The good, the bad and the ugly - Week 4 edition

[rags747]

Zeke looking lean and fast in those white shoes he’s been kicking. Black shoes he looks like a plodder, stick to the Whites Zeke!

 

[DC Cowboy]

The run game is what I included... It was tough sledding yesterday. It's not always about YPC. We kept things manageable for the offense and controlled the clock with it plus we stuck to it.

stick with it IF possible, it keeps the opposing Defense on their toes and you break one eventually

 

[DandyDon52]

The run game is what I included... It was tough sledding yesterday. It's not always about YPC. We kept things manageable for the offense and controlled the clock with it plus we stuck to it.

yeah I think wash game plan was to stop the run, and make rush beat them passing, which he did !

 

[TX_Yid]

The run game is what I included... It was tough sledding yesterday. It's not always about YPC. We kept things manageable for the offense and controlled the clock with it plus we stuck to it.

Can't disagree more.

The run game was putrid. They stacked the box and dared Cooper Rush to beat them, which he did. KM could have schemed and used the flats and play action to open things up, instead he did nothing but run zeke and pollard into a wall. Genius.

The run game was horrible yesterday.
Zeke's run game has been horrible for years.

Neither belong in the positive column for yesterdays game, there were plenty of positives, but zeke and the run game, nope.

 

[Montanalo]

The Good:

The Cowboys won, offense had 0 turnovers and only 1 sack against a reasonably good defensive line, only 4 penalties for 20 yards. Also good, the return of Gallup, the Cowboy's defense and sticking with the run

The Bad:

The time of possession was lopsided in Washington's favor - don't usually win those games, Cowboy's rush defense allowing 142 yards, Schultz had a rough return from injury

The Ugly:

Cowboy's OL looked a bit ragged and that was no where more apparent than Zeke's 2.6 ypc average.

 

[glimmerman]

Good - Gallup is back and looking good. We won the game.
Bad - We either tried to open up the Offense playcalling for Rush or he was changing some plays. Heard a lot of kill kill kill. Rush was looking deeper and not just getting the ball out shorter. Rush got away with 2 picks called back with ticky tack calls that usually go against us. They sold out to stop us from running up the gut and we just kept feeding in the middle. No sweeps or tosses or run plays to the outside.
Ugly - We still can’t stop the edge runs on Defense. We don’t do them on our Offense and can not stop teams from doing it to us.

Just me - Not as many sacks as I wanted on wentz, but that’s just me. Lol. Shanked a punt but hit our FGs. Except a block. Need to go back to getting the ball out fast. Do that and let Dak rest. His hand still looks swollen.

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

1. That's not "good", that's just not screwing up. 55 yards and a 2.0 yard per carry average will never be considered solid.

2. As for no return yardage, there wasn't a single kickoff return opportunity in the game, and only one punt return opportunity. Granted Turpin didn't do anything with that one opportunity, but it really should have been fair caught anyway, and all it cost us was 3 yards.

It's good because they stuck with it. All of those rushing attempts help slow down the pass rush and made play action a lot more effective. So they kept Rush clean and hit them for a couple of deep throws. That's why some say... it's not how well you run the ball, it's how often you run it.

 

[glimmerman]

It's good because they stuck with it. All of those rushing attempts help slow down the pass rush and made play action a lot more effective. So they kept Rush clean and hit them for a couple of deep throws. That's why some say... it's not how well you run the ball, it's how often you run it.

Yeah I just hated the blown drives. Our Defense gave us so many chances to have drives to put the game away. Was closer game than should have been. Dial it back on the longer throw attempts and get outside runs going and we can beat the rams.

 

[xwalker]

In the immortal words of rock legends Limp Bizkit:
Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' (uh)
Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' (what?)
Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' (uh)
Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin'
(ok, I might have used the word legends in place of garbage... just it's meant to be funny)

Week 4 here we go...

The Good.
The defense!!!! WOW. Since Dak's departure, they are only allowing 14.3 points per game on avg. (last 3) The 84 Bears gave up a little over 12 and the 2000 Ravens gave up a little over 10. Those are the two "greatest" defenses of all time. We are knocking on that door in a much more "offensive friendly" era of football. CRAZY!!!
Winning. Dak's injury needs time to heal and the announcers touched on this during the game. If we were losing, we'd be "Rush-ing" Dak back. (see what I did there?) but thanks to the defense, run game, and solid QB play we are 3-0 without Dak and can let him rest, even if we lose one or two here.
Run Game Zeke is looking strong and Pollard can pop one

The Bad.
Special Teams Bad showing by this group, even though Maher has settled our kicking woes.
Two INTs by Rush This game is entirely different if the two INTs thrown by Rush aren't negated by, honestly, pretty ticky-tack calls. (You won't hear me complain, we are normally on the other side of those calls)

The Ugly.
Not a lot specifically. Special teams almost crept into this category but I'll leave it at "bad"

Zeke averaged 2.6 yards/carry and Pollard averaged 0.8 yards/carry.

 

[glimmerman]

Zeke averaged 2.6 yards/carry and Pollard averaged 0.8 yards/carry.

I was surprised that Moore was smart enough to run anyways. If he abandoned it we may have lost.

 

[Direwolf63]

The run game really has not been that good. But they have been able to stick with it because of the defense.

Zeke is just a JAG now. A $16M JAG, but a JAG nonetheless

 

[glimmerman]

The run game really has not been that good. But they have been able to stick with it because of the defense.

Zeke is just a JAG now. A $16M JAG, but a JAG nonetheless

Pollard had 6 yards on 8 attempts. They keyed on the middle run. Moore needed to use Pollard on off tackle carries. Or pitch or tods or sweep to Elliot or Pollard. Anything to outside. They killed our Defense with those plays..

 

[jterrell]

1. That's not "good", that's just not screwing up. 55 yards and a 2.0 yard per carry average will never be considered solid.

2. As for no return yardage, there wasn't a single kickoff return opportunity in the game, and only one punt return opportunity. Granted Turpin didn't do anything with that one opportunity, but it really should have been fair caught anyway, and all it cost us was 3 yards.

At some point an adult will point out there is a lot more to the RB grading than just YPC or rushing totals.

 

[glimmerman]

At some point an adult will point out there is a lot more to the RB grading than just YPC or rushing totals.

I blame Moore rather than the RBs. Elliot was getting a few yards while Pollard got nothing. Maybe if you quit running it up the middle into stacked boxes and run off tackle or sweeps, tosses, or pitches and use our speed. But barely even screen plays. That’s on playcalling.

 

[NotForLong]

In the immortal words of rock legends Limp Bizkit:
Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' (uh)
Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' (what?)
Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' (uh)
Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin'
(ok, I might have used the word legends in place of garbage... just it's meant to be funny)

Week 4 here we go...

The Good.
The defense!!!! WOW. Since Dak's departure, they are only allowing 14.3 points per game on avg. (last 3) The 84 Bears gave up a little over 12 and the 2000 Ravens gave up a little over 10. Those are the two "greatest" defenses of all time. We are knocking on that door in a much more "offensive friendly" era of football. CRAZY!!!
Winning. Dak's injury needs time to heal and the announcers touched on this during the game. If we were losing, we'd be "Rush-ing" Dak back. (see what I did there?) but thanks to the defense, run game, and solid QB play we are 3-0 without Dak and can let him rest, even if we lose one or two here.
Run Game Zeke is looking strong and Pollard can pop one

The Bad.
Special Teams Bad showing by this group, even though Maher has settled our kicking woes.
Two INTs by Rush This game is entirely different if the two INTs thrown by Rush aren't negated by, honestly, pretty ticky-tack calls. (You won't hear me complain, we are normally on the other side of those calls)

The Ugly.
Not a lot specifically. Special teams almost crept into this category but I'll leave it at "bad"

The ugly - your analysis

 

[OmerV]

It's good because they stuck with it. All of those rushing attempts help slow down the pass rush and made play action a lot more effective. So they kept Rush clean and hit them for a couple of deep throws. That's why some say... it's not how well you run the ball, it's how often you run it.

I don't deny there is some contribution just from sticking to the run, but let's not act like frequency is more important than effectiveness. If you are effective the frequency will be there anyway, and it will have the added benefit of help control the game through the run itself.

And remember, the OP's reasoning was that the run game was "strong" and Pollard showed he could "pop one". That description would fit for game 3, but we did not see that in game 4.

 

[OmerV]

At some point an adult will point out there is a lot more to the RB grading than just YPC or rushing totals.

I don't deny that at all, but you can't say the running game was "strong" with a 2 yard per carry average.

There is a difference between there being value in showing a commitment to a running game and having a "strong" running game.

 

[cmoney23]

One question and one comment ...

1. The running game was very ineffective (only 55 yards & 2.0 yards per carry from the RB's), so how did that fall in the "Good" category?
2. The shanked punt was bad, but otherwise I don't recall there being a problem with special teams.

for the first question, I would refer you to the post by @jterrell right above your post... he outlined my thoughts PERFECTLY.
2. The shanked punt, the blocked extra point, and little to no return game to speak of. Again, I just put it in bad. I thought Maher has been a huge positive and our kick coverage was good. A couple good, a couple awful. Gets a "bad" from me

 

[OmerV]

for the first question, I would refer you to the post by @jterrell right above your post... he outlined my thoughts PERFECTLY.
2. The shanked punt, the blocked extra point, and little to no return game to speak of. Again, I just put it in bad. I thought Maher has been a huge positive and our kick coverage was good. A couple good, a couple awful. Gets a "bad" from me

Forgot about the blocked XP. Agreed that's a pretty notable negative on top of the shanked punt.

 

[cmoney23]

Can't disagree more.

The run game was putrid. They stacked the box and dared Cooper Rush to beat them, which he did. KM could have schemed and used the flats and play action to open things up, instead he did nothing but run zeke and pollard into a wall. Genius.

The run game was horrible yesterday.
Zeke's run game has been horrible for years.

Neither belong in the positive column for yesterdays game, there were plenty of positives, but zeke and the run game, nope.

If you noticed KM tried to dial-up several screens and a few draw plays to help loosen things up... Rush was awful in the screen game and it didn't materialize. They still tried.

I maintain that "the run game" was good yesterday. I'd take that commitment to it and the positive positions it put our offense in on a tough day, any day. A good run game keeps you ahead of the chains, it prolongs drives, it keeps your defense on the sidelines. It keeps the clock moving. All good things in an ugly divisional game with a back up QB.