Football is all about finding a winning recipe

[BoyzBlaster]

Fellow Zoners - Most of the discussion about whether Dak should start once he's healthy turns into an argument about who is the better QB. For many of us who want to ride the hot hand with Cooper, it's not about who's better. It's about how putting a winning football team together is all about finding a winning recipe, and so far they have one with Coop and this defense. It doesn't matter how it works or why it works or what it looks like. The ONLY thing that matters is that is does work, and if you find a winning recipe you stick with it.
The offense with Coop isn't fancy, but it's working. A Coop offense is is like a hearty stew
made with quality ingredients that leaves you feeling sustained, satisfied and ready to take on the day.
Yes the recipe with Dak had more pizzazz. Yes it had more calories. But a lot of those were empty calories. The Dak offense was like eating candy and potato chips all day - it may satisfy a craving, it will give you a sugar rush from the stats, but when that is over it leaves you feeling gross and most likely sitting on the toilet much of the next day.
I hope that clears things up.

 

[Tangle_Foot]

You see kids, this is what happens when you do mushrooms. Rush turns into a chunky stew, and Dak becomes a potato chip

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Fellow Zoners - Most of the discussion about whether Dak should start once he's healthy turns into an argument about who is the better QB. For many of us who want to ride the hot hand with Cooper, it's not about who's better. It's about how putting a winning football team together is all about finding a winning recipe, and so far they have one with Coop and this defense. It doesn't matter how it works or why it works or what it looks like. The ONLY thing that matters is that is does work, and if you find a winning recipe you stick with it.
The offense with Coop isn't fancy, but it's working. A Coop offense is is like a hearty stew
made with quality ingredients that leaves you feeling sustained, satisfied and ready to take on the day.
Yes the recipe with Dak had more pizzazz. Yes it had more calories. But a lot of those were empty calories. The Dak offense was like eating candy and potato chips all day - it may satisfy a craving, it will give you a sugar rush from the stats, but when that is over it leaves you feeling gross and most likely sitting on the toilet much of the next day.
I hope that clears things up.

The hot hand? So all this winning is because of rush? Or is the hot hand the defense? And the run game? It's as if people are missing the forest because of the trees

 

[terra]

The play calling is sensible and logical.

To me that is a big difference.

No one is trying to show off and stack up numbers.

Just win.

 

[BoyzBlaster]

The hot hand? So all this winning is because of rush? Or is the hot hand the defense? And the run game? It's as if people are missing the forest because of the trees

No - but he's a key part of the recipe.

 

[Maxmadden]

2 fumbles and 102 yards passing last week.
That is a recipe for disaster.

 

[75boyz]

2 fumbles and 102 yards passing last week.
That is a recipe for disaster.

A 49 million dollar cap hit in 2023 and 53 million dollar cap hit in 2024 to a 7 year, 1 playoff win, injury prone QB is a recipe for disaster.

But then again, there's a whole lotta folks that will just keep on eatin' Jerry's QB recipe here and be happy with it, lol

 

[JD_KaPow]

Fellow Zoners - Most of the discussion about whether Dak should start once he's healthy turns into an argument about who is the better QB. For many of us who want to ride the hot hand with Cooper, it's not about who's better. It's about how putting a winning football team together is all about finding a winning recipe, and so far they have one with Coop and this defense. It doesn't matter how it works or why it works or what it looks like. The ONLY thing that matters is that is does work, and if you find a winning recipe you stick with it.
The offense with Coop isn't fancy, but it's working. A Coop offense is is like a hearty stew
made with quality ingredients that leaves you feeling sustained, satisfied and ready to take on the day.
Yes the recipe with Dak had more pizzazz. Yes it had more calories. But a lot of those were empty calories. The Dak offense was like eating candy and potato chips all day - it may satisfy a craving, it will give you a sugar rush from the stats, but when that is over it leaves you feeling gross and most likely sitting on the toilet much of the next day.
I hope that clears things up.

It doesn't, but maybe you can explain more about what you mean by "working."

The obvious way of looking at things is this. The Cowboys don't score many points (on offense) and don't gain many yards. It sure looks like they're winning because of the very good defense and very good special teams, and in spite of the poor offense.

But you (and others) are arguing something different: that the Cowboys offense, as currently constructed, complements the whole team effort and makes it more than the sum of the parts. My simple question is, how does it do that?

The traditional arguments (and ones I've seen elsewhere here) are:

• The offense moves the ball consistently even if it doesn't score, flipping field position and making it harder on the other team's offense.
• The offense kills clock, shortening the game, keeping the defense off the field and fresh, forcing the other team's defense to spend more time on the field, and limiting the number of drives for the other team and therefore their chances to pull ahead and force the team into catch-up mode.

Neither of these things applies, at all, to the Cowboys offense.
They're 27th in plays per drive and 28th in yards per drive. That's even worse than they are in points per drive (25th).
They're not winning time of possession, relieving pressure on their defense and tiring out the other defense. Overall, they've held the ball a bit less than their opponents over the last 4 games.
Since we all agree (I hope) that they're not scoring much, they must be doing something in the non-scoring drives that is helping out the team as a whole. Let's look.
Against the Rams, they didn't have a single non-scoring drive that gained 20 yards or took much more than 3 minutes off the clock. (And their scoring drive after the blocked punt gained 5 yards and lasted less than a minute). They weren't eating clock or flipping field position. In what sense is that "working?"
Against Washington, they had a 4th-quarter drive that gained 34 yards...but lasted less than 2 minutes. None of their other non-scoring drives gained more than 1 yard or lasted more than 2 minutes. That's right, 1 yard was the best of those drives.
Against the Giants, they had a golden opportunity for the offense to "work." They had the ball with 3:30 left and the lead. They could have put the game away right there. They didn't. They punted it back to the Giants with plenty of time left to score (the defense intercepted Jones to end it).

The upshot is that I can't find a single example or a single way in which the Cowboys offense is somehow doing things that make it better for the team than the overall numbers would indicate. Okay, that's not true. There is one way, and it's not a small thing: They're not turning the ball over. So that's good. Very good. But the Cowboys have traditionally been good at not turning the ball over under Dak as well, especially when they're in close low-scoring games (not playing catch-up).

So what is it? In what way is the Cowboys offense "working" in a way that we might think it wouldn't under Dak? Why is it wrong to say that the excellent defense and ST are carrying a poor offense? What am I missing?

 

[big dog cowboy]

For many of us who want to ride the hot hand with Cooper

What hot hand??? The Cowboys scored 25 against the lowly Commanders and 12 against the Rams. That is 37 points the last 2 games. That isn't any kind of formula to win consistently in this league. Rush is lucky he has a kick butt defense bailing him out.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

No - but he's a key part of the recipe.

What key part? The part that's told don't fvxk it up and just let defense carry the games?

 

[john van brocklin]

Fellow Zoners - Most of the discussion about whether Dak should start once he's healthy turns into an argument about who is the better QB. For many of us who want to ride the hot hand with Cooper, it's not about who's better. It's about how putting a winning football team together is all about finding a winning recipe, and so far they have one with Coop and this defense. It doesn't matter how it works or why it works or what it looks like. The ONLY thing that matters is that is does work, and if you find a winning recipe you stick with it.
The offense with Coop isn't fancy, but it's working. A Coop offense is is like a hearty stew
made with quality ingredients that leaves you feeling sustained, satisfied and ready to take on the day.
Yes the recipe with Dak had more pizzazz. Yes it had more calories. But a lot of those were empty calories. The Dak offense was like eating candy and potato chips all day - it may satisfy a craving, it will give you a sugar rush from the stats, but when that is over it leaves you feeling gross and most likely sitting on the toilet much of the next day.
I hope that clears things up.

Interesting analogy!

 

[Flamma]

The offense with Coop isn't fancy, but it's working. A Coop offense is is like a hearty stew
made with quality ingredients that leaves you feeling sustained, satisfied and ready to take on the day.

A Coop offense is more like chowder with expired ingredients. The defense is the salt used to mask the bad flavor. That's how it's working. All you need is plenty of salt.

 

[xwalker]

Fellow Zoners - Most of the discussion about whether Dak should start once he's healthy turns into an argument about who is the better QB. For many of us who want to ride the hot hand with Cooper, it's not about who's better. It's about how putting a winning football team together is all about finding a winning recipe, and so far they have one with Coop and this defense. It doesn't matter how it works or why it works or what it looks like. The ONLY thing that matters is that is does work, and if you find a winning recipe you stick with it.
The offense with Coop isn't fancy, but it's working. A Coop offense is is like a hearty stew
made with quality ingredients that leaves you feeling sustained, satisfied and ready to take on the day.
Yes the recipe with Dak had more pizzazz. Yes it had more calories. But a lot of those were empty calories. The Dak offense was like eating candy and potato chips all day - it may satisfy a craving, it will give you a sugar rush from the stats, but when that is over it leaves you feeling gross and most likely sitting on the toilet much of the next day.
I hope that clears things up.

Coaches have to compare Rush to Dak in 2021. They can't compare to the 1 game Dak played in 2022.

Have any teams in the past decade made it to the playoffs with the anemic level of offense that the Cowboys have had in the past 4 games?

I posted the Niners offensive stats from last season which I think is likely the low bar for making the playoffs. They were better than Cowboys stats with Rush.

Have any defenses maintained the 14.4 points allowed per game average that the 2022 Cowboys defense has allowed? It seems unlikely they can maintain that pace.

 

[Scotman]

It doesn't, but maybe you can explain more about what you mean by "working."

The obvious way of looking at things is this. The Cowboys don't score many points (on offense) and don't gain many yards. It sure looks like they're winning because of the very good defense and very good special teams, and in spite of the poor offense.

But you (and others) are arguing something different: that the Cowboys offense, as currently constructed, complements the whole team effort and makes it more than the sum of the parts. My simple question is, how does it do that?

The traditional arguments (and ones I've seen elsewhere here) are:

• The offense moves the ball consistently even if it doesn't score, flipping field position and making it harder on the other team's offense.
• The offense kills clock, shortening the game, keeping the defense off the field and fresh, forcing the other team's defense to spend more time on the field, and limiting the number of drives for the other team and therefore their chances to pull ahead and force the team into catch-up mode.

Neither of these things applies, at all, to the Cowboys offense.
They're 27th in plays per drive and 28th in yards per drive. That's even worse than they are in points per drive (25th).
They're not winning time of possession, relieving pressure on their defense and tiring out the other defense. Overall, they've held the ball a bit less than their opponents over the last 4 games.
Since we all agree (I hope) that they're not scoring much, they must be doing something in the non-scoring drives that is helping out the team as a whole. Let's look.
Against the Rams, they didn't have a single non-scoring drive that gained 20 yards or took much more than 3 minutes off the clock. (And their scoring drive after the blocked punt gained 5 yards and lasted less than a minute). They weren't eating clock or flipping field position. In what sense is that "working?"
Against Washington, they had a 4th-quarter drive that gained 34 yards...but lasted less than 2 minutes. None of their other non-scoring drives gained more than 1 yard or lasted more than 2 minutes. That's right, 1 yard was the best of those drives.
Against the Giants, they had a golden opportunity for the offense to "work." They had the ball with 3:30 left and the lead. They could have put the game away right there. They didn't. They punted it back to the Giants with plenty of time left to score (the defense intercepted Jones to end it).

The upshot is that I can't find a single example or a single way in which the Cowboys offense is somehow doing things that make it better for the team than the overall numbers would indicate. Okay, that's not true. There is one way, and it's not a small thing: They're not turning the ball over. So that's good. Very good. But the Cowboys have traditionally been good at not turning the ball over under Dak as well, especially when they're in close low-scoring games (not playing catch-up).

So what is it? In what way is the Cowboys offense "working" in a way that we might think it wouldn't under Dak? Why is it wrong to say that the excellent defense and ST are carrying a poor offense? What am I missing?

Exactly!

Our offense has scored 7 touchdowns in 5 games. FIVE GAMES! We are averaging less than 300 yards of total offense per game.

YES, by all means, ride the hot hand. The hot hand is the defense. Don't do something there to mess up what's working. But we should do something, anything, to add a spark to this offense. Rush hasn't turned the ball over, which is great. But he tried to last week.

Rush isn't the hot hand. He's a seat warmer. The defense is the hot hand. Let's ride that.

 

[Whyjerry]

The formula should remain the same. Stout defense. Good OL. Special teams doing their thing. Run the ball 25plus times a game. That will make the OL better and protect the QB. Dak will make the O more explosive at times but really nothing should change.

 

[shabazz]

Odds are that it won’t happen against the 5-0 best record in the NFL Eagles, but it would be hilarious to revisit some of these threads if Cooper Rush puts up big numbers this game.

I’m not seeing it, but the expectations currently couldn’t be much lower around here.

 

[Denim Chicken]

Dak can hand the ball off just fine

 

[BoyzBlaster]

Coaches have to compare Rush to Dak in 2021. They can't compare to the 1 game Dak played in 2022.

Have any teams in the past decade made it to the playoffs with the anemic level of offense that the Cowboys have had in the past 4 games?

I posted the Niners offensive stats from last season which I think is likely the low bar for making the playoffs. They were better than Cowboys stats with Rush.

Have any defenses maintained the 14.4 points allowed per game average that the 2022 Cowboys defense has allowed? It seems unlikely they can maintain that pace.

Fair points for sure

 

[Bob-Lillys-War]

If the chef is Kellen Moore, you wont get a "secret recipe" success.

 

[Ranched]

2 fumbles and 102 yards passing last week.
That is a recipe for disaster.

Talk about a pessimistic attitude. Many others witnessed Dallas defeating the world champions in their house!