For as much as the defense gets blamed

[DandyDon1722]

Oh, I don't absolve the offense. Romo and the two guards, were especially bad.

Yep they were. Romo was terrible and so was the line - but it wasn't the norm for the year and there's no reason to think that they will be that bad again the rest of the year.

 

[xwalker]

All 4 of our losses have been more about our offense sputtering and self destructing. Offense is the side of the ball where we've decided to pump the majority of our resources into. 100 million dollar QB with as much of a QB friendly supporting cast as you can possibly have in the salary cap era. But we all want to blame the defense because they don't have nearly the amount of resources or talent when our offense puts up 10 points on thanksgiving... Right...

I would tend to agree that the defense was good enough to win in the first 3 losses. I'm not sure about that past lost, but I would say that the offense was more to blame than the defense. You have to consider the offensive turnovers when looking at the total scores allow by the defense.

The majority of the talent is on offense. Coming into the season everybody knew that the best we could hope for was for the defense to keep them in the game but that the offense would have to win the games.

 

[KJJ]

Romo's had only 2 bad games this season and they were in games the Cowboys got way behind in. 5 of his 8 int's came in the blowout losses to SF and Philly.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

Unless that QBR from the previous games puts points on the board in December who cares?! He played horrible Thursday when the chips where on the table, yet low and behold here's another chance for Tony to prove doubters wrong. The December gorilla is here, and it isn't going anywhere if he plays like he did Thursday.

You doubters don't want to be proven wrong. Then you can't say you were right.

 

[mahoneybill]

watching the packers run offense and they do so many different things ,i bet they run more different formations in one game then we do an entire season.

That's how their wide outs get open

 

[TheFinisher]

You doubters don't want to be proven wrong. Then you can't say you were right.

GTHO

 

[yimyammer]

In 3 of the Cowboys 4 losses the defense has gotten them behind early. The Cowboys have had to play from behind in most of their games this season. Part of the reason is the offense lacks explosiveness due to committing to the run and the other part is the defense giving up early first possession TD's. In the last 3 games the Cowboys D allowed JAX, Giants and Philly to score first possession TD's.

The Cowboys have a conservative run first offense that doesn't take a lot of shots down the field. I said prior to the start of the season if the plan is to run the ball the defense has to step up or the Cowboys will be playing from behind all season. You can't allow teams to jump on you early forcing you to play from behind in Dec crunch games.

You know, it seems to me the offense has started slow in most games for years and years, I can't recall a game where they came out and smoked a team from the outset except for the Green Bay & Detroit games where they ultimately lost

I fully acknowledge I may be guilt of selection bias.

 

[AmericanCowboy]

Offense has been bad. Defense has been awful. We just went against two of the most turnover prone QBs in NFL history and only forced one turnover which was a huge gift.

Defense deserves a large amount of the blame.

We are going against JAy Cutler this week. My guess is that we don't force any turnovers against him.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

GTHO

What's the O for?

 

[BourbonBalz]

Did the offense give up 5.7 yards per rush to Philly?

No, but their terrible play put our defense in a hole all game and kept them on the field far too much. I'm not making excuses for the D. I'm just saying I fault the offense at least as much for the Philly loss. They were terrible.

 

[Roadtrip635]

Yep. We have the most predictable offense out there. It's been the same since Garrett was here as the OC. We rely on our receivers winning one on one matchups. That's it. We do nothing to exploit the defense. If you can knock us out of sync, you will shut us down. We always just take what the defense gives us, never actually try and attack and exploit their defense. Our routes seem to be so slow developing as well.

JG's playbook and offensive philosophy is outdated. Too many slow developing routes, seems like most passes are directed outside the numbers, and our passing game rarely attacks the middle of the field. Most of our middle of the field passes are stick or comeback routes, very few slants, crosses or drags that allow the receiver to catch on the move. It is predicated in the receiver beating his man and less on getting that man open. Part of this is on Romo, he seems loathe to throw those underneath routes unless it's to Witten and those are not on the move. Linehan has done a good job incorporating screens, but still think that the RB's can be incorporated into the pass game more.

 

[Oh_Canada]

The offense has no imagination. You watch the Packers/Pats offenses it's someone different almost every week. With the Cowboys it's every five years.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I thought the offense gets blamed just as much?

People want to put them in Canton in wins. In Losses....I think most people come down on them. I don't think anyone for the most part is excusing the O.

 

[NumOneQB]

The team wins when the offense is firing on all cylinders. If the offense sputters, you get what we've seen the last 2 weeks....

 

[Doomsay]

JG's playbook and offensive philosophy is outdated. Too many slow developing routes, seems like most passes are directed outside the numbers, and our passing game rarely attacks the middle of the field. Most of our middle of the field passes are stick or comeback routes, very few slants, crosses or drags that allow the receiver to catch on the move. It is predicated in the receiver beating his man and less on getting that man open. Part of this is on Romo, he seems loathe to throw those underneath routes unless it's to Witten and those are not on the move. Linehan has done a good job incorporating screens, but still think that the RB's can be incorporated into the pass game more.

JG surprises no one. Having an OC that is able to call more runs within the framework of a JG game plan is only slightly better than JG calling plays from that same game plan on Sundays.

 

[Zman5]

I've posted few weeks back the break down of our scoring by each quarter. We score the least amount of points in the 1st quarter by almost 1/2 compare to other quarters. That tells me that either our offensive game plan is bad or our opponents defensive game plane is good. Probably both.

Good thing is we either adjust pretty well during the game or we have Romo playing backyard football that gets us big plays and wins games for us.

I saw a stat today where GB hasn't punted in the 1st half in last 4 games. That is crazy. Watching their offense shows you how bad our offense is design wise. Their pass routes so much more creative compare to ours.

 

[lothos05]

You know, it seems to me the offense has started slow in most games for years and years, I can't recall a game where they came out and smoked a team from the outset except for the Green Bay & Detroit games where they ultimately lost

I fully acknowledge I may be guilt of selection bias.

I was curious about the same thing, yimyammer. So, I went back over Garrett's tenure as HC to see how Dallas has started each game. Out of the 68 games, here follows the 1st Quarter scoring of Dallas' offense:

0 pts . . . 26 games
3 pts . . . 14 games
6 pts . . . 2 games
7 pts . . . 17 games
10 pts . . . 5 games
13 pts . . . 1 game
14 pts . . . 3 games

Note: Dallas has scored two defensive TDs in the 1st Quarter . . . Heath off a fumble recovery against the Giants (11/24/13) and Patmon's INT return against the Cardinals (11/2/14).

In the 3 games where Dallas scored 14 pts, they had 14-0 leads against Buffalo (11/13/11) and Tampa Bay (12/17/11); however, the third game was against Denver (10/6/13) where Dallas led 14-7 after the 1st Quarter. The 13 pt game was a 13-3 lead against Green Bay (12/15/13).

Now, I'm not sure where these numbers stand in relation to the rest of the league but "slow starts" is a relatively subjective term anyway. Just looking at it from a bottom-line perspective, I would consider 0-3 pts a slow start.

 

[BigD16]

In the 4 loses we've had this season, the cowboys have scored 17 points against the niners, Commanders and cards in each game and scored only 10 points versus the eagles. Those totals are embarassing for this offense. If anybody is expecting this defense to hold teams under 17 points per game then you're being unrealistic. This defense has had terrible moments/quarters but this offense has had terrible entire games. And for the love of God can we please run some more screens? I thought that was the whole point of having a young athletic O-Line.

 

[Smith22]

I think the offense runs too many vertical routes and we show very little variety.

Dez NEEDS to be moved around more. Put him in the slot more, in motion more. Run more drags, slants, crosses, etc. One of his strengths is running after the catch, but we always have Dez running vertical routes.

How about using the bunch formation? Maybe run a pick play every once in a blue moon.

 

[bark]

You know, it seems to me the offense has started slow in most games for years and years, I can't recall a game where they came out and smoked a team from the outset except for the Green Bay & Detroit games where they ultimately lost

I fully acknowledge I may be guilt of selection bias.

New Orleans this yr is one. St. Louis last yr another