Moore's offense didnt change midseason like some claim

[CowboyRoy]

Think it was a combination of a Hurt Dak, a Hurt Zeke and an OC who didn’t adapt.

More then anything it was the play of the Oline.

 

[CowboyRoy]

I have always maintained that Dak will not become a truly great QB until he does more of this. He needs to take more command of the offense and not allow it to stagnate the way it did at times last year. Really it has been doing it since Moore took over. Especially the slow start syndrome. In the Garrett/Linehan days this team was known for getting up on people and playing from ahead. Since Moore took over they have been notoriously bad on opening drives and really in first quarters period. I believe they only scored TDs on the opening drive like 2-3 times. A stark contrast to 2016 when they did so in 12-13 games. I still think the problem is Moore seems to favor "feeling teams out" with his first several "scripted" plays rather than attacking the weaknesses they have seen on film all week. We never come out and just exploit the hell out of a matchup advantage like we should. Instead it looks like we're trying to run down a checklist of plays and formations we wanna show before we really start playing football for real.

The real problem is he continues to feature a slow and predictable Zeke in the run game. Especially at the beginning of games.

 

[Redline360]

That was the problem....no change

Opposing teams studied film to make adjustments and then we failed to make adjustments on our end.

Cowboys still need to establish the run game. Pollard needs WAY more touches. His use was criminal some games

 

[Mr Cowboy]

No his offense didn't change mid-season... the opposing defenses understanding of our offense changed, so he should have made adjustments accordingly.

Thats the biggest problem!!! He didn’t change anything!!

That's what i saw as well. It seemed like he used the same game plan week in and week out, much like Garrett did. I can't remember which opposing player mentioned that when they had 4 receivers spread out, they knew there would be 4 hooks coming, because they saw on film that always did that. There were no more crossing routes.

 

[America's Cowboy]

Blogging the boys is awesome .

They are OK. Half of their writers know their stuff. The other half are a bunch of dimwits.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Pollard was hurt, as was Zeke.....Pollard needs to be used sparingly, he's not an every down back.....to small and can't block.....put him in the slot and deep set.....

Yawn……

 

[gimmesix]

No his offense didn't change mid-season... the opposing defenses understanding of our offense changed, so he should have made adjustments accordingly.

Thats the biggest problem!!! He didn’t change anything!!

I think a lot of it had to do with Dak being off after his midseason injury. Defenses started playing us a certain way, but he had opportunities to hit on plays that would have forced them out of it. He didn't, so the defenses stuck with their adjustments. Denver was saying it figured us out, but there was a terrible fourth-down miss by Dak early in the game when Wilson was wide-open that might have changed the course of the game. You can't get teams out of their defensive plan if you don't execute.

That doesn't mean Kellen shouldn't have changed. We were clearly struggling and something needed to be done to change that. You can't just say execute better and expect that to happen. We needed to create some offense and we didn't.

 

[Them]

...Whatever....Still the O line blocking hurt the Run game significantly[ , much less the Pass game...They have to be able to "Run the ball better" in 2022!

 

[nalam]

Exactly. Kurt Warner breakdown of how we refused to use combination routes that attack the cover 2 is unbelievable. Not to take some blame from Dak for patting the ball, but attack the cover 2 Kellen for goodness sake.

Also where was Big Mike? Did he not see the offense struggling and failing to attack cover 2 defenses? Guess he was getting massage...

Big mike staying out of offense and claiming so, tells volumes about Jerry’s mismanaging the coaches and team.

 

[BourbonBalz]

I think Dak was more injured than he let on.

So was Elliot. He played hurt for almost all of the season after sustaining an injury in Game 4 with Carolina.

 

[CWR]

Exactly. Kurt Warner breakdown of how we refused to use combination routes that attack the cover 2 is unbelievable. Not to take some blame from Dak for patting the ball, but attack the cover 2 Kellen for goodness sake.

Also where was Big Mike? Did he not see the offense struggling and failing to attack cover 2 defenses? Guess he was getting massage...

Garbage coaching. It's hard to have any confidence in those two.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

More then anything it was the play of the Oline.

exactly and more specifically, the weak middle, where Williams and Biadasz got abused, the DTAs easily got push up the middle forcing Dak to the outside into waiting arms of DEs. teams learned they can rush with 4 or 5 and drop 6 or 7 into coverage which frustrated Dak, confused him and made it difficult. when you can manage run defense and pass rush with 4 or 5 defenders, you are way ahead of the game. Denver exposed it. the rest copied it.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

The real problem is he continues to feature a slow and predictable Zeke in the run game. Especially at the beginning of games.

and given he is now slower, a weak middle of the OL exposed him even further

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

I think a lot of it had to do with Dak being off after his midseason injury. Defenses started playing us a certain way, but he had opportunities to hit on plays that would have forced them out of it. He didn't, so the defenses stuck with their adjustments. Denver was saying it figured us out, but there was a terrible fourth-down miss by Dak early in the game when Wilson was wide-open that might have changed the course of the game. You can't get teams out of their defensive plan if you don't execute.

That doesn't mean Kellen shouldn't have changed. We were clearly struggling and something needed to be done to change that. You can't just say execute better and expect that to happen. We needed to create some offense and we didn't.

that had some to do with it, but wasn't the sole reason....this kind of collapse is result of multiple factors. Moore didn't adjust. our OL got exposed. Dak had issues. we never adjusted. our OL was exposed as weak up the middle with Williams and Biadasz. runs up the middle were negated. zeke was injured and slow. Moore insisted on running the same plays, never disguising it. he stopped moving players around. teams discovered they can stop the run with 4 or 5 and generate pass rush the same, thus dropping 6 or 7 into coverage which made passing difficult.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

Big mike staying out of offense and claiming so, tells volumes about Jerry’s mismanaging the coaches and team.

 

[quickccc]

.I’d be very weary of people and ‘sources’ that will throw out random stats, that you won’t hear anywhere else, for whatever agenda.
I’ve always say the best stats is your own eyeball test. You should know and trust what you are seeing on a week to week basis.

- Hey, what da heck happened to the jet-sweep edge runs with Pollard ?

-- If Kellen more did not stop or slow down his own offense .. if the opposing defenses did not force him into doing less and being more conservative and protective with his QB, then what Happened ?

“ Oh we ran ball well in first season half.. “ .. yeh vs whom ?..... weak sista’s NYG, Philly.. as well as poor run defense Chargers and Carolina ?
Why could we not run it well vs Bucs and NE Pats ?

 

[quickccc]

that had some to do with it, but wasn't the sole reason....this kind of collapse is result of multiple factors. Moore didn't adjust. our OL got exposed. Dak had issues. we never adjusted. our OL was exposed as weak up the middle with Williams and Biadasz. runs up the middle were negated. zeke was injured and slow. Moore insisted on running the same plays, never disguising it. he stopped moving players around. teams discovered they can stop the run with 4 or 5 and generate pass rush the same, thus dropping 6 or 7 into coverage which made passing difficult.

There's been so much combinations thrown at the misgivings of the offense. .. even down to Jerry himself blaming the WRs for not running the right pass routes.

- And yes, here comes Kellen Moore and those dreaded WR bubble screens that we ran so predictably and frequently ran over and over again such that teams could easily sniffed out
that formation and knock us down for no gain and loss yardage. .. Uugh !

- WR bubble screens and roll out waggles to TE Schultz seem like all we knew how to do
with the underneath game.

- Some will go back to Dak's calf injury where everything seem to slow down, but think of what Denver did differently than even the great defensive Belichek himself failed to do.
Stop coming after Dak with multi-blitzes but rather come at him with vast heavy zone coverage
- especially since Cowboys simply cannot run the ball well enough to hurt us upfront.

 

[BotchedLobotomy]

 

[youngjerryjones]

I completely agree. In THAT way he was definitely at fault. And certainly not benching Zeke was a huge mistake. Continuing to let Pollard rot on the bench, another big blunder.

He did try things with the run game however as far as trying to run to the outside more. None of it worked as Zeke was simply too slow and predictable.

unfortunately i don't think benching zeke is any way his decision at all, nor is it MM.

Literally think that if Jerry went up to zeke pre-game and asked him if he was ok and Zeke said yes, the decision is made right then and there.

 

[CouchCoach]

exactly. been saying the same thing for three years. he maybe a genuis wonder boy (as jerry wants us to believe), but no OC comes to that position after one year of coaching and dominates the NFL. give enough tape to the DCs and they will figure you out, and if you don't adjust you get eaten up live, which is what happened to Moore. he is green. he is learning. he is learning by making mistakes. his first mentor was Garrett and Jerry told McM to be hands off with him, so he has no mentor. if Jerry sticks with him for a few more years to try and prove himself right, Moore would be ruining several careers along the way, before Jerry realizes his mistake

The same GM that groomed and trained Garrett as a HC is trying to do that for Moore. Because he wants to claim it is "his" coach.