These Cowboys Teams Wear Down After 12 Games

[plasticman]

We are going to take a look at the Cowboys from 2021 to the present. These are the McCarthy seasons., I don't include the 2020 season in order to be fair, too many events beyond anyone's control.

Anyway, I want to compare certain aspects of the defense in the first 12 games of the season to the last games. At this point, I will be comparing some average numbers from the 36 games that was part of the first 12 games of each season to the 13 games so far at the end of the three seasons. It will be an average per game

So, from the first 12 games of each of the past three seasons, we have these Cowboys ranks:

Average points allowed per game....#5

Average sacks per game.......#1

Average takeaways per game....... #2

Opponent QB rating..... #3

Won/Loss record......#1

Over the last three seasons for the first 12 games combined, the Cowboys defense is one of the very best, if not the best. They are certainly the best in certain categories

Now, let's take a look at this Cowboys defense during the last 4-5 games of the regular season for these three combined. Remember, this is the time when serious contenders will establish themselves while jockeying for playoff positioning

Average points per game.....#16

Average sacks per game......#16

takeaways oer game........#1`

Opponent QB rating......#7

Won/loss record......#10

The Cowboys give up an average of 19.25 points in games 1 to 12 over the past three seasons. In games beyond the 12th, they give up an average of 22.54 points per game. They go from 3.1 sacks per game to 1.8. Their takeaways remain consistent.

The Cowboys are tied with the Eagles for the best record for the first 12 games of the three combined seasons. However, the Cowboys record decreased by over ten percentage points past game #12.

Meanwhile, the four teams with the best records after the 12th game are the Bills at 92%, the 49ers at 85%, the Chiefs at 77% and the Bengals at 75% They know how to turn on that switch at the right time. The Cowboys have been turning on the wrong switch at the wrong time.

It's as if the Cowboys are constantly leading in a race but, as they make the final lap, they just run out of gas.

You can also see it in the personal stats of their defensive playmakers. Parsons is All-World during the first three quarters of the season and then fades into pedestrian the last quarter. Only three of Diggs INT's came in games after the 12th. When was the last time you saw a Daron Bland Pick Six?

Is it stamina? Is this the point of the season when Parsons begins to feel aches and pains of going up against a double team of three hundred pounders? This is an issue that must be resolved before the Cowboys can ever be considered serious contenders..

 

[john van brocklin]

We are going to take a look at the Cowboys from 2021 to the present. These are the McCarthy seasons., I don't include the 2020 season in order to be fair, too many events beyond anyone's control.

Anyway, I want to compare certain aspects of the defense in the first 12 games of the season to the last games. At this point, I will be comparing some average numbers from the 36 games that was part of the first 12 games of each season to the 13 games so far at the end of the three seasons. It will be an average per game

So, from the first 12 games of each of the past three seasons, we have these Cowboys ranks:

Average points allowed per game....#5

Average sacks per game.......#1

Average takeaways per game....... #2

Opponent QB rating..... #3

Won/Loss record......#1

Over the last three seasons for the first 12 games combined, the Cowboys defense is one of the very best, if not the best. They are certainly the best in certain categories

Now, let's take a look at this Cowboys defense during the last 4-5 games of the regular season for these three combined. Remember, this is the time when serious contenders will establish themselves while jockeying for playoff positioning

Average points per game.....#16

Average sacks per game......#16

takeaways oer game........#1`

Opponent QB rating......#7

Won/loss record......#10

The Cowboys give up an average of 19.25 points in games 1 to 12 over the past three seasons. In games beyond the 12th, they give up an average of 22.54 points per game. They go from 3.1 sacks per game to 1.8. Their takeaways remain consistent.

The Cowboys are tied with the Eagles for the best record for the first 12 games of the three combined seasons. However, the Cowboys record decreased by over ten percentage points past game #12.

Meanwhile, the four teams with the best records after the 12th game are the Bills at 92%, the 49ers at 85%, the Chiefs at 77% and the Bengals at 75% They know how to turn on that switch at the right time. The Cowboys have been turning on the wrong switch at the wrong time.

It's as if the Cowboys are constantly leading in a race but, as they make the final lap, they just run out of gas.

You can also see it in the personal stats of their defensive playmakers. Parsons is All-World during the first three quarters of the season and then fades into pedestrian the last quarter. Only three of Diggs INT's came in games after the 12th. When was the last time you saw a Daron Bland Pick Six?

Is it stamina? Is this the point of the season when Parsons begins to feel aches and pains of going up against a double team of three hundred pounders? This is an issue that must be resolved before the Cowboys can ever be considered serious contenders..

Our defense is too small to last the entire 17 game season and play offs.
We need larger players, especially at linebacker.

 

[lukemartin79]

We are going to take a look at the Cowboys from 2021 to the present. These are the McCarthy seasons., I don't include the 2020 season in order to be fair, too many events beyond anyone's control.

Anyway, I want to compare certain aspects of the defense in the first 12 games of the season to the last games. At this point, I will be comparing some average numbers from the 36 games that was part of the first 12 games of each season to the 13 games so far at the end of the three seasons. It will be an average per game

So, from the first 12 games of each of the past three seasons, we have these Cowboys ranks:

Average points allowed per game....#5

Average sacks per game.......#1

Average takeaways per game....... #2

Opponent QB rating..... #3

Won/Loss record......#1

Over the last three seasons for the first 12 games combined, the Cowboys defense is one of the very best, if not the best. They are certainly the best in certain categories

Now, let's take a look at this Cowboys defense during the last 4-5 games of the regular season for these three combined. Remember, this is the time when serious contenders will establish themselves while jockeying for playoff positioning

Average points per game.....#16

Average sacks per game......#16

takeaways oer game........#1`

Opponent QB rating......#7

Won/loss record......#10

The Cowboys give up an average of 19.25 points in games 1 to 12 over the past three seasons. In games beyond the 12th, they give up an average of 22.54 points per game. They go from 3.1 sacks per game to 1.8. Their takeaways remain consistent.

The Cowboys are tied with the Eagles for the best record for the first 12 games of the three combined seasons. However, the Cowboys record decreased by over ten percentage points past game #12.

Meanwhile, the four teams with the best records after the 12th game are the Bills at 92%, the 49ers at 85%, the Chiefs at 77% and the Bengals at 75% They know how to turn on that switch at the right time. The Cowboys have been turning on the wrong switch at the wrong time.

It's as if the Cowboys are constantly leading in a race but, as they make the final lap, they just run out of gas.

You can also see it in the personal stats of their defensive playmakers. Parsons is All-World during the first three quarters of the season and then fades into pedestrian the last quarter. Only three of Diggs INT's came in games after the 12th. When was the last time you saw a Daron Bland Pick Six?

Is it stamina? Is this the point of the season when Parsons begins to feel aches and pains of going up against a double team of three hundred pounders? This is an issue that must be resolved before the Cowboys can ever be considered serious contenders..

Ive noticed that the D starts off every year like gangbusters. They get the hype of being one of the best D's, then fade as the year goes on.
I do think in Parsons case that him going up against 300 plus pounders at his size takes its toll. That makes sense.
I think that other teams figure out how to beat the Cowboys D as the season goes on too. Quinn's system works best with a lead and when its producing turnovers. Its just another D without the turnovers.

 

[gtdRR]

I think it's because they are an average team in a crappy division. When December comes around they fail because it is the start of playoff football, they aren't a true contender, and they can't keep up. The GM thinks he has built a contender but he really hasn't. For example just to name a few, we all knew OL depth was an issue, LB depth was an issue, nose tackle depth was an issue, and none of those were addressed.

 

[rambo2]

Our defense is too small to last the entire 17 game season and play offs.
We need larger players, especially at linebacker.

Do larger players last? I would think that most players can't last 20 games.

 

[VaqueroTD]

Sometimes I think our fatal flaw is we have guys who would excel in a 4-3 or 3-4, but not enough to maximize either scheme. We’re a hybrid that can‘t maintain either way.

 

[rambo2]

I think it's because they are an average team in a crappy division. When December comes around they fail because it is the start of playoff football, they aren't a true contender, and they can't keep up. The GM thinks he has built a contender but he really hasn't. For example just to name a few, we all knew OL depth was an issue, LB depth was an issue, nose tackle depth was an issue, and none of those were addressed.

Interesting stuff there. I think that I will read this again in a couple of weeks. I would say that they are a contender and they did address oline depth and nose tackle depth and they did sign a linebacker.

 

[DB_Cooper]

In watching Baltimore last night I was wondering what having a player like Raquan (sp?) Smith would have done for this team. We couldn’t have afforded him but we need a stout MLB. I was a big LVE fan but to be honest he was valued/drafted because of his ability to cover not stop the run.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

We are going to take a look at the Cowboys from 2021 to the present. These are the McCarthy seasons., I don't include the 2020 season in order to be fair, too many events beyond anyone's control.

Anyway, I want to compare certain aspects of the defense in the first 12 games of the season to the last games. At this point, I will be comparing some average numbers from the 36 games that was part of the first 12 games of each season to the 13 games so far at the end of the three seasons. It will be an average per game

So, from the first 12 games of each of the past three seasons, we have these Cowboys ranks:

Average points allowed per game....#5

Average sacks per game.......#1

Average takeaways per game....... #2

Opponent QB rating..... #3

Won/Loss record......#1

Over the last three seasons for the first 12 games combined, the Cowboys defense is one of the very best, if not the best. They are certainly the best in certain categories

Now, let's take a look at this Cowboys defense during the last 4-5 games of the regular season for these three combined. Remember, this is the time when serious contenders will establish themselves while jockeying for playoff positioning

Average points per game.....#16

Average sacks per game......#16

takeaways oer game........#1`

Opponent QB rating......#7

Won/loss record......#10

The Cowboys give up an average of 19.25 points in games 1 to 12 over the past three seasons. In games beyond the 12th, they give up an average of 22.54 points per game. They go from 3.1 sacks per game to 1.8. Their takeaways remain consistent.

The Cowboys are tied with the Eagles for the best record for the first 12 games of the three combined seasons. However, the Cowboys record decreased by over ten percentage points past game #12.

Meanwhile, the four teams with the best records after the 12th game are the Bills at 92%, the 49ers at 85%, the Chiefs at 77% and the Bengals at 75% They know how to turn on that switch at the right time. The Cowboys have been turning on the wrong switch at the wrong time.

It's as if the Cowboys are constantly leading in a race but, as they make the final lap, they just run out of gas.

You can also see it in the personal stats of their defensive playmakers. Parsons is All-World during the first three quarters of the season and then fades into pedestrian the last quarter. Only three of Diggs INT's came in games after the 12th. When was the last time you saw a Daron Bland Pick Six?

Is it stamina? Is this the point of the season when Parsons begins to feel aches and pains of going up against a double team of three hundred pounders? This is an issue that must be resolved before the Cowboys can ever be considered serious contenders..

That's a fair question. It does seem that the toll of the season wears on the players at this point. If it's because of player size, then maybe we need larger linebackers. Unfortunately, this is an area that the FO and the coaches need to figure out. I do think, if this were a 16 game season, the players might last a bit longer. I think a lot of the injuries around the league are due to the extra game.

 

[805BoysInBlue]

Is it from the lack of practice and the fact that McCarthy rests these guys so much? Or is it due to not coming off the field very often thru out the year.

 

[gtdRR]

Interesting stuff there. I think that I will read this again in a couple of weeks. I would say that they are a contender and they did address oline depth and nose tackle depth and they did sign a linebacker.

I might be wrong but are you referring to the signings or drafting of Edugo, Mazi, and Evans? In my opinion just because you drafted or signed someone doesn't mean the depth was actually addressed. It means the GM tried and just like for the past 30 years he failed.

But like you said, we'll find out in a couple weeks.

 

[KJJ]

It’s not that the Cowboys are wearing down, they start losing their confidence after a tough loss or two in December. It’s happened the previous two seasons. We lost to AZ in a big game in Dec 2021. We blew a big lead to Jacksonville in Dec of last year and then got pounded by Washington in the season finale. We lost two big games this December. We hear the same thing from the players and coaches every year, that they’ll learn from these tough losses, but they continue to come up short.

 

[lukemartin79]

It’s not that the Cowboys are wearing down, they start losing their confidence after a tough loss or two in December. It’s happened the previous two seasons. We lost to AZ in a big game in Dec 2021. We blew a big lead to Jacksonville in Dec of last year and then got pounded by Washington in the season finale. We lost two big games this December. We hear the same thing from the players and coaches every year, that they’ll learn from these tough losses, but they continue to come up short.

Cant really count that last game last year against WASH, the game meant nothing. As its probably going to happen again this year, the Cowboys were cemented as the 5th seed no matter the outcome. They weren't exactly playing real hard, lol.

 

[KJJ]

Cant really count that last game last year against WASH, the game meant nothing. As it’s probably going to happen again this year, the Cowboys were cemented as the 5th seed no matter the outcome. They weren't exactly playing real hard, lol.

If we didn’t care what the outcome was and the plan was to mail in the game we would have played our backups. The plan was to try and end the season on a high note but we failed. We wanted some momentum entering the playoffs.

 

[PAPPYDOG]

No complaints from our defense even though they lay some eggs now and then.
When it counted they held the Niners to 23 and 19 points in both playoff losses.
Heck, they even held the 2 time SB winner Mahomes to 19 points in his house in another Cowboy loss.

 

[noshame]

NFL likes to make things more exciting towards the end of the season, so offensive penalties go down and defenseive penalties go up, They love the excitement of big scoring games.

 

[JoeKing]

If we didn’t care what the outcome was and the plan was to mail in the game we would have played our backups. The plan was to try and end the season on a high note but we failed. We wanted some momentum entering the playoffs.

So don't think beating Detroit and Washington will qualify as "ending the season on a high note"? I would still consider that as momentum going forward.

 

[Zman5]

It's been like that even before Macarthy. We've had smallish high effort type of defense since Marinelli days.
The high effort style tend to wear down the smallish players by December .

 

[JoeKing]

All teams are worn down by the end of the season. The Cowboys are not unique in this. Stop whining about something all teams experience.

 

[Risen Star]

In fairness, we're the only team that has to practice against our talent during the week. It must be exhausting.