Offensive Play Calling Horrendous

[DrunkWithPower]

Most plays had Dak holding the ball a long long time while the plays developed. Whether that was Dak struggling with reads, the Eagles secondary playing lights out, or slow developing routes I have no idea. Our last 4-5 games our bread and butter was dink and dunk, and we got away from that last night.

 

[aikemirv]

I would never take Zeke out of the backfield personally

 

[Silver N Blue]

I know others have probably hit on this already, but what happened last night? Did Linehan get concussed? I mean, with one of the best run teams in the league how many shotgun formations can you call? No protection and no chance of play-action, especially in the red zone where our tendency is to run. I know some may say Linehan decided to flip the script and outsmart the Eagles defense, but we basically went away from all our strengths. We also stopped spreading the ball and targeted 88 way too much (I don't know whether that was Prescott or Linehan). The only thing I did like was not running on every first down, but since most of our plays operated out of the shotgun the defense knew we weren't running anyway.

Agree 100% worst game of the year all around. If it wasn't for Garrets trickery and going for it on fourth down I don't think we would be a happy bunch today. I will take the win and hope the team comes out with some passion vs the Browns..

 

[dragon_mikal]

The play calling was very suspect especially in the redzone but the poor execution also made the play calling appear worse then it actually was.

Dak was horrible when throwing the football last night. Yea he gets props for putting together a drive in OT to win it but for the majority of the game it looked like last year all over again. If the Eagles had anything resembling even a decent offense the Cowboys get blown out last night.

 

[Wezsh0T]

Dak ran the ball more than usual and looked gassed.Moreover, if there's anything our OC should've learned from yesterdays game was that screens are good for this team. Philly takes the easy yardage when the DBs back off 10 yds, those screens will get you a good 4-7 yds making 3rd and short manageable. Compared to Dak, Wentz was hardly in a 3rd and long situation.

I think you identified the real problem. The Eagles stuffed Elliot several times on 1st and 2nd, putting us in 3rd and long situations. This is why the play calling looked so bad. We had difficulty running on early downs and got stuck in 3rd and long. We spent all night chasing good gains on 1st and 2nd and when it didn't work, we tried to pass to achieve the 3rd and short situations. This is where we missed Romo. The Eagles were selling out to stop the run, but we didn't exactly make them pay. Linehan was persuaded to try to pass out of the situation because Elliot had a few negative runs.

 

[aikemirv]

I think you identified the real problem. The Eagles stuffed Elliot several times on 1st and 2nd, putting us in 3rd and long situations. This is why the play calling looked so bad. We had difficulty running on early downs and got stuck in 3rd and long. We spent all night chasing good gains on 1st and 2nd and when it didn't work, we tried to pass to achieve the 3rd and short situations. This is where we missed Romo. The Eagles were selling out to stop the run, but we didn't exactly make them pay. Linehan was persuaded to try to pass out of the situation because Elliot had a few negative runs.

Yep and thankfully we were able to get into normal offensive rythym in OT and had success running the ball.

 

[pansophy]

Rookie QB with suspect footwork limiting the playbook. You guys are actually making a case of why Romo should be back in when healthy rather than this being about play calling.

 

[Tommy]

You guys complain when defenses take Dez away and wonder why we paid the guy.

Then you guys complain when the coaches and qb tries to get our best receiving option / mismatch as many opportunities to take over by feeding him the ball

The Eagles defense completely sold out to stop the run and the underneath stuff to Beasley.

If this team is going anywhere they are going to have to be able to exploit that. The one on one matchups with Dez were there. Romo would feast on that. Dak needs to learn to also.

 

[erod]

I think some of you are missing the point.

Dak was really struggling, and Linehan wanted to get him comfortable. Dak is much more comfortable in the shotgun, which is the only formation he played in college.

Zeke ran out of the shotgun plenty, so perhaps that was the play they should have gone to more.

 

[visionary]

I know others have probably hit on this already, but what happened last night? Did Linehan get concussed? I mean, with one of the best run teams in the league how many shotgun formations can you call? No protection and no chance of play-action, especially in the red zone where our tendency is to run. I know some may say Linehan decided to flip the script and outsmart the Eagles defense, but we basically went away from all our strengths. We also stopped spreading the ball and targeted 88 way too much (I don't know whether that was Prescott or Linehan). The only thing I did like was not running on every first down, but since most of our plays operated out of the shotgun the defense knew we weren't running anyway.

I agree with you
We needed to run more from under center and where were the quick slot passes to Beas ?

 

[Clarkson]

The play-calling was fine. The Eagles defense is the best defense we've seen yet. They did a lot of good things against us. The play-calling wasn't noticeably worse or better than previous weeks. Everything is great when it's working and terrible when it's not.

 

[Clarkson]

I agree with you
We needed to run more from under center and where were the quick slot passes to Beas ?

Wasn't open very often and when it was, Dak wasn't seeing him.

 

[NextGenBoys]

The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Play calling was bad, but execution was bad too.

 

[CowboyGil]

Cowboys won, right? Or did I miss something?

 

[bayeslife]

There was a lot of forcing to Dez early on even when Beas was open in the middle

 

[the_h0wey]

I know others have probably hit on this already, but what happened last night? Did Linehan get concussed? I mean, with one of the best run teams in the league how many shotgun formations can you call? No protection and no chance of play-action, especially in the red zone where our tendency is to run. I know some may say Linehan decided to flip the script and outsmart the Eagles defense, but we basically went away from all our strengths. We also stopped spreading the ball and targeted 88 way too much (I don't know whether that was Prescott or Linehan). The only thing I did like was not running on every first down, but since most of our plays operated out of the shotgun the defense knew we weren't running anyway.

I will never understand why we come out in Shotgun and throw on 1st and goal from the 5. It drives me crazy every time. Let your stud line and stud RB do what they do.

 

[Doomsday101]

I think some of the play calling was questionable but I also give the philly defense credit for how tough and physical they played. Dak was off in this game but to his credit he made enough plays to keep his team in the game and to eventually win the game. To me this was a typical NFC East game and thankfully Cowboys overcome a lot of mistakes to win this thing

 

[visionary]

Wasn't open very often and when it was, Dak wasn't seeing him.

There were many instances when Beas was open. Dak was looking for Dez deeper

Philly killed us with the quick slants and screen passes and we couldn't get one to save our life

 

[jwooten15]

Dak targeted Dez 14 times last night. 14. Twice as many as anybody else. 4 catches. That's less than a 30% completion percentage.

I think that, and the fact that Dak was wildly inaccurate for 3+ quarters, are the main reasons we looked so out of sync.

I understand trying to get Dez involved. But that shouldn't come at the expense of Lucky's jet sweep runs, Zeke pounding the rock, or Witten and Bease opportunities. I remember at least two forced throws to Dez where Witten was wide open in 8-10 yard routes.

You notice that we finally got rolling a little bit once Dak started looking more for Beasley.

Dez being on the field shouldn't change the offensive philosophy that has worked so well for us. Dez should be a PART of the game plan. We need to stop force feeding it to him.

 

[robbieruff]

I know others have probably hit on this already, but what happened last night? Did Linehan get concussed? I mean, with one of the best run teams in the league how many shotgun formations can you call? No protection and no chance of play-action, especially in the red zone where our tendency is to run. I know some may say Linehan decided to flip the script and outsmart the Eagles defense, but we basically went away from all our strengths. We also stopped spreading the ball and targeted 88 way too much (I don't know whether that was Prescott or Linehan). The only thing I did like was not running on every first down, but since most of our plays operated out of the shotgun the defense knew we weren't running anyway.

Formation wasn't really that big an issue for me although I agree in red zone we should've been under center more. We run a lot out of shotgun so the threat was still there. I do agree, however, that the constant empty sets we ran in the 3rd were head scratchers.

The thing I kept screaming about during the game were the lack of quick throws and plays where we attack the edges. Particularly when Schwartz was selling out and bringing the house...tailor made for WR screens and similar, which we've had great success with this season - esp to Cole.