Bleu Star
Bye Felicia!
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In a word, yes.... Linehan remains the biggest problem in Big D. Close second.. Clapper.
By the way... Does anyone know what Dak had for breakfast today? I'm keeping a journal.
Your boy Bleu
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Is Dallas holding Dak back?
A look at the Cowboys’ offense shows why their quarterback has struggled
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott passes during warmups before an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks Sept. 23 in Seattle. John Froschauer/Associated Press
BY DOMONIQUE FOXWORTH@FOXWORTH24
October 5, 2018
Until last Sunday against the Detroit Lions, Dak Prescott had failed to surpass 200 yards passing in a game this season. He also had a pair of sub-200-yard games to end last season. In the modern NFL, with the rules skewed to encourage passing, those numbers are certainly cause for concern. Over that five-game stretch, the Dallas Cowboys went 2-3. But the most damning statistic? Over that same span, the Cowboys averaged 11.8 points per game — dead last in the NFL and almost nine points below the league average.
The shine of Prescott’s sensational 2016 rookie season has protected him from the criticism that has been heaped on his underachieving offense. Head coach Jason Garrett and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan have been viewed as the problem. Fingers have been pointed at the O-line’s regression after some key losses. The departures of Dez Bryant and Jason Witten have prompted some to blame a lack of playmakers.
But receiver Cole Beasley wasn’t here for being scapegoated. Before the Week 4 game, he said to Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “We’re just getting open; that’s all we can do.” He continued, “If you watch the tape, that’s all you’ve got to do. A lot of people aren’t watching the tape.”
So that’s what I did.
After watching last week’s two-point win, when Dallas scored 26 points (the most they’ve scored this season), some could be convinced that the Cowboys’ offensive woes are a thing of the past. But the film left me with more questions than answers, so I decided to watch all of the Cowboys’ offensive snaps this season to understand why the offense has been more bad than good.
As is normally the case, everyone is somewhat responsible. But let’s discuss the worst offenders: Linehan and the offensive coaches.
My major gripe with Linehan is game planning and play design. He has been criticized for his playcalling, but it’s hard for me to fault Linehan the playcaller because it appears to me that he doesn’t have the best options to choose from. He is being failed by the game plan developed during the week.
His most egregious mistake is failing to go deep on early downs. Connecting on long throws would be a bonus, but for a team built around its ability to run the ball, like the Cowboys, just attempting play-action deep passes is more important. The Cowboys are last in the league in percentage of passing attempts of 20-plus yards on first down. They are second to last in percentage of attempts of 15-plus yards on first down. And they are first in the league at percentage of 5-plus-yard attempts on first down. This is incredibly stupid because it makes playcalling easy for the opposing defense and everything more difficult for their own offense.
Good game planning is about creating macro playcalling dilemmas for the opposing coordinator and microexecution dilemmas for select players on the field. The easiest way to create these dilemmas is to create packages of complementary plays that look similar but stress different areas of the defense, forcing them to commit to stopping one of the plays, which will open up the other plays. Run versus play-action pass is the most basic of these dilemmas.
Linehan and the Cowboys run plenty of play-action that creates microexecution dilemmas for linebackers. For example, they often motion a receiver or second tight end to a wing location just behind or outside of the on-the-line tight end. Then they run hard play-action in that same direction. While this is happening, the wing player runs behind the line of scrimmage to the opposite flat. The defender responsible has a dilemma: either attack the run aggressively and commit to stopping the league’s leading rusher or patiently read his keys anticipating the play-action. Prescott bootlegs out and hits his receiver for a 3- to 7-yard gain.
More at the link:
https://theundefeated.com/features/dallas-cowboys-holding-dak-prescott-back/
By the way... Does anyone know what Dak had for breakfast today? I'm keeping a journal.
Your boy Bleu
.
.
.
Is Dallas holding Dak back?
A look at the Cowboys’ offense shows why their quarterback has struggled
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott passes during warmups before an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks Sept. 23 in Seattle. John Froschauer/Associated Press
BY DOMONIQUE FOXWORTH@FOXWORTH24October 5, 2018
Until last Sunday against the Detroit Lions, Dak Prescott had failed to surpass 200 yards passing in a game this season. He also had a pair of sub-200-yard games to end last season. In the modern NFL, with the rules skewed to encourage passing, those numbers are certainly cause for concern. Over that five-game stretch, the Dallas Cowboys went 2-3. But the most damning statistic? Over that same span, the Cowboys averaged 11.8 points per game — dead last in the NFL and almost nine points below the league average.
The shine of Prescott’s sensational 2016 rookie season has protected him from the criticism that has been heaped on his underachieving offense. Head coach Jason Garrett and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan have been viewed as the problem. Fingers have been pointed at the O-line’s regression after some key losses. The departures of Dez Bryant and Jason Witten have prompted some to blame a lack of playmakers.
But receiver Cole Beasley wasn’t here for being scapegoated. Before the Week 4 game, he said to Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “We’re just getting open; that’s all we can do.” He continued, “If you watch the tape, that’s all you’ve got to do. A lot of people aren’t watching the tape.”
So that’s what I did.
After watching last week’s two-point win, when Dallas scored 26 points (the most they’ve scored this season), some could be convinced that the Cowboys’ offensive woes are a thing of the past. But the film left me with more questions than answers, so I decided to watch all of the Cowboys’ offensive snaps this season to understand why the offense has been more bad than good.
As is normally the case, everyone is somewhat responsible. But let’s discuss the worst offenders: Linehan and the offensive coaches.
My major gripe with Linehan is game planning and play design. He has been criticized for his playcalling, but it’s hard for me to fault Linehan the playcaller because it appears to me that he doesn’t have the best options to choose from. He is being failed by the game plan developed during the week.
His most egregious mistake is failing to go deep on early downs. Connecting on long throws would be a bonus, but for a team built around its ability to run the ball, like the Cowboys, just attempting play-action deep passes is more important. The Cowboys are last in the league in percentage of passing attempts of 20-plus yards on first down. They are second to last in percentage of attempts of 15-plus yards on first down. And they are first in the league at percentage of 5-plus-yard attempts on first down. This is incredibly stupid because it makes playcalling easy for the opposing defense and everything more difficult for their own offense.
Good game planning is about creating macro playcalling dilemmas for the opposing coordinator and microexecution dilemmas for select players on the field. The easiest way to create these dilemmas is to create packages of complementary plays that look similar but stress different areas of the defense, forcing them to commit to stopping one of the plays, which will open up the other plays. Run versus play-action pass is the most basic of these dilemmas.
Linehan and the Cowboys run plenty of play-action that creates microexecution dilemmas for linebackers. For example, they often motion a receiver or second tight end to a wing location just behind or outside of the on-the-line tight end. Then they run hard play-action in that same direction. While this is happening, the wing player runs behind the line of scrimmage to the opposite flat. The defender responsible has a dilemma: either attack the run aggressively and commit to stopping the league’s leading rusher or patiently read his keys anticipating the play-action. Prescott bootlegs out and hits his receiver for a 3- to 7-yard gain.
More at the link:
https://theundefeated.com/features/dallas-cowboys-holding-dak-prescott-back/
