If you look at the running plays, the Packers are frequently running the same blocking scheme that has killed the Cowboys for a while. All of the linemen immediately go one direction. There is no pulling or complicated scheme. What is happening here is that defenders are trying to hold their gap as the gap rapidly moves to one side. With the size limitations of the defenders involved, eventually one of the gaps opens and Jones is free to pick it. GB isn't running plays into specific holes as much as just letting Jones go where the defense isn't. This isn't new. Teams have been doing this and it worked. There are fixes for this, like putting 8 in the box, 5 linemen, etc. and but I have seen no effort by Quinn to fundamentally change the tactics to address this weakness.

The issues with the team for some reason starting the game in a soft zone have been well documented. I have no idea why this was tried, much less why Dallas kept doing it when it obviously was not working.

......

When Dallas was on offense, GB didn't copy recent teams. I'll give them credit. They sat down and figured out a good number of Dallas' plays at a fundamental level. Dak has publicly commented that they were changing at the snap. If you have followed him all year, what Dak does is he gets a pre-snap read and that tells him which side of the field to throw to. He then usually has a single high/low read leading to a quick throw. This has been the offense all year and for the most part, it worked well. What GB did is figured out a way to break Dak's read progression. That's why he had the deer in the headlights look. The offense is set up for quick throws off 1 2 reads. Again, like the defense, there are fixes for this that can be done with playcalling and personnel. McCarthy didn't do anything and just kept feeding the players into the meatgrinder.

..........

Before the game, McCarthy was quoted as saying something to the effect of "you do what got you here". Quite frankly, this is reminiscent of a lot of Garrett's philosophy of just line up and beat your man. On offense, the team seemed to have absolutely no game specific plays or plans. McCarthy seemed to be treating it like a preseason game while LaFleur had prepared like it was the super bowl.

I do not blame the players nearly as much as others here do. I didn't see a ton of fumbles or missed assignments or dropped balls leading to a loss. Dak wasn't air mailing balls 10 feet over people's heads. They were put in a bad situation tactically and were not prepared to play. The NFL is a coach's league in that regard. GB took guys like Parsons and CeeDee out of the game which is possible when the Cowboys staff just sits on their hands and ignores the game being played in front of them.

I think McCarthy has done some good things in Dallas. Same with Quinn. That said, they both seem to have the same fundamental flaw in that they are not great preparers or in game coaches. If their base tactics don't work or things start going against them, they are powerless to change things up. This was a knock against them prior to their time in Dallas and it all came together on Sunday. This was also a knock on Garrett, who also was no tactical or game preparation genius.

As others have said, this all eventually falls back on Jerry but I'll be specific about it. Jerry doesn't know enough about football apparently to evaluate if the coach talking in front of him knows what he is talking about. As a result, he just falls for their lines about "analytics" hook line and sinker. Dallas is going to keep falling into the same trap as a result. Until the cowboys have a disciplinarian head coach backed up by tactically smart assistants, they will always fall short.

Relevant old article that really shows how brain dead Jerry is regarding coaching:
https://www.espn.com/blog/dallas-co...lls-2005-cowboys-staff-has-seventh-head-coach

This is a very very good post.

 

[duane33]

Your players can only be put in a position to win if they are coached properly. Period.
One of the youngest teams in the league. And we played like it mentally. And that is 100% percent on coaching.

Agree lack of prep by Dallas coaches. Have to do something different in playoffs to survive, the other team has a full season of tape to watch on your tendencies. Falls on coaches, but through Parcells , Wade Phillips, Garrett, MM, the constant is JJ as GM, but that isn’t going to change until he dies and may not change, his son may take that spot. But he won’t give it up so he has to try another coach

 

[NumOneQB]

That’s part of it, no doubt. But players take equal blame. Dak’s 1st half performance, CD dropping passes, defensive penalties keeping drives alive, DB’s jogging during plays.

 

[SlammedZero]

Nice write up OP.

This is what drives me bonkers about this team is the coaching inability to play the chess match.

You hear all the time, when Dallas loses, about how the other team changed up their offensive game plan to attack our defense. Or how their defense adjusted to confuse our offense (like this past Saturday). I feel like you never hear that about Dallas. It feels like it's been the "this is our game plan, let's just show up and do it" around here forever. Once the other team says "not so fast", we just fold.

 

[SlammedZero]

Random conspiracy..


I wonder if Shannahan helped Lefleur with his game plan against Dallas.

It's an interesting topic. I'm sure there is plenty of ear whispering around the league throughout the year. Somebody on the forum earlier said Green Bay's DC was the son-in-law of Rod Marinelli. Hard to think he didn't throw some ideas his way either, especially coaching around Dak for the years he did.

For a guy the Green Bay fanbase has been unhappy with most of the season, he sure came up with a great defensive game plan.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Yep.
Shanahan was the OC with the Skins in I think 2013, when his Dad was HC.
McVay was TE coach
Lafleur was QBs
Mike McDaniel was WRs.
Quite a tree there. 4 current HCs, all made the playoffs.

How did Commanders screw that up and not end up with one of them lol….

 

[HanD]

He sat there watching what we were and offered nothing. He could have overridden DQ. I saw no passion from MM and the team.

he did similar when kellen moore was having issues MM's first year here from what i remember. offensive mind that sat back and let KM struggle without helping and giving input.

 

[HanD]

Yep.
Shanahan was the OC with the Skins in I think 2013, when his Dad was HC.
McVay was TE coach
Lafleur was QBs
Mike McDaniel was WRs.
Quite a tree there. 4 current HCs, all made the playoffs.

add slowik as OC in houston who comes from that tree and has done a great job with stroud and had that team take apart a tough cle def. he should get a HC job this year most likely.

 

[Rayman70]

he did similar when kellen moore was having issues MM's first year here from what i remember. offensive mind that sat back and let KM struggle without helping and giving input.

exactly, TY. I agree. He must go and go now.

 

[Rayman70]

MM is lazy.

 

[duane33]

That’s part of it, no doubt. But players take equal blame. Dak’s 1st half performance, CD dropping passes, defensive penalties keeping drives alive, DB’s jogging during plays.

Sure players are to blame, but coaches need to ride them, bench them if dogging it. It’s why Parcells was so good. Has to be consequences if going thru the motions. But I guess today’s coaches have to be friends with the players , can’t be a hard ***. Need to get the most out of each player, coaching staff not doing that

 

[Carter]

We were outcoached at all levels
QB1 is trash in the playoffs
WR1 was playing like he got sucker punched by his team before the game
Defense played like it gave up on DQ before the game started
ST was special again (Fair Catching on the 7 yard line, Sam Williams)
Penalties (3rd down Holding by Bland on the first drive we stopped before they scored 7).

 

[blueblood70]

First, let's start with the defense



Its painful to watch but relevant. If you look at the running plays, the Packers are frequently running the same blocking scheme that has killed the Cowboys for a while. All of the linemen immediately go one direction. There is no pulling or complicated scheme. What is happening here is that defenders are trying to hold their gap as the gap rapidly moves to one side. With the size limitations of the defenders involved, eventually one of the gaps opens and Jones is free to pick it. GB isn't running plays into specific holes as much as just letting Jones go where the defense isn't. This isn't new. Teams have been doing this and it worked. There are fixes for this, like putting 8 in the box, 5 linemen, etc. and but I have seen no effort by Quinn to fundamentally change the tactics to address this weakness.

The issues with the team for some reason starting the game in a soft zone have been well documented. I have no idea why this was tried, much less why Dallas kept doing it when it obviously was not working.

......

When Dallas was on offense, GB didn't copy recent teams. I'll give them credit. They sat down and figured out a good number of Dallas' plays at a fundamental level. Dak has publicly commented that they were changing at the snap. If you have followed him all year, what Dak does is he gets a pre-snap read and that tells him which side of the field to throw to. He then usually has a single high/low read leading to a quick throw. This has been the offense all year and for the most part, it worked well. What GB did is figured out a way to break Dak's read progression. That's why he had the deer in the headlights look. The offense is set up for quick throws off 1 2 reads. Again, like the defense, there are fixes for this that can be done with playcalling and personnel. McCarthy didn't do anything and just kept feeding the players into the meatgrinder.

..........

Before the game, McCarthy was quoted as saying something to the effect of "you do what got you here". Quite frankly, this is reminiscent of a lot of Garrett's philosophy of just line up and beat your man. On offense, the team seemed to have absolutely no game specific plays or plans. McCarthy seemed to be treating it like a preseason game while LaFleur had prepared like it was the super bowl.

I do not blame the players nearly as much as others here do. I didn't see a ton of fumbles or missed assignments or dropped balls leading to a loss. Dak wasn't air mailing balls 10 feet over people's heads. They were put in a bad situation tactically and were not prepared to play. The NFL is a coach's league in that regard. GB took guys like Parsons and CeeDee out of the game which is possible when the Cowboys staff just sits on their hands and ignores the game being played in front of them.

I think McCarthy has done some good things in Dallas. Same with Quinn. That said, they both seem to have the same fundamental flaw in that they are not great preparers or in game coaches. If their base tactics don't work or things start going against them, they are powerless to change things up. This was a knock against them prior to their time in Dallas and it all came together on Sunday. This was also a knock on Garrett, who also was no tactical or game preparation genius.

As others have said, this all eventually falls back on Jerry but I'll be specific about it. Jerry doesn't know enough about football apparently to evaluate if the coach talking in front of him knows what he is talking about. As a result, he just falls for their lines about "analytics" hook line and sinker. Dallas is going to keep falling into the same trap as a result. Until the cowboys have a disciplinarian head coach backed up by tactically smart assistants, they will always fall short.

Relevant old article that really shows how brain dead Jerry is regarding coaching:
https://www.espn.com/blog/dallas-co...lls-2005-cowboys-staff-has-seventh-head-coach

look I'm not reading any of that I'm just going to go by the headline because I think most of us have already agreed we'd like to see a full staff coaching change,

however the biggest one probably leave it on his own Dan Quinn all season but really since mid-season has been the worst coached group it's been the most underachieving OVERrated defense I've ever seen because everyone's trying to blame everything but the defense!!!

the defense has been bad in many many games think about it think about the Seattle game that is what this has come down to you're asking our head coach offensive coordinator and quarterback to do what we did in Seattle and scoring every down and try not to punt because as soon as the other team gets the ball back they're probably going to get 7 in about 3 minutes that is how most games have went we even gave him a lead in the Miami game in Miami and all we could talk about is we scored too quick and we didn't score enough but don't blame the defense for not being able to hold the lead they've done this all year the 49ers Arizona Buffalo they've got walked down the field like it was a scrimmage it literally looked 11 on 7..

It was so bad that Mike McCarthy who came into the season thinking he was going to have a championship defense first one to score twenty wins the game, so create a conservative offense so that way they don't mess up they don't turn the ball over they give the defense rest.​

After five games he realized this isn't going to be that defense and it's gotten worse all year,

he literally now is trying to coach to where the pressure is so bad on offense that it feels like you have to score on every single drive and not make any mistakes because God forbid the defense has to actually do work anybody who ever uses the phrase we scored too quick are secretly saying the defense sucks, so bad you're scared to put them back out there.

And in the case of the playoffs this season in this last game the defense has looked the same the last eight games against the better teams you could pick whatever game you want they have been walked down the field far too many times on the first drive and then the first drive out of halftime!!!

we've been seeing it if they wanna play with the lead how are they going to do that when they allowed the team to score so easily they gave up 21 points to start the second-half there was no chance to make any kind of comeback for the offense and I don't care about the mistakes made in the first half there are a lot of games in this NFL,

I mean last year's playoffs Trevor Lawrence had four interceptions they won that game, same playoffs Josh Allen had three turnovers had one roll out of bounds or it would have been four and for some reason they were able to win that game I saw Matthew Stafford lead the league in interceptions and then have two in the Super bowl guess what they won that game you know why they won that game because the team had their backs the defense bowed up and they made some stops and they made some adjustments and it gave the offense a chance to come back..

Ohh by the way one of the Buffalo Super Bowls in the first half Troy Aikman played like garbage we were down by 10 I believe he did throw a pick six maybe it was just a regular interception that turned into seven points doesn't matter the defense came out in the second-half and made enough stops got a big play they might have got a pick six of their own got us back in the game we play catch up using the run game and then Troy did enough to help win the game but he wasn't playing well and they won that Super Bowl didn't matter because the defense played the team picked him up it happens all the time Troy was never asked to carry your team by himself... They didn't talk about firing the offensive coordinator or getting rid of Troy because they didn't have to the team was just better we did not have that kind of team around here things have to go perfect for you to win a game in the the quarterbacks asking to be Superman and be perfect and by the way those interceptions first one defensive back clearly shoved cooks from behind also grabbed his shoulder that's not on deck the other one was supposed to be a timing he let that ball go assuming his guy was gonna get there and once again there were three routes being run in the same area and another guy who wasn't covering just broke off and picked the ball off how many times do we see that last year with Kellens route trees?? I'm not letting Mike McCarthy or Prescott off the hook but our defense is so bad it gave us no chance to win that game even if they would have not made those mistakes and tried to score on every drive we still would have probably lost that game... If you can't make stops if you can't get the offense more possessions you just are not a good defense.... I mean the defense basically gave up 32 to 38 points if you wanna take off some points for the offense that's fine but you're not winning playoff games that way giving up that many points....

So I don't need to read all that we definitely need to make some changes at coaching whether it's the whole staff or not the biggest one is Dan Quinn he can take everyone with him I don't care he's the biggest problem it showed in Atlanta unless he has the legion of boom type players he cannot consistently run a defense out that can play straight up and make stops that is apparent he's the biggest problem and I can't wait till he leaves I wish he would have already left...

Rant over

 

[Cowboysheelsreds058]

And Dak is QB1.

LOL, just looked who liked this post.