The most disturbing trend of this whole cockamamie season

[erod]

Dallas can't finish. That is troubling.

The Cowboys have been outscored, 51-16, the past two weeks in the latter half of those games. Ugh. This after good starts against the Rams and Packers.

And this isn't about playcalling or "adjustments", which is the most overused term in football. This is about lining up and executing mistake-free football and finishing the dadgum game.

Elite teams play elite at critical times, not midway through the first quarter.

 

[Doc50]

They have premature evacuation.

 

[Supercowboy1986]

They have premature evacuation.

I see what you did there

 

[Ranching]

Dallas can't finish. That is troubling.

The Cowboys have been outscored, 51-16, the past two weeks in the latter half of those games. Ugh. This after good starts against the Rams and Packers.

And this isn't about playcalling or "adjustments", which is the most overused term in football. This is about lining up and executing mistake-free football and finishing the dadgum game.

Elite teams play elite at critical times, not midway through the first quarter.

We are not an elite team.

 

[Aven8]

How many penalties did we give them yesterday at critical moments?? The sack at the 2 then the roughing from Mawoya, the Hitchins face mask on 3rd down. The holding on 3rd down. On and on.

We did get a call in the end zone where Martinez never did anything to Dez however. That was an awful call.

 

[THEHEREAFTER]

A little misleading given that Our offense led what should have been a commanding go ahead score. Of course we all know there were a few critical errors along the way. We're just not a very smart team right now. You simply cannot commit critical errors, mistakes, penalties against a QB like that.

 

[links18]

Either we can't finish or we fall behind early. It has been one or the other this season. Either way, its on the coaches.

 

[Western]

The defense has a quitter mentality.
They fold.

 

[erod]

Either we can't finish or we fall behind early. It has been one or the other this season. Either way, its on the coaches.

No, the NFL is about quarterbacks at the end of games. We're witnessing the maturation process of Dak to whatever he'll ultimately be one day. Of course, he gets almost no help from his defense, which wilts as the game goes on.

Dallas scored 10 points in the second half yesterday. They scored 6 against the Rams. That's the problem.

 

[LocimusPrime]

We are not an elite team.

Agreed Coach. I believe we are average or slightly above average. Our record indicates that we are not, but I'm a fan of the team, so I'm biased.

 

[Ranching]

Agreed Coach. I believe we are average or slightly above average. Our record indicates that we are not, but I'm a fan of the team, so I'm biased.

I think we are a bit above average and just a couple of players and coaches from being elite.

 

[JD_KaPow]

The defense has a quitter mentality.
They fold.

The defense folds because they're not good enough. Nothing to do with mentality.

 

[links18]

No, the NFL is about quarterbacks at the end of games. We're witnessing the maturation process of Dak to whatever he'll ultimately be one day. Of course, he gets almost no help from his defense, which wilts as the game goes on.

Dallas scored 10 points in the second half yesterday. They scored 6 against the Rams. That's the problem.

The best explanation for dominating the other team in the first half and wilting in the second is that we are losing the coaching battle. This is backed up by the fact that in two games this year, it was actually the opposite. We looked utterly unprepared to play in the fist quarter and either got blown out of the building or nearly got blown out of the building. In the latter case, it was an actual coaching adjustment that by Marinelli that saved the game.

 

[MarkP88]

Dallas can't finish. That is troubling.

The Cowboys have been outscored, 51-16, the past two weeks in the latter half of those games. Ugh. This after good starts against the Rams and Packers.

And this isn't about playcalling or "adjustments", which is the most overused term in football. This is about lining up and executing mistake-free football and finishing the dadgum game.

Elite teams play elite at critical times, not midway through the first quarter.

Especially troubling when finishing should be our strength...no team with Zeke, Martin, Fredbeard, and Tyron should have trouble finishing teams off.

That being said, they did their part yesterday.

 

[Section446]

I wish we could just blow this whole team up, minus Dak.

 

[erod]

The best explanation for dominating the other team in the first half and wilting in the second is that we are losing the coaching battle. This is backed up by the fact that in two games this year, it was actually the opposite. We looked utterly unprepared to play in the fist quarter and either got blown out of the building or nearly got blown out of the building. In the latter case, it was an actual coaching adjustment that by Marinelli that saved the game.

It's not coaching adjustments. Frankly, it's quarterback adjustments. When you're having success, teams are going to mix up coverages on you, and you have to exploit the new weakness. The coaches can't throw the ball to the right guy for you.

Dak will get this in time. Right now, he doesn't have the defense to cover for his youth.

 

[Zman5]

Have you watched this team under JG last 8 seasons? This is how it has been with JG lead Cowboys. Did you already forget about the December meltdowns?
Needing only one win to win the division but losing the last game to finish the season at 8-8. All those 4th quarter gaffes to lose the game. Why are you surprised now? JG's teams fade at the end and can't finish anything.

Different players but same results. It doesn't matter if it's Romo or Dak, you are going to see the same thing as long as JG is the HC.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Dallas can't finish. That is troubling.

The Cowboys have been outscored, 51-16, the past two weeks in the latter half of those games. Ugh. This after good starts against the Rams and Packers.

And this isn't about playcalling or "adjustments", which is the most overused term in football. This is about lining up and executing mistake-free football and finishing the dadgum game.

Elite teams play elite at critical times, not midway through the first quarter.

I gave you a like just for using the term cockamamie in the title. Would have given more likes for the content of the post if I could.

 

[erod]

I gave you a like just for using the term cockamamie in the title. Would have given more likes for the content of the post if I could.

It's an underrated word, no doubt.

 

[JD_KaPow]

The best explanation for dominating the other team in the first half and wilting in the second is that we are losing the coaching battle.

The explanation I prefer is just to look at what happened on the field.

Yesterday, we scored on every drive in the first half, but needed to convert a 4th down on two of them to do it.
In the second half, we failed to score on two drives. One where we chose to punt on 4th-and-2 at midfield. The other ended with an interception that was thrown a bit behind Twill and went off his hands (I put more blame on Williams than Dak there, btw).
On defense, we made one stop in the first half, and we made one stop in the second half.

There was really very little difference between the first half and the second half. The defense was terrible in both. The offense was strong in both. I don't see strong evidence for big "adjustments" made by either team that swayed things. The pick-six was the real killer, but that wasn't coaching.
Some things were coaching: not going for it on 4th-and-2 was bad but very conventional, whereas going for it twice in the first half on 4th-and-1 was really good.
A play nobody is talking about came in the 2nd quarter, after our third TD. The Packers committed a penalty on the extra point. We kept the point instead of putting the ball at the one yard line and going for two. Had we done that and converted, then the end of the game might have been very different. But again, none of this has anything to do with a "dominating in the first half, collapsing in the second half" narrative. That simply didn't happen yesterday.