Stats Before and after - what the Atlanta game did to Dak

[Melonfeud]

It's been discussed many times how the 27-7 loss last November in Atlanta was disastrous for this team. Looking at stats, it was clearly most disastrous for Dak Prescott. In terms of how it mentally affected Dak and this team, it was one of the worst losses in Cowboys regular season history.

Let’s look at Dak’s stats pre 2017 Atlanta game, then after the Atlanta game all the way to now.

DAK STATS BEFORE 2017 ATL GAME
2016- 23 TDS, 4 INTs
2017- (before Atl game) 16 TDs, 4 INTs
COMBINED 2016 and 8 2017 GAMES BEFORE ATL GAME: 39 TDs and 8 INTs

DAK STATS AFTER 2017 ATL GAME
2017-(after Atl game) 6 TDs, 9 INTs
2018- (so far) 11 TDs, 5 INTs
COMBINED 2017 and 2018 STATS AFTER ATL GAME: 17 TDs, 14 INTs

Just looking at Dak’s stats it’s pretty clear that Atlanta game last year did something to his confidence and performance.

I clearly remember watching Chaz Green get destroyed play after play by the mediocre Adrian Clayborn and also watching in sheer disbelief as Garett just stood there clapping while his (at that time) 24 year old QB gets thrown around like a rag doll. And no adjustments were made until late 3rd qtr. Garrett should have been fired on the plane ride home.

Coaching matters. And as the stats make clear, some games are so poorly coached it can have lingering effects. Especially when the head coach is the worst in the league at managing in-game situations. The game Sun in Atl is a chance to exercise those demons or to add to them.

* while at first,the very thread header roiled my thoughts into
" man, this **** ain't never gonna just lay down& go away"
I'm impressed over all in it's underlying intent, as it was of valid construct&message


* seeing's how yer' of the seldom reciprocal caliber in the " LIKES" category, I'd figured my mandatory obligatory " Likes" launcher should go off line as well there BulletBob!,,,although the majority of you're forum input is
"Like" worthy ( IMO)

 

[kevm3]

The Atlanta game exposed Daks weaknesses more. We realized how much he needed the All Pro talent around him. And he wasn’t going to elevate or carry our offense on his own as our prior QB had.

The excuse for romo was he needed a better o line, hence those 8 and 8 years. How did romo carry a more talent stacked offense?

 

[Denim Chicken]

They all don’t need All Pro talent surrounding them.

Even though Packers lost last nite , Rodgers looked very effective.

Does Dak ever look effective in losses?

Yeah, we've been in every game this year. Lost one by a FG at the last second.

All the QBs who are balling and winning right now have talent around them.

 

[Melonfeud]

I agree. This is a more winnable game than last year.

It’s a must win for Falcons too. Either team which falls to 4-6 can pretty well write season off unless they win out.

Their defense is suspect while their offense can score in bunches. Turnovers will probably be the difference.

If it's in ATLANTA? The ZEBRAS will be working their evil mo-jo in overdrive road gear as well, should we start exploiting yer' above mentioned weaknesses,ya know that Diehard

 

[Bobhaze]

You notice how our offense magically looks competent when the coaching staff gets bashed and are on the hot seat? THEN they actually try creativity and aggressiveness. When its comfortable, they go back to the most predictable offense on the league. These coaches are wasting talent.

Agreed. Jerry’s commitment to Garrett is so far greater than his commitment to winning. How strange is that? Most owners want to win or move on.

Take Atlanta’s HC Dan Quinn. Now in his 4th season, He had an 8-8 first year, then in 2016 won 2 playoff games and took the Falcons to a SB. Now in 2018, he’s in the hot seat if they don’t make the playoffs for the second straight year. He already has more playoff wins than Garrett! But his owner wants to win and if after 4 years, you only have 1 playoff appearance, that owner may be ready to move on. Imagine that.

 

[Praxit]

Bob, it will be different this year. .. Mr. Chaz set the tone, he's long gone.

 

[kevm3]

Agreed. Jerry’s commitment to Garrett is so far greater than his commitment to winning. How strange is that? Most owners want to win or move on.

Take Atlanta’s HC Dan Quinn. Now in his 4th season, He had an 8-8 first year, then in 2016 won 2 playoff games and took the Falcons to a SB. Now in 2018, he’s in the hot seat if they don’t make the playoffs for the second straight year. He already has more playoff wins than Garrett! But his owner wants to win and if after 4 years, you only have 1 playoff appearance, that owner may be ready to move on. Imagine that.

Exactly. No real pressure to win so garret and linehan coast and pick up millions until the heat is on. Then they do their job, and when the heat is off, go back to coasting.

Winning or a bye week is a sign to relax for Garrett and Linehan. Notice how dak was much more effective and zeke looked like the best rb in football again after we stopped running him into the middle of an anticipating defense on 1st down over and over? The o line looked so much better when sua came in as well

 

[Bobhaze]

Exactly. No real pressure to win so garret and linehan coast and pick up millions until the heat is on. Then they do their job, and when the heat is off, go back to coasting.

Winning or a bye week is a sign to relax for Garrett and Linehan. Notice how dak was much more effective and zeke looked like the best rb in football again after we stopped running him into the middle of an anticipating defense on 1st down over and over? The o line looked so much better when sua came in as well

You mentioned the bye and how Garrett relaxes- history shows that to be true. Since 2011, the Cowboys rank 22nd in the league after a bye week. Since Garrett became HC, the ‘Boys are 3-5 after the bye. Contrast that to the eagles 7-1 in the same period, and that’s under two different HCs.

 

[Direwolf63]

It's been discussed many times how the 27-7 loss last November in Atlanta was disastrous for this team. Looking at stats, it was clearly most disastrous for Dak Prescott. In terms of how it mentally affected Dak and this team, it was one of the worst losses in Cowboys regular season history.

Let’s look at Dak’s stats pre 2017 Atlanta game, then after the Atlanta game all the way to now.

DAK STATS BEFORE 2017 ATL GAME
2016- 23 TDS, 4 INTs
2017- (before Atl game) 16 TDs, 4 INTs
COMBINED 2016 and 8 2017 GAMES BEFORE ATL GAME: 39 TDs and 8 INTs

DAK STATS AFTER 2017 ATL GAME
2017-(after Atl game) 6 TDs, 9 INTs
2018- (so far) 11 TDs, 5 INTs
COMBINED 2017 and 2018 STATS AFTER ATL GAME: 17 TDs, 14 INTs

Just looking at Dak’s stats it’s pretty clear that Atlanta game last year did something to his confidence and performance.

I clearly remember watching Chaz Green get destroyed play after play by the mediocre Adrian Clayborn and also watching in sheer disbelief as Garett just stood there clapping while his (at that time) 24 year old QB gets thrown around like a rag doll. And no adjustments were made until late 3rd qtr. Garrett should have been fired on the plane ride home.

Coaching matters. And as the stats make clear, some games are so poorly coached it can have lingering effects. Especially when the head coach is the worst in the league at managing in-game situations. The game Sun in Atl is a chance to exercise those demons or to add to them.

The Atlanta game is Exhibit A as to why Jason Garrett should not be a HC in Dallas.

But there are enough exhibits to fill a large walk-in closet.

Dak has never been the same since that game. And I'm not sure he ever will be.

 

[Bobhaze]

The Atlanta game is Exhibit A as to why Jason Garrett should not be a HC in Dallas.

But there are enough exhibits to fill a large walk-in closet.

Dak has never been the same since that game. And I'm not sure he ever will be.

Agreed. But ”Exhibit A” was probably icing the kicker or 3 straight 8-8 seasons with Romo, or....lots to choose from.

 

[Grevus]

ATL last year is when our o-line began to play like absolute crap and yeah it's affected Prescott he's not there yet but pretty much every game our o-line has played well so has Dak.
Dak's still a developing player and if that means making sure he has a good offensive line to help him play quality ball then so be it. Some QBs need different things he just happens to need a decent o-line he can have some trust in. If Dak can get some good coaches around him it'll help him exponentially I think and his development. Almost none of the great QBs could carry a team on their backs their first few years it takes time. I've seen enough from Prescott that I want to see what he turns into but it's all for nothing if he doesn't get the coaching staff to help him develop because he won't he'll be stunted and never develop any further. Today though Dak's a better QB than he was in year 1, the circumstances around him might not be the same but he's a better player. I don't believe he's reached his ceiling yet.

I agree. I think Dak has talent. He's never going to be a Brady, Rogers or Brees, but I do think he has skills that still need developing. Last years ATL game messed with his head and made him see shadows. There's no question to me that game changed Dak style and play. I saw a QB that had little confidence in his Oline and with no Zeke to help, the pressure mounted. I'm not saying Dak doesn't have several issues, but as I've said before, coaching is key here to help him develop. Keep in mind, he's a 4th round draft pick that was supposed to be project. He's in his 3rd year with a patch work Oline, new receivers and an offensive scheme that is vanilla, yet we expect greatness.

 

[jrumann59]

Every QB has a game where his OL lets him down. If Dak get that game out of his head from a season ago he will never get it out of his head. IMHO Atlanta last year was a coincidence. I think Teams had a very good idea and few teams had the talent Denver had to run the defense the way they ran it.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

@Bobhaze Was this the first game last year without Zeke? I can't remember if the Atlanta game was the first game of Zeke's suspension. If so, the Zeke suspension has to be factored in when evaluating Dak.

I don't think Goff would look so good without Gurley for 6 games.
Cowboys also lost LB Lee for a long period during this time too. Although not a direct influence on Dak's performance, but a factor nonetheless. Defense could not hold opponent so offense had to change maybe.

 

[Flamma]

The Atlanta game exposed Daks weaknesses more. We realized how much he needed the All Pro talent around him. And he wasn’t going to elevate or carry our offense on his own as our prior QB had.

What All Pro talent did he have around him? Dez was not the same player Romo used to know. Witten was far from All Pro at that stage of his career. Was it the future Hall of famers in TWill, Beasley, and Brice Butler? Probably not. If you're talking about the great OL play then yes, he needs time to throw. I don't think the Atlanta game did anything to him. That game was just the start of the decline in OL play. But Dak got a double whammy. His O-Line play got worse and he was left with a questionable WR corp.

A lot of QBs have trouble under pressure. Sure I'd prefer he didn't fold up like a cheap paper back, but that's who we have. But just know that if the OL has capable guys that give Dak the necessary time, he'll be ok. How good did Peyton look under pressure? How good did a certain someone look in 1986 losing a playoff game 49-3? Then losing again in 1990. He got injured late in that game and his replacement, dare I say, looked better under the pressure.

 

[silvrNblue]

The Atlanta game exposed Daks weaknesses more. We realized how much he needed the All Pro talent around him. And he wasn’t going to elevate or carry our offense on his own as our prior QB had.

SO, all you got from that game was Dak is mediocre and can't carry the team while running for his life or laying on his back... good to know you paid such close attention to how his blind side was left open and that schlub DE ran in untouched. Bob spelled out WHO was truly at fault, and here you come with , well bottom line is Dak sucks and always will,..I just don't get you sometimes Die. And no you never actually stated in those words he sucks, but we all get your drift

 

[Bobhaze]

@Bobhaze Was this the first game last year without Zeke? I can't remember if the Atlanta game was the first game of Zeke's suspension. If so, the Zeke suspension has to be factored in when evaluating Dak.

I don't think Goff would look so good without Gurley for 6 games.
Cowboys also lost LB Lee for a long period during this time too. Although not a direct influence on Dak's performance, but a factor nonetheless. Defense could not hold opponent so offense had to change maybe.

Yes, I think it was first game w/out Zeke.

 

[Diehardblues]

SO, all you got from that game was Dak is mediocre and can't carry the team while running for his life or laying on his back... good to know you paid such close attention to how his blind side was left open and that schlub DE ran in untouched. Bob spelled out WHO was truly at fault, and here you come with , well bottom line is Dak sucks and always will,..I just don't get you sometimes Die. And no you never actually stated in those words he sucks, but we all get your drift

I also added there is plenty of blame to go around.

 

[silvrNblue]

I also added there is plenty of blame to go around.

That's true... and to be fair, lets give Dak THIS game to beat back the demons that were created in this same place last year... I'm betting a lot of people are going to be surprised...

 

[Diehardblues]

I’ve seen an attempt to place the entire blame on Garrett who certainly deserves his part but there were several other contributing factors.

 

[Diehardblues]

That's true... and to be fair, lets give Dak THIS game to beat back the demons that were created in this same place last year... I'm betting a lot of people are going to be surprised...

If you had read all of my post here you would have seen how I applauded Dak on a signature win last week.

I also yesterday posted a thread in support of predicting Cowboys win Sunday.