Tell me why we switched offensive coordinators again?

[Picksix]

Dallas was fourth in the league in defensive touchdowns scored last year with five and had one special teams touchdown. The Cowboys also were set up with short fields by other special teams returns and turnovers.

Not sure how middle of the road that is.

When you compare their average field position, and the length of their scoring drives, with the rest of the league, they were league average. Yeah, the defense scored a lot, but that shouldn't be factored into the offense's points.

The offense scored better than average points on average field position and length of scoring drive. Not saying the offense shouldn't have been better last year. It definitely should have been. Just saying they weren't helped out by the defense and ST's as much as some people want to believe that they were.

 

[wileedog]

or romo abandons the running game and switches plays to pass because he is comfortable.... last year there was a report that hatcher called him out in practice when he switched to a pass play when defense showed run defense and he switched it to pass. I think in one of the few times I have seen garrett show emotion was after GB game, when he has called a run play and romo switched to pass when GB had a run defense front, although they were not able to stop our running game regardless.

garrett also is a numbers guy to a fault. he tries to mix things up, he is fairly even in the run/pass ratio on first down, but in 2nd and long situations he does tend to favor the pass like 70/30, which makes him predictable.

Oh for Pete's sake, if a Head Coach can't stop his QB from changing out of plays then he doesn't deserve an NFL headset, period. There is no way this is true and if it is, JG really needs to be gone.

You think Parcells would put up with that?

 

[Beast_from_East]

The Cowboys have broken the 400 point barrier 11 times in franchise history resulting in 7 playoff appearances and 3 of the 5 Super Bowl trophies they own.

Last year was the 3rd time since 1995 that the Cowboys scored over 400 points but it became the first time the Cowboys would score 400 points and not make the playoffs.

So why did we switch OC's? We scored a ton of points.

Look beyond just points scored, specifically our 3rd down conversion rate.

We were one of the worst teams in the NFL on 3rd down, the most important down in football.

 

[Beast_from_East]

Because scoring 400 points isnt enough anymore... I would wadger alot of teams are scoring more these days.

400 points is not enough with this defense, that is for sure.

 

[gimmesix]

When you compare their average field position, and the length of their scoring drives, with the rest of the league, they were league average. Yeah, the defense scored a lot, but that shouldn't be factored into the offense's points.

Don't the total points scored include the defensive and special teams scores, or have I been looking at that wrong?

 

[SilverStarCowboy]

To throw the deep ball which creates more opportunities all around the field and in every facet of the Offense?

 

[gimmesix]

Just looked it up. Dallas scored 439 points and averaged 27.4 per game, but it does include those defensive and special teams touchdowns. Take those away and it's 397 points or 24.8.

 

[gimmesix]

Depending on how other teams scored on defense and special teams that could knock them out of the top 10. (Didn't look at how the teams below them scored, but if someone wants to ... knock yourself out.)

Anyway you look at it, though, this offense when it's as healthy as it was last season, needs to be near the top without help from the defense/special teams. Anything it gets from those groups should be gravy. ... And that's why we have a new offensive coordinator, because it's easy to see that Dallas' offense did not do enough with the opportunities it was given.

 

[Picksix]

Don't the total points scored include the defensive and special teams scores, or have I been looking at that wrong?

I don't look at NFL.com because they count everything, which skews the numbers. The site I reference for all that stuff is sporting charts.com. They have a section on offensive efficiency.

 

[gimmesix]

Don't the total points scored include the defensive and special teams scores, or have I been looking at that wrong?

Somehow my other post got deleted that showed that Dallas scored 439 points or 27.4 per game last year, BUT that does include the defensive and special team scores.

Without those TDs, it's 397 points and 24.7 per game.

 

[OhSnap]

Look beyond just points scored, specifically our 3rd down conversion rate.

We were one of the worst teams in the NFL on 3rd down, the most important down in football.

I know it was down from last year which was about 5th highest in the league I think, thats a big hit but not something that couldn't be looked at and improved if the plan was to stick with Callahan. I don't think he hurt his chances at callin plays in 015 somewhere.

 

[percyhoward]

I think Linehan is definitely a Garrett addition, Jerry turned the Cowboys offense over to Garrett so theres no reason why he wouldn't trust him on this hire and it might be 50% opportunity to get Linehan and keep the rushing scores from inside the 20 that Callahan definitely improved on.

Although we did run better in the red zone than the year before, most of the red zone improvement (that saw the offense move from 20th to 3rd in TD%) was actually due to the passing game. In fact, you could say that red zone passing was the single biggest offensive turnaround.

Red Zone Passing 1st Down/TD %
2013 39.7% (4th)
2012 25.6% (27th)

Red Zone Rushing 1st Down/TD %
2013 37.0% (4th)
2012 32.6% (7th)

 

[ConstantReboot]

Because Garrett is unable to call plays and manage game situations. Hence passing every down when up by 23 until you throw the game in the garbage like vs Green Bay. Or passing with the lead against Detroit and burning next to zero time off the clock and giving them not one but 2 possessions inside of 3 minutes. Or not having a general commitment to the run even when it is working great. Or not getting the ball down field to our best weapon Dez on a consistent basis. They tried to free him up last year but the Callahan/Romo experiment wasn't great so he got sucked back in. I think JG generally trusts the new OC to run things as he has worked with him and he has much more OC experience than JG does.

Two games that should be absolutely be blamed on Garrett. I'm glad his no longer calling plays.

Linehan knows how to use his talent. He won't squander it away like Garrett for the sake of running a vanilla scheme. I also like Marinelli running the defense. There is actually hope for this organization going forward.

 

[Clove]

Even with the points we scored, did the OP or anybody else here feel that this offense played well enough and consistent enough to say we really did as well as we should have?

Not me. Too many times Im watching a game and scratching my head wondering what in the world is going on here?

The change happened because it was clearly obvious to anyone paying attention that this offense did not play/produce as well as it could have or should have.

Not only that but the defense, early on, was a turnover machine putting us in position to score easy points. Not all of those high scores were a result of our unstoppable offense. Anyone that thinks this offense was high-powered is needs help.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

All true, plus total points don't mean much when NFL scoring overall has increased due to the league's quantitative easing of offense. You have to look at league rank.

As dave said above, Jerry was furious after the 2012 failure and wanted to make changes, but he couldn't bring himself to fire his longtime project. So he changed OCs. But Garrett couldn't stand it and inserted himself at the end. So Jerry told Garrett to get completely out, but he'd let him hire a friend who ran basically the same system.

Also, it's hilarious to suggest that Garrett is going to improve Marinelli's defense. The man has been coaching 40 years or whatever and he's going to learn anything from this noob who has never coached defense a day in his life?

We were 6th in ppg. I note how you keep changing your sig from ppg to ypg depending on which looks worse. I remember when we had the 7th ypg defense and you switched it to ppg and hand waved. Nice sophistry.

 

[Idgit]

Not sure what the aversion is to looking at points per offensive series, but it's sort of fascinating.

I'm curious to see how the coordinating works out this season. I think having Jason freed up during the week is a good thing. It amuses me that fans want to believe he can't have an impact on defensive preparations, though.

 

[iceberg]

i'm pretty sure to upset you.

 

[Zman5]

Not sure what the aversion is to looking at points per offensive series, but it's sort of fascinating.

I'm curious to see how the coordinating works out this season. I think having Jason freed up during the week is a good thing. It amuses me that fans want to believe he can't have an impact on defensive preparations, though.

I'm sure he is well capable of making a negative impact.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Because scoring 400 points isnt enough anymore... I would wadger alot of teams are scoring more these days.

Why wager when you can look it up. We were 6th in scoring. We also had one of the better ST units and a top return team. That should be more than good enough until you see how bad the defense was.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I'm sure he is well capable of making a negative impact.

Why on earth would you think that? Like it or not but after Phillips was canned team penalties went down. The offense in particular stopped making quite so many glaring missed assignments. There have been less zigging when they should have zagged. The effort of the team has been better too.

When you look at Carter moping out there and everyone screwing up their drops and everything else we saw go on defense, I think the unit could use a guy that will come in and get on their *** to pay attention to detail, keep their chin up no matter what, and play their butts off.

If you want to complain about his game management and playcalling then I can see that but he isn't going to be creating the scheme nor calling the plays. He is going to do what walkaround HC do: regulate.