Is the Cowboys offense "overrated"?

[75boyz]

This aint rocket science.

I mean its's not hard at all to look up how Brandon Aubrey led the entire league in attempts from both 60 plus and 50 plus yards.

Hint:
That means the offense is more kicker dependent and not scoring enough TDs.

And just maybe those offensive ranking stats are " just a little skewed"...
Ya think?

 

[Kwyn]

Red Zone is the weakness.

Here are the five things that need to change to make the offense elite

In order of impact

• Red zone rushing failure
• Dak INTs
• Pre-snap penalties
• 4th down failures
• Reliance on Ferguson targets

 

[JoeKing]

We keep on hearing how the Cowboy offense is elite, but yet there were games last season where they truly underperformed:

14 points at Chicago-yes they lost Lamb early, but if I remember Chicago had a banged up secondary
20 points at Philly-they were shutout in the 2nd half where their defense only surrendered 3 points
17 at home against the Cardinals-there is zero excuse to lay an egg at home against one of the worst teams.
17 at home against the Chargers-Chargers dominated them

These are just a few examples. Everyone keeps on talking about the defense cause it was so bad, but the offense deserves some criticism as well. They must be more consistent or it won't matter how the defense performs.

I don't think you can judge anything on the current team base on what we saw last season.

 

[LouBrown]

I can't say it any clearer than post #102. I'm really not sure why expecting a TOP offense to have a fair shot even in shootouts is controversial.

In 2025 our opponent scored 28 or more 10 times by my count. We won two & tied one. In 5 of the losses the deficits 8, 14, 17 twice & 20.

Don't you think we should have won more than 20% of those games? All our opponents didn't have top 5 defenses did they?

They HAD a fair shot in shootouts lol. No, you shouldn't win more than 20% of those games. Giving up 28 points 10 times is practically nonexistent in the problem.

Seattle and NE were a combined 1-3 in those games. LAR and GB were a combined 2-6-1. Buffalo was the only team with a winning record in that regard, and it is what killed them in the playoffs.

28 is also a dumb, arbitrary cutoff for this narrative, seeing as how they gave up 34+ 7 times. You're not asking them to score 29 to win, you're asking them to score 34+. 6 teams since the year 2000 have averaged that, and only 1 in the last decade. Asking a team to go, say, .500 when the opponent scores 34 points is ridiculous lol. In 6 of their 7 wins they scored more than 28 anyway.


I simply can not get over how stupid some of the criticisms of the offense are. How many weeks are they supposed to score 30+ points? Only one win had less than 30.

 

[reddyuta]

Awful Red zone game didnt help and most of the blame should go to Dak.

 

[Whirlwin]

I don't follow this. The offense got the ball. It's the offenses job to create time of possession & more importantly scoring.

If I remember correctly, we had average or above average number of possession in the second half of several games we generated little to no scoring. In other words, we had the opportunities but didn't do enough with them.

No, it’s the defense’s job to get the ball back to the offense,

 

[Whirlwin]

That game would of been long over if the Eagles offense did anything.

Well, that’s because Jalen hurts. Sucks

 

[Whirlwin]

Red Zone is the weakness.

Here are the five things that need to change to make the offense elite

In order of impact

• Red zone rushing failure
• Dak INTs
• Pre-snap penalties
• 4th down failures
• Reliance on Ferguson targets

I’m curious, how many INT did Prescott have in the red zone?

 

[Whirlwin]

Awful Red zone game didnt help and most of the blame should go to Dak.

Agree, he should be a magician

 

[Whirlwin]

Agreed, not there are also throws and plays to be had that didn't get made in tight moments. There's some choke involved, too.

Maybe, lol, lotta quarterbacks choking in this league

 

[Whirlwin]

I don't follow this. The offense got the ball. It's the offenses job to create time of possession & more importantly scoring.

If I remember correctly, we had average or above average number of possession in the second half of several games we generated little to no scoring. In other words, we had the opportunities but didn't do enough with them.

For some reason, I don’t think it’s the only thing you don’t follow, lol
Sarcasm, don’t take it wrong

 

[McKDaddy]

They HAD a fair shot in shootouts lol. No, you shouldn't win more than 20% of those games. Giving up 28 points 10 times is practically nonexistent in the problem.

Seattle and NE were a combined 1-3 in those games. LAR and GB were a combined 2-6-1. Buffalo was the only team with a winning record in that regard, and it is what killed them in the playoffs.

28 is also a dumb, arbitrary cutoff for this narrative, seeing as how they gave up 34+ 7 times. You're not asking them to score 29 to win, you're asking them to score 34+. 6 teams since the year 2000 have averaged that, and only 1 in the last decade. Asking a team to go, say, .500 when the opponent scores 34 points is ridiculous lol. In 6 of their 7 wins they scored more than 28 anyway.


I simply can not get over how stupid some of the criticisms of the offense are. How many weeks are they supposed to score 30+ points? Only one win had less than 30.

the scoring output required to be a top-5 scoring offense generally ranges between 27.0 and 31.8 PPG depending on the year's offensive environment. [1]

therefore 28 points isn't random or arbitrary, it's a reasonable expectation for a TOP scoring team. the cowboys averaged 27.7.

you are correct, our D gave up 28 or more an extraordinary amount of games. I specifically said I didn't expect them to win them all.

if some of you would step back & look at what all this really tells you rather than just try to look at it through old lenses.

it reveals serious questions about whether this really was a top offense. average inflated by the early season 40 burgers, easy games & scoring late when the other team no longer cared?

in short, if a team is truly a TOP offense, I expect it to produce as such regardless of opponent's defensive strength or our defensive weakness more times than not.

that's earning the accolades instead of hiding behind misleading stats & the excuse of the defense was bad.

 

[McKDaddy]

No, it’s the defense’s job to get the ball back to the offense,

I specifically said we had the possessions, we just didn't get enough out of them. ??? not sure what more I can say.

I'm not defending the D if they couldn't do that & we had below average number of possessions.

 

[Rockport]

I can't say it any clearer than post #102. I'm really not sure why expecting a TOP offense to have a fair shot even in shootouts is controversial.

In 2025 our opponent scored 28 or more 10 times by my count. We won two & tied one. In 5 of the losses the deficits 8, 14, 17 twice & 20.

Don't you think we should have won more than 20% of those games? All our opponents didn't have top 5 defenses did they?

Cowboys wouldn’t have won more than a game or 2 last year without Prescott.

 

[McKDaddy]

This aint rocket science.

I mean its's not hard at all to look up how Brandon Aubrey led the entire league in attempts from both 60 plus and 50 plus yards.

Hint:
That means the offense is more kicker dependent and not scoring enough TDs.

And just maybe those offensive ranking stats are " just a little skewed"...
Ya think?

It is unreal how some people cannot "actually understand" how the numbers were generated yet they are experts in every play of every game.

 

[Rockport]

This aint rocket science.

I mean its's not hard at all to look up how Brandon Aubrey led the entire league in attempts from both 60 plus and 50 plus yards.

Hint:
That means the offense is more kicker dependent and not scoring enough TDs.

And just maybe those offensive ranking stats are " just a little skewed"...
Ya think?

Probably because he’s the only one who can make those 58-60 yarders on a consistent basis.

 

[McKDaddy]

Cowboys wouldn’t have won more than a game or 2 last year without Prescott.

Goff, Mayfield, Herbert, Darnold, etc., would have all done just as well or better than Prescott.

No reason to believe otherwise.

 

[Rockport]

Goff, Mayfield, Herbert, Darnold, etc., would have all done just as well or better than Prescott.

No reason to believe otherwise.

 

[JustChip]

We keep on hearing how the Cowboy offense is elite, but yet there were games last season where they truly underperformed:

14 points at Chicago-yes they lost Lamb early, but if I remember Chicago had a banged up secondary
20 points at Philly-they were shutout in the 2nd half where their defense only surrendered 3 points
17 at home against the Cardinals-there is zero excuse to lay an egg at home against one of the worst teams.
17 at home against the Chargers-Chargers dominated them

These are just a few examples. Everyone keeps on talking about the defense cause it was so bad, but the offense deserves some criticism as well. They must be more consistent or it won't matter how the defense performs.

I think there’s a number of reasons, but the core reason is this team is soft. They crumble when playing a physical team. Detroit was the poster child for this. But even in the Chicago game, they folded after Williams’ fumble and the Bears fed off that.

 

[gtb1943]

Goff, Mayfield, Herbert, Darnold, etc., would have all done just as well or better than Prescott.

No reason to believe otherwise.

Not sure they would have done as well
but probably close