Our offense is more to blame this season than our defense

[Tabascocat]

It is a sad state of affairs when the Special Teams is our best unit

 

[dupree89]

It is a sad state of affairs when the Special Teams is our best unit

they have been good, havent they?

 

[Beast_from_East]

I posted this in another thread but I think it's worthy of its own thread. Now, if you think my logic is faulty then please correct me and give your own support. I tried to use actual data to support my claim. This was in response to a post defending Romo. The point isn't to totally blame Romo. The point is to say, yes, our defense is historically bad, but our offense is more at fault (based on my numerical support) than our defense for our 5-5 season. Here it is:

Here's how I look at it... The NFL average (I just did the math myself) for points scored per game for every team (that's including horrible offenses like the Jags) is 23.2. That means any game they Cowboys fail to score at least 24 should not be blamed on the defense. An average NFL offense should be capable of scoring 24 points, so an offense that considers itself elite or near-elite should have no problem. Well, looking at the schedule so far, we've failed to score 24 in four games. We lost three of the four games we failed to score 24 (the only one we won was the 17-3 game against the Eagles). Therefore, in my opinion, three of our five losses are the offense's fault, not the defense's. That means our offense is more responsible for our mediocre season than our historically bad defense is. And who's the leader of our offense? You guessed it... Mr. Romo. If he's not a major part of the problem, I don't know who is.

Romo was winning division titles, going to probowls, and even won a freaking playoff game before Opie took over.


Maybe that is who you should do as statistical analysis of.............................start by asking yourself how many teams over 500 Opie has beaten............shouldn't take very long to come up with the answer.

 

[Sarge]

Is there any rule that says they both (offense and defense) can't suck. If there is, we are breaking said rule.

 

[SultanOfSix]

There is plenty of blame to go around. To support the OP I'll throw this out there. When you don't convert any 3rd downs to sustain drives you are setting up your injury riddled defense filled with 2nd and 3rd stringers up to fail.

I believe this is a really significant indicator for success: having a good 3rd down conversion percentage, as well as stopping the other team on 3rd down.

If I remember correctly, I believe the '92 team that won the first SB of three in four years, was first in the league both categories.

 

[IrishAnto]

We had several mind boggling calls on third and short. I thought the game plan was based on ball control. They seemed to swing for the fences everytime to borrow from a baseball analogy.

That bugs me too, especially playing on the road.

I know you have to take chances but in a close game when it’s 3rd and 2 for example, don’t fling the ball 20+ yards down the field.

 

[lostar2009]

It's flawed, you are basically saying that 17 points against the Chiefs is exactly the same as 17 points against the Saints, which obviously is not true. On the other side, giving up 49 points to the Saints may not be as bad as giving up 30 to the Chargers. You need a better method to normalize some of these numbers. There is no real reason to say that "if the offense hits the league average of points, they have done their job" other than the fact that it gives you results that you like.

Well when your offense stalls out and have 3 and outs on all most every drive you have issues. Also take in the fact or defense have had a record # of turnovers this year and our offense could not do anything with it. Against the saints we were able to generate 2 turnovers on special teams and recover 1 onside kick. Offense pretty much did nothing with it. That is a problem , our defense is okay but no where near great or dominate with so many injuries. So I agree this offense should have the ability to generate 24 points but fall real short in doing so.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

I do blame the offense more than the defense. I EXPECT the defense to give up yards, it has a ragtag D-Line and the few vets there are have had to learn like 3 different schemes in the last 4 years. I never expected a Defense that was going to shut teams down. I expected a Defense that while not being stellar, would be able to produce more turnovers. That's pretty much what I got. The pass/run defense has certainly taken a dive in yards allowed etc, and I'm not defending it, but I honestly believe our defense would be viewed in a far better light if our offense could keep them off of the field for longer than it takes to go 3 and out.

I have no idea what happened to this offense, but it has regressed in every way possible, except maybe turnovers. Is it because of Callahan? Our offense wasn't nearly this stagnant the last few years. I don't believe it's the players, our offensive line is serviceable, our QB is able, and we have a beast WR. Why can't we move the ball at all? Maybe Garret needs to take over between the 20's, and give the playcall duties to Callahan, 'cause our redzone O is about the only thing that's improved since Callahan took over, but we lost the ability to get into the redzone.

 

[Alexander]

It is a sad state of affairs when the Special Teams is our best unit

It was actually the one that scared me the most considering how things went in preseason.

 

[Red Dragon]

So, defense is one of the worst in the league and has given up 600 yards to the Saints and Lions apiece, but no, the problem's not defense; it's the offense?

 

[dropdeadfred5]

All so someone can blame Romo once again.

The D is giving up NFL RECORDS and its not primarily to blame? Only on the Zone and from so called Cowboys fans can that actually be considered anything other then hilarious.

Its really simple:

THE D IS ALL TIME BAD AND THE O IS AVERAGE. So to anyone with a brain it should be clear that more of the blame should be on the D. The O should be better but to give it most of the blame is pure Romo hatred.

 

[Alexander]

So, defense is one of the worst in the league and has given up 600 yards to the Saints and Lions apiece, but no, the problem's not defense; it's the offense?

To use a medical analogy, the defense is the disease, the offense is a symptom. Overall, neither is in synch with the other.

We have seen bad/bad, good/bad, average/bad, great/bad, average/good. Never great/great.

The two play off of each other. The defense has done the turnover job, but cannot keep teams from gobbling up the field and scoring. The offense has not done enough with the turnovers nor been able to control time of possession to keep the bad defense off the field.

 

[bounce]

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Both are bad.

 

[03EBZ06]

One of the three component of this team is about to set all time record for futility, guess what that component is.

 

[Nation]

 

[egn22]

put me down for the offense being the main problem. this has been an ongoing problem during the Garrett era. The defense is battling numerous injuries and is playing very bad, this is obvious. But I agree with the OP, completely. There's no excuse for this offense to look this out of sync. the lack of creativity, and the inability to make changes to utilize your best weapons and maximize their ability is the main problem here.
its been discussed here ad nauseam so there's no reason for me to outline the specific reasons why Garrett's tenure has been such a failure. But i find it funny that we've had 5 defensive coordinators since Garrett took over our offense, and we've seen virtually the same results every year. The only constant has been Garrett.

 

[Nirvana]

It's even more precise: 3rd downs, beating the blitz. Romo has a terrible qb rating on 3rd down this season (57.2) and it comes down to lack of time to throw, OR failure to have a hot route that will beat it, OR failure to set up good pass protection before hiking the ball, OR failure to catch the ball by the WR. All have been factors.

 

[03EBZ06]

All so someone can blame Romo once again.

The D is giving up NFL RECORDS and its not primarily to blame? Only on the Zone and from so called Cowboys fans can that actually be considered anything other then hilarious.

Its really simple:

THE D IS ALL TIME BAD AND THE O IS AVERAGE. So to anyone with a brain it should be clear that more of the blame should be on the D. The O should be better but to give it most of the blame is pure Romo hatred.

Yup. It make me shudder and sad to think this defense is even worse than all the expansion team's defenses and teams that went 0-16 and any of horrible teams in history of NFL.

 

[jterrell]

I posted this in another thread but I think it's worthy of its own thread. Now, if you think my logic is faulty then please correct me and give your own support. I tried to use actual data to support my claim. This was in response to a post defending Romo. The point isn't to totally blame Romo. The point is to say, yes, our defense is historically bad, but our offense is more at fault (based on my numerical support) than our defense for our 5-5 season. Here it is:

Here's how I look at it... The NFL average (I just did the math myself) for points scored per game for every team (that's including horrible offenses like the Jags) is 23.2. That means any game they Cowboys fail to score at least 24 should not be blamed on the defense. An average NFL offense should be capable of scoring 24 points, so an offense that considers itself elite or near-elite should have no problem. Well, looking at the schedule so far, we've failed to score 24 in four games. We lost three of the four games we failed to score 24 (the only one we won was the 17-3 game against the Eagles). Therefore, in my opinion, three of our five losses are the offense's fault, not the defense's. That means our offense is more responsible for our mediocre season than our historically bad defense is. And who's the leader of our offense? You guessed it... Mr. Romo. If he's not a major part of the problem, I don't know who is.

No offense here but this is crazy talk.

The defense gets next to no stops ever. Early on we were relying on turnovers and that staunched the bleeding but all in all this defense doesn't get off the field.
When you can't stop the run or the pass and the only way the offense gets the ball is on kick offs that's not an offensive issue.

This team has plenty of issues to go around but no team in the NFL wins giving up 600 yards a week.

This team has long recognized that they need better pass coverage.
They've invested most heavily there.
At some point that will actually pay off but it hasn't yet this season.
At least not consistently.

End of the day doesn't really matter what is at fault.
Not with 2 weeks to prepare for the final 6 game stretch.
They need to get some bodies back and go win enough games to win the NFCE.
That has been the deal since day 1 and nothing has changed.

Last week was abysmal but it was also a good thing in all likelihood.
2 weeks to admit all the failings and fix them best they can.
Getting back 3 or 4 starters will certainly be the largest piece of that.

 

[fifaguy]

part of the problem is we have no identity on offense whatsoever. Are we going to run this week with success? Are we going to pass every down? Are we going to force balls to double covered guys or take the passes that are open? Are we going to let Romo run? Can the o-line show up? The playcalling has been very suspect and the execution by the players hasn't been much better. I would tend to agree the longer our offense is out there the better. That defense needs all the rest and help it can get.