They need to fix the RedZone offense

[links18]

You have a QB who can score with his feet and shifty RBs. Spread them out and run some draws.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

I said it we won against the Giants. If we don’t fix the red zone scoring, it’s going to come and fight us.
I’m not sure if it’s the running game.
I’m not sure if it’s a playcalling
I don’t know if it’s the tightend class
We’re moving the ball up and down the field and then we stall out
And it’s not because of one individual

I think its a combination. Certainly play calling was sub-par, but to that point, play designs were sub-par. including the interception play yesterday. horrible design and personnel package for that play.
then execution was bad on top of it.
the running game inside the redzone should work, we should be able to punch it in, but with OL shuffle its been challenging. not sure why we didn't see Luepke down low close to the end zone. figure he can be a lead blocker. not sure if I saw Schoonmaker. perhaps both at the same time....

the TEs leave a lot to be desired. they have a tough time to get separation. in open field, they are decent at times, but in tight quarters they struggle. that's where Schultz was decent.

I think teams are focusing on taking away the long ball. forcing us to march up the field and expect us to make mistakes and not finish drives. it worked yesterday. it kind of worked against Jets, in stopping us. the defense was just too good and covered warts.
if we start fixing the redzone issues, then teams have to respect the short game and the running game. otherwise they will force us to drive with dink and dunk and then stall inside the redzone. I bet Billicheck is going to do the same thing. we better correct it.

and I agree. its not a single individual. down inside the redzone, WRs couldn't get separation. then a single mistake or bad throw becomes a huge deal. we had to throw the ball away multiple times because there was nobody open. it leads to frustration by the players and they start to force it and bad things happen (as they did).

 

[MyFairLady]

You have a QB who can score with his feet and shifty RBs. Spread them out and run some draws.

LOL princess is not gonna wanna hear about this.

 

[Lutonio]

Drives that take 12 plays and chew up 6+ minutes of clock actually hurt you when you have to settle for a field goal. Especially when you’re losing.

 

[khiladi]

The West Coast Offense spreads teams out. Once you're inside the 20, that is no longer a benefit. So everything we are hiding with the WCO is now exposed. That's the problem.

We are not a West Coast offense. Obviously some of the play-calling is influenced by MM West Coast, but the offense is still the same playbook that Dak has been working with for 8 years. We have been running plenty of spread formations, including no back in the red zone when Moore was here.

 

[Lutonio]

Drives that take 12 plays and chew up 6+ minutes of clock actually hurt you when you have to settle for a field goal. Especially when you’re losing.

 

[rags747]

This offense play calling is boring **! Bring back Boise St Boy…

 

[Captain-Crash]

I said it we won against the Giants. If we don’t fix the red zone scoring, it’s going to come and fight us.
I’m not sure if it’s the running game.
I’m not sure if it’s a playcalling
I don’t know if it’s the tightend class
We’re moving the ball up and down the field and then we stall out
And it’s not because of one individual

yep, our guy is better than Mahomes. I hope he gets on the state farm commercial, he can be dakcollision. Dakforecloser, you lose your house with this guy.

 

[AmericasTeam31]

It'd be nice if we actually knew how to use a WR in the redzone. Jake Ferguson has the same amount of redzone targets (8) as our entire WR group COMBINED. Our #1 WR has 2 total targets in the RZ on 24 pass attempts (the same amount of target that Turpin has). That's not good football at all, and when you sprinkle in the other TE's and RB's we throw to a WR only 33% of the time in the RZ.

 

[sbark]

They don't have a big WR to throw to in the end zone. If they are going to throw for TDs they have to do it from further out not inside the 10 yard line. Gallup can catch contested passes but not if the refs are going to allow him to get bumped while the ball is in the air.

I would try running Luepke down inside the 5. He showed he is not just a straight ahead runner. I think in the red zone you need to be able to run the ball. But you also need to be more creative. With the field compressed creating space for receivers requires deception and imagination. The Cowboys play calling inside the 10 was very vanilla yesterday. Throwing those fades is not a strength for Dallas.

I believe if the OL was healthy they would have been able to run the ball in from inside the 10. But with 3 backups creating running lanes was going to be a low percentage ask.

I think not going for the FG when they were down inside the 10 was a mistake. Kick the FG. There is an entire quarter left to play at that point. The offense was moving the football so they should have expected to get back to the end zone again. BTW, there was a holding penalty on that drive with them at the 3 yard line. I think with a 3rd and 3, they had two downs to get 3 yards for a 1st and goal from the 1 or a TD. The penalties really hurt them on both sides of the ball yesterday. They had 11 in the first half alone.

Luepke...got them 9 when they needed 1 earlier in game
until a def is forced to respect A gap power with extra personnel, they can cover a reduced field in the red zone....it gets crowded quik

Luepke can give them a lot of what Zeke did short yardage.

Imagination yes .....play action, picks, TE mismatch/boxout
Something....

 

[CowboyRoy]

When your HC/OC does not trust his QB to throw the ball in the RZ then you know where the problem is and its not “fixable”

I completely agree. What team are you talking about?

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

yep, our guy is better than Mahomes. I hope he gets on the state farm commercial, he can be dakcollision. Dakforecloser, you lose your house with this guy.

nobody says Dak is better than mahomes. man, you people. if everyone just doesn't pour it on Dak 24x7 and light it on fire, you think they are nothing but supporters and think that Dak is like Mahomes.

but if you think yesterday was all Dak, then you either have an agenda to drive or you don't understand football.

 

[Whirlwin]

nobody says Dak is better than mahomes. man, you people. if everyone just doesn't pour it on Dak 24x7 and light it on fire, you think they are nothing but supporters and think that Dak is like Mahomes.

but if you think yesterday was all Dak, then you either have an agenda to drive or you don't understand football.

He’ll never forgive him because of Romo. That’s his argument.

 

[Jake]

STOP RUNNING THE BALL AND STOP TRYING TO INVOLVE THE TIGHT ENDS

They are killing themselves by playing small ball.

No one wants to talk about it, and I get it, but Dalton Schultz and Zeke Elliott combined to score 35 TDs the past two seasons. The majority of those were in the red zone.

Both players have limitations, but they were effective in that area.

 

[visionary]

I completely agree. What team are you talking about?

If you completely agree then whatever it is, is completely wrong

 

[CowboyRoy]

If you completely agree then whatever it is, is completely wrong

Exactly, your dead wrong as usual.

 

[quickccc]

They need to fix the offense ...period.

I am not liking the makings of this Dink n Dunk offense.
we did not trade for speedy Brandin Cooks to be dink & dunk.

And Zona just went right back to the formula that Vic Fangio's Broncos did with heavy zone shell vs Dak.
..and it worked again .

You have to add dink n dunk underneath game to the existing push ball downfield vertical game.
Geez, is this what got McCarthy fired at Green Bay ?

 

[big dog cowboy]

Fix the RedZone inefficiency and we will be tough to beat.

My biggest issue is we never try to score. The ball rarely goes into the end zone until it has too and the defense knows it. Runs or short passes is all we see. We never take a shot. It used to be once we got to the 40 we could score on almost any play. Those days are long gone.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Last year Schultz and Zeke scored 17 TD’s combined. Now off to greener pastures.

Yesterday Zeke had 80 yards on 16 carries. But how did that happen? I thought he was washed up? lol

Now I'm not saying that he's better than Pollard, maybe even Dowdle, as far as quickness and burst.

But tried to tell everybody he had value. If Zeke had been running the ball near the goal line yesterday, he'd had likely gotten at least one td. Instead, we got fgs. Zeke cleared waivers, Cowboys could have signed him for the exact same contract as the Pats, probably. Maybe a bit more. But nope, we are going to beat up our no. 1 running back trying to be Zeke, all the while running behind backup linemen. Thanks, Jerry.

But Schultz turned down (allegedly) an excellent offer to stay, but he rejected it. That's NOT Jerry's fault. Blame that totally on Schultz. Though I see the Texans put up 37 pts yesterday behind their rookie qb. Schultz may yet have the last laugh, given this teams decades-long history of failure to advance far in the playoffs.

As always, we'll see...

 

[Mac_MaloneV1]

No one wants to talk about it, and I get it, but Dalton Schultz and Zeke Elliott combined to score 35 TDs the past two seasons. The majority of those were in the red zone.

Both players have limitations, but they were effective in that area.

Schultz sucked, he doesn't do anything that Ferguson doesn't. Zeke wasn't going to finish those runs from the 10 yardline either.

I personally would have kept Zeke, specifically for the goalline work, but he makes no difference from the 10.