Interesting stat

[dargonking999]

Cowboys have outscored their oppenents 20-0 in the first quarter.

 

[Catch-22]

I'd rather see that in the 4th quarter, but it is still a positive sign for the offense.

 

[bobtheflob]

That's exactly what we need to do. Pass early to score points, then run out the clock and let our defense take over.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Cowboys have outscored their oppenents 20-0 in the first quarter.

That's usually a good thing. ESPN ran a stat last year that basically showed that the one statistic that had the highest correlation to winning was performance in the first quarter. In essence, if you lead by 8+ points at the end of the first quarter, you win a staggering amount of the time. And in essence, it was pretty rare for a team like Dallas to lose to Jacksonville in week 1.

One of the things that made sense to me when it came to this statistic is from 2003 through 2004, the Patriots had some ridiculous streak of games of being the first team to score. And usually they scored a touchdown and usually it was on their first drive in the game. I'd like to take a look back at this streak, but I'd garner that they were usually up at least 7 points after the first quarter and probably more than 7 points most of the time. And thus they had two superb seasons.

Basically, if Dallas keeps up the great first quarter play this season, they should be a sure shot for the playoffs...if not the Super Bowl. If they don't make the playoffs despite dominating the first quarter throughout the year, then they'd be a very rare statistical anomaly.


YAKUZA

 

[LarryCanadian]

Interesting stat.

It always bothers me, but stats like that lead me back to that nagging perception I have in my head about how the Cowboys let teams off the hook and get into rhythms when they seem to have everything under control.

I'm not sure if it is playcalling; limited halftime or ingame adjustments, conservative philosophy, or just not enough dominating players to finish teams off.

I feel this has been the difference between the Cowboys and successful playoff teams the last few years. How many times in the last 2 years did we see the TV stats show up about how Parcells has never lost with a 4th quarter lead of X points only to have this Dallas team blow it.

I would love to see our 1st quarter stats or even half time stats vs teams the last 2 - 3 years as well. So many games we seemed to really command from the beginning seemed to go sour on us in 3rd and particularly the 4th quarter.

Another factor is certainly self destruction in terms of dumb redzone penalties and turnovers and then in addition to that, plenty of missed field goals when being forced to try for 3 after that. We just didn't score enough touchdowns as a percentage of opportunities in the past 3 years, even if we did put up points, usually it probably should have been more (like Jacksonville already this year).

Seems like a negative post, I know, but this is the area that will make or break this team this year. Finishing off teams when we are generally playing well and in a position to win. Being in games hasn't been an issue, being consistent through them and dictating the game the whole 60 minutes has been.

LarryCanadian

 

[Rampage]

I'd rather see that in the 4th quarter, but it is still a positive sign for the offense.

like the giants?

 

[Manster68]

Going up 10-0 means quite a bit in the Super Bowl.

Only the Denver Broncos have seen a 10 point lead evaporate. In Super Bowl XXII, played in San Diego, they not only saw that lead evaporate, it downright exploded in their faces as our archrivals put up a 35 spot on them.

I will not get comfortable until the Cowboys have a 17 point lead in the second half.

I don't think the Cowboys have ever given up a 17 point lead in the second half. I will have to check that Lions loss in 1982. Dallas had a 17 point lead in that game, but I believe the Lions scored at the end of the first half to cut their deficit to 10.

 

[THUMPER]

The problem is the thinking that 10 points is enough of a lead to sit on, it isn't. Once you get up by 10 you can start to dictate to the other team and force them out of their game plan but you still need to be aggressive and score more points.

The 1st Commanders game last year is a prime example of this, when we got up by 10 Parcells started playing for FGs and running out the clock in the 1st half! You can't do that and expect to win a lot of games. 17 points is a lead you can sit on because it is 3 scores, as the Commanders pointed out most painfully last year, 13 points ain't enough as 2 quick scores late in the game killed us and we lost a critical game that we had every reason to win.

As Larry pointed out, costly penalties and turnovers helped to wreck us in week-1 and have been a major problem for us for several years now. The Stealers game we lost a couple years ago when Vinny fumbled late in the game and they capitalized on it and stole a win from us. That was another case where Parcells tried to sit on a lead before it was big enough.

Scoring first is key to winning games but you have to maintain it longer than one quarter.

 

[percyhoward]

Amazingly, last season the Cowboys only led after the first quarter in five games. They were 3-2 in those games. The two losses were at Seattle, and the last game of the year at home vs the Rams.

They were 1-3 when tied after one quarter.

In seven games they were trailing after one quarter, and were an impressive 5-2.

The Cowboys didn't score a point in the first quarter until the fifth game of the season.

The fact that they've jumped out to early leads in the first two games bodes especially well for this particular team. Hope it becomes a trend.

 

[AbeBeta]

That projects to winning each game 40-0!

 

[Vintage]

2 games is an extremely poor random sample.