Is the Cowboys offense "overrated"?

[Jstopper]

Sure

It was painful to watch you tap dance all over the place once you realized how stupid your original comment was

 

[Starforever]

Who cares? This TEAM is going nowhere without consistency from all three units.

 

[darthseinfeld]

I’m concerned that they neglected it nearly entirely over the off-season.

I’m way more concerned about the offense and I’m not kidding. Maybe the defense isn’t perfect yet but they will be better with the arrow pointed upward.

Between the tackle situation and not having some sort of a playmaking threat from the RB position (unless Blue delivers) could be a bit of a problem.

They are in a position now where they either have to resign Pickens, or make a significant expenditure at WR. I think Flournoy is a good player, but I dont think he is a #2 caliber guy

 

[ElGatoGrande]

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.

Hard to say if they were overrated, that gawd-awful defense skewed how they played with some teams easing up on them and playing prevent, "garbage time". Though it could also be said that their gawd-awful defense never did them any favors with extra possessions or short fields. Could be that a complimentary defense elevates them, or highlights their flaws.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

This seems to be a recurring theme with the Cowboys offense for multiple years now. If the Cowboys struggle on offense early, they can't seem to break out of it, with few exceptions.

Yep. Especially when it’s suspect teams like the Cardinals…..when they start off slow you know it’s a loss especially to that team.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Eagles had the #1 D in the NFL in their super bowl year, and twice teams scored 30+ on them.

So doing some research the Eagles weren’t 1 at that time they lost to the Eagles. They were 11th and after the Buccaneers game they were 29th. Buccs have their number for some reason.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

There is no excuse anymore. Dak says that this is the greatest offense. Time to back it up.

well, last year he did. offense did back it up. we were 2nd in scoring. we need defense to back it up too. giving up 30 points a game is futile.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

The OL is an issue and could prevent this offense from making it to that next step.

the tackles are an issue and they are the most important part of the OL

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Easy to make this observation in a vacuum., but unless you do this same analysis with other top 5-10 offenses. Without it, you have really no way of knowing if they are overrated or not.

I did exactly that in my post. outside of couple of offenses in NFL history, its pretty much the same story for every offense. sometimes they need the defense to step it up

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

I will never understand how you just look at stats and not the game. Minnesota, Detroit, and the Chargers defense held our offense down. Against Detroit we were down by double digits for most of the second half. Minnesota defense was the reason we lost to the Vikings. It’s funny how you left out the Denver loss.

yes, very true. when your defense is non existent and in those games literally they were non existent, then your offense doesn't score every drive like the opposing team does, then you become one dimentional. you are in constant catch up mode and it makes it easier to defend. just drop 7 into coverage. and pin your ear back and rush the passer and they did that easily.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

They averaged 30 pts a game. But they did struggle in the red zone so you’re correct about that. They’ve apparently made that a focus of the offense during this offseason and now training camp. I wouldn’t worry about them too much. The defense and culture have been where the issues lie. Both have been under reconstruction for the last 2 years and I think we’ll see some good results this year.

yes, and schotty acknowledged that and they were supposedly working on that this year.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

but it can't be an excuse for the offense not to continue performing. we have had people make the argument" well, you can't expect to win if the D gives up X points". well, if you are also going to tell me that they are a top offense, top individual players, etc., then yes we need them to put up points regardless of our defensive struggles. not going to win every one, but far too often we don't do much with our opportunities.

outside of five teams in history of NFL, that scored 20+ points a game for each game played, offenses have ups and downs. sometimes you need the defense to do something. I gave a bunch of examples of Rams, Seattle scoring less than 20 and winning games. if you expect your offense to score every posession to keep up, then you are not going to succeed unless you are the 2007 patriots.

you just put the entire onus of winning on one side of the ball and tried to place blame.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

The offense needs to be more consistent, and do better in all areas this season.

deffense? needs to be just better in every single area as they failed misreably last year in every single area.

 

[Flamma]

We're not discussing what "would have been". We're talking about what happened.

How does a Superbowl caliber team let an overrated offense and a 32nd ranked defense come back from being 21 points down and beat them?

That Superbowl caliber Eagles offense couldn't do anything vs a 32nd ranked defense and you ask if the Cowboys offense is overrated? Tell me what's wrong with this picture....

Oddly enough, the Eagles are the exception. For whatever reason, all bets are off when we play the Eagles. Remember that 3rd and 30 to Hilton? We had no business winning that game. There was another game we were all but dead a buried, and we end up with a first and goal from the 6 for the win. We lost, but my point is the Cowboys break from all norms against the Eagles. Hell if I know why.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

What’s the simple concept?

that's a hard question for him. make it simpler

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

When you can’t rush the ball and your qb isn’t mobile all you can do is throw it left right or middle

when you can't rush the ball inside the redzone....yes, very true.

 

[fivetwos]

They are in a position now where they either have to resign Pickens, or make a significant expenditure at WR. I think Flournoy is a good player, but I dont think he is a #2 caliber guy

I think he can pull it off, but if you want WR to remain an actual strength, then no.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Good post. I would argue a couple points though. I think Prescott's rz struggles do relate to his head and arm to an extent. His cautious nature causes many of those throwaways where other QB's would be more confortable threading the needle. His decision making has always been on the slow side as well. In the tight spaces you need to be decisive and willing to let it rip.

His struggles also make it easier for defenses to pay more attention to the rg and take their chances on Prescott beating them with his arm.

His lack of mobility does make it easier on defenses. I'm not sure it matters as much inside the ten though. Allen is a nightmare for defenses down there. Dak will never be Allen and he doesn't have to be. He should pick his spots though. If for no other reason to give the defense something to think about.

well, that may have been true in his first couple of years, but that's a totally false narrative that DDS pushes based perhaps on his rookie year play (often DDS points to that year).

you don't become consistent top 10 passer in the league by not having ability to do the above. and he has consistently been top 10 passer. no one can deny that.

I am sure you response is that he does it in garbage time and none of you can point to garbage time or defend it. but again another DDS narrative.

is he Patrick Mahomes? Burrows? absolutely not. anyone claiming or arguing that is stupid. anyone comparing him to those is stupid. anyone expecting him to be those is stupid.
but he is in the next tier below Elite. and the complaint from DDS is why isn't he elite. and of course, the salary comes up. as if that's any relevance to the argument (it doesn't).

lack of mobility is total BS. in fact I hate RBs playing QB like Jackson. What has he accomplished as the best running RB (errr QB) in the league? what has Murray for that matter? and stafford is not fleet of foot, yet one of the top passers, neither is Goff.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

How many games were the Cowboys down by 2 scores and won? Seems like they got down and that would be that.

of course, because the defense gives up scoring almost every drive, and if the offense doesn't score every drive, then you lose games and it gets away from you slowly and by end of 3rd and 4th quarter you are down two scores. pretty much what happened most of last year.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Our D was 30th, not 32nd, and the Eagles were not close to super bowl caliber last season.

our D was 32nd in scoring defense. they were 6th all time worse. yards are irrelevant.