Trenches: Some proof on why we lose in the playoffs

[Streifenkarl]

It sucks that our quarterback needs his team to play well in order for him to win?

It sucks that he is never the ignition spark to turn around a game going south.

 

[12+88=7]

Those are not excuses those are all facts you cannot function as a team or as a quarterback when you don't play well in the trenches you can't stop the run you don't run the ball well you commit too many penalties you drop too many passes it all adds up to losses the choking should not be a label just for the quarterback it literally shows you all the proof you need and then I have a guy have to be very early on in the conversation be that guy still blaming Prescott no one's making an excuse for Prescott but he can't play well when the team around him doesn't play well I don't know what you expect... That's the problem Troy and Roger were not great in the playoffs by themselves they literally had some of the best trenches and coaches and run games to ever be assemble we didn't have that for Tony and back and I just showed you all those games could not have been won if the quarterback played perfectly I mean is that what you want you think that without a run game and without a good offensive line we he was supposed to put up 40 points in the last game just by himself with guys dropping passes and all that stuff not running good routes not getting open fast enough not having time to throw I mean seriously I just put it all in black and white and you still can't get the point this is a team game you can't win games without having other players step up..

I mean this is like The Mavericks being down three games to nothing and everyone blaming Luca when it was him scoring all the points and the rest of the team were not stepping up and guess what they stepped up in game four and won they need the team to play well for them to function I don't know a quarterback in this league that can play without a good offensive line in a run game against the best teams in the league.. It doesn't happen don't say Patrick mahomes because he may be one of the only elite quarterbacks with that label when I watched the Super bowl they were not playing well when they were trying to rely on Patrick mahomes and guess what happened defense special teams in the run game in the second-half that's what beat San Francisco and Philly a seventh round draft pick running the ball ohh that's right in the trenches behind a good offensive line and a really good defensive line the head coaches that knew how to put a game plan together to win...

This is why I made this post and yet we still have these posters who gotta keep circling back around they're calling the quarterback a choker and saying he choke no you can't play well if the rest of the offense and defense doesn't play well either.. They all throw interceptions at times or fumble the ball we've seen it from some of the best players in the league like Matthew Stafford led the league in interceptions and he threw two in the Super bowl and they still won a Super Bowl that's what a team game looks like they did not put the blame on the quarterback..​

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I mean look at the 49ers against the lions they were down at the half they played a terrible first half just like we did and what did their team do they came out played better defense better special teams and they held on and started making stops until the offense caught up and guess what they won the game our defense came out and gave up three straight touchdowns and all we keep going back to is the first half and the two interceptions that weren't really all Prescott's fault..​

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If you wanna keep being a delusional clueless fan that watches the game from the quarterback help instead of from the trenches out then you missed the point of my post I'm not making excuses for the quarterback I'm showing you facts on why we lost the games true actual facts it's the cornerstone the foundation of the NFL and playing football is starts in the trenches you have to run the football stop the run and have players step up another level in the playoffs in our team as a whole steps down you can't ask the quarterback to cover up those deficiencies that's ridiculous.​

You should have posted this on the night of January 14th 2024. How do you think it would have gone?

But five months later after the heat is gone let's have a very thinly veiled Prescott thread by deflecting about the trenches.

There should be no threads about the greatness of Prescott till he actually does something great.

I laughed at the thread comparing Prescott and Mahomes stats, minus the playoffs of course.

That's why Prescott supporters are laughed at. It's never Prescott's fault. Even when the rest of the world knows he sheet the bed.

 

[blueblood70]

You think we’ve invested heavily in the trenches?

well they may not work out but they put a lot of first and 2nd rounders in there...

 

[MountaineerCowboy]

It sucks that he is never the ignition spark to turn around a game going south.

Even the most loyal of Dak soldiers knew as soon as Green Bay marched down the field on that opening drive and scored the game was over.

They know deep down Dak ain't built the way that is needed for those types of games and adversity.

 

[blueblood70]

You should have posted this on the night of January 14th 2024. How do you think it would have gone?

But five months later after the heat is gone let's have a very thinly veiled Prescott thread by deflecting about the trenches.

There should be no threads about the greatness of Prescott till he actually does something great.

I laughed at the thread comparing Prescott and Mahomes stats, minus the playoffs of course.

That's why Prescott supporters are laughed at. It's never Prescott's fault. Even when the rest of the world knows he sheet the bed.

how about you post what you want when you want and i'll do the same.. . and i laugh at you thinking there are 32 Patrick Mahomes versus only one.. now show me Andy reid and a coaching staff that goes with him..

Prescott shows in his numbers that h....lent to be considered in the top five. not his fault the team isn't showing up to help... given that fact that you're not getting Mahomes, and 95 quarterbacks have been drafted since 2016 and only one that PM has won a SB.. so, you can absolutely win with Dak need a better team in the big moments like Troy and roger NEVER won game without a strong OL/with Dorsett and ES22..

 

[sbark]

how about you post what you want when you want and i'll do the same.. . and i laugh at you thinking there are 32 Patrick Mahomes versus only one.. now show me Andy reed and a coaching staff that goes with him.. Prescott shows in his numbers that h....lent to be considered in the top five. not his fault the team isn't showing up to help...

And yet he wants 60 mill/ yr. which then prevents loading up the roster to provide the crutches he needs in crunch games

 

[blueblood70]

And yet he wants 60 mill/ yr. which then prevents loading up the roster to provide the crutches he needs in crunch games

and yet Daks never once said that he demanded 60, ok MR I believe everything i read lmao you realize emmitt smith held out twice in his career to get maximum money? zeke di it 100s of players have done it.

but all qbs in the top 10-12 convo want market money ALL OF THEM..TUa turned down 50mil, how dare he must not be leader must not be team guy..

right did Jackon, burrows, hurts, Allen, Murray , Herbert ,Waston, Wilson, Larwence etc take less not chance. Mahomes is no longer top paid because too many new ones popped up too quickly but hes still there..

please stop acting like tom brady somehow set a new trend. He was the ONLY ONE that took less over time but still top 5 ALL time money earners for his career guess who close behind, Kirk Freaking Cousins. Jones gets 42 Lawerence now top paid at 55 with more guaranteed money than the next guy but Dak should kindly take less? that would be nice ,that's how the world worked but not in sport..

Daka now 11th on the AAV list after all the hype over his last deal this is how the market moves, fast and up.. and i'm saying offer him 56 but i am interested in how much dak gets from anyone..

 

[blueblood70]

And yet he wants 60 mill/ yr. which then prevents loading up the roster to provide the crutches he needs in crunch games

you know that's not true , a lot of teams with a better GM and better coaching staffs like say the eagles hurts was the highest paid makes 52-53 aav ironic they signed Barkley, Smith and Brown to new shiny deals.. and that's just one of many examples. Look at all In rams paid Stafford a huge deal ie 50mil but kept that great roster for that year...

Dak and his agents see this, you don't LOL?, , teams find other creative ways like say KC couldn't keep hill but drafted well found key players to keep it going.

so Dak should take less so Parsons and lamb get record deals LOL common sense says that not logical in players minds .. they look around the league and seeing other teams be able to do it...

 

[Chasing6]

You speak of trenches to cover for Prescott. None of all that matters.

Going into year nine, Prescott and Dallas will be judged in January. The regular season will not matter. The wins and losses will not matter. Any MVP caliber stats will not matter.

It will be about if Prescott and Dallas choke when it counts, period.

If Prescott chokes, that's the label he will carry for his career. Just like Dallas has carried it for the last 28 year.

No more excuses.

Prescott judgement will come when he signs his next $55M contract.

 

[Chasing6]

You should have posted this on the night of January 14th 2024. How do you think it would have gone?

But five months later after the heat is gone let's have a very thinly veiled Prescott thread by deflecting about the trenches.

There should be no threads about the greatness of Prescott till he actually does something great.

I laughed at the thread comparing Prescott and Mahomes stats, minus the playoffs of course.

That's why Prescott supporters are laughed at. It's never Prescott's fault. Even when the rest of the world knows he sheet the bed.

Maybe you should go compare the trenches of the Cowboys vs the Chiefs and then you will figure it out.

KC gave up 16.5 points a game last year on defense. Not once did they give up 30 points. All of their losses last year came when their defense gave up more than 21 points. So the great Mahomes could not over come 24 points?

 

[TheSport78]

No it sucks is the expectations are our quarterback should always play perfect and win a game even though the rest of the team it's not living up to their part.. They literally think a quarterback should just step up and score 40 no matter how bad the defense is playing and no matter if the offensive line in the run game is not there he should just somehow magically pull it out every time.. we've watched this show before watch some really good quarterbacks make mistakes but their defense, runner, OL and special teams made some plays.

I mean look at the 49ers against the lions they were down at the half they played a terrible first half just like we did and what did their team do they came out played better defense better special teams and they held on and started making stops until the offense caught up and guess what they won the game our defense came out and gave up three straight touchdowns and all we keep going back to is the first half and the two interceptions that weren't really all Prescott's fault..

Who said the QB should "always play perfect?" Your argument has a red flag when you start to speak in absolutes.

 

[CT Dal Fan]

As much as some people here want to make it about just one player, this has been a common theme in just about all the playoff losses over the past three decades, even pre-dating the Dak era. There is such a fixation here about Dak that you would think the Cowboys can just change the quarterback and suddenly the Super Bowls will start flowing in.

Dak is not blameless at all, but he is far from alone. The Cowboys as a team, offense, defense, coaching, everything, has underperformed in the postseason.

I go back to last year's Chiefs-Ravens AFC Title Game. The Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City offense scored 17 points, zero in the second half. But the Chiefs won.

Now, ask yourself how many playoff games the Cowboys would win scoring just 17 points and getting shutout after halftime. And imagine the "Dak choked" narratives. This Dallas team does NOT play complementary football in the postseason. If the offense bogs down, the defense is just as bad. If the defense plays well, the offense does not. And so on and so on.

This is not a Dak apology post because I will say, he has been bad the majority of the time in the playoffs. But I also think it's about time some fans take off their Dak blinders and see the rest of this team is just as much, if not more, to fault for these failures.

 

[Chasing6]

As much as some people here want to make it about just one player, this has been a common theme in just about all the playoff losses over the past three decades, even pre-dating the Dak era. There is such a fixation here about Dak that you would think the Cowboys can just change the quarterback and suddenly the Super Bowls will start flowing in.

Dak is not blameless at all, but he is far from alone. The Cowboys as a team, offense, defense, coaching, everything, has underperformed in the postseason.

I go back to last year's Chiefs-Ravens AFC Title Game. The Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City offense scored 17 points, zero in the second half. But the Chiefs won.

Now, ask yourself how many playoff games the Cowboys would win scoring just 17 points and getting shutout after halftime. And imagine the "Dak choked" narratives. This Dallas team does NOT play complementary football in the postseason. If the offense bogs down, the defense is just as bad. If the defense plays well, the offense does not. And so on and so on.

This is not a Dak apology post because I will say, he has been bad the majority of the time in the playoffs. But I also think it's about time some fans take off their Dak blinders and see the rest of this team is just as much, if not more, to fault for these failures.

How did Troy play without Emmitt?

 

[CT Dal Fan]

How did Troy play without Emmitt?

Being honest Emmitt missed so few games over his career it's hard to make a real judgment. There was the 0-2 start in 1993 when Emmitt held out. He missed one game in 1994 which was a loss; but that was a meaningless regular season finale in which Aikman only played less than a half.

Emmitt did not miss a start again due to injury until November 1999; and ironically Troy also missed those two games.

 

[Rockport]

You speak of trenches to cover for Prescott. None of all that matters.

Going into year nine, Prescott and Dallas will be judged in January. The regular season will not matter. The wins and losses will not matter. Any MVP caliber stats will not matter.

It will be about if Prescott and Dallas choke when it counts, period.

If Prescott chokes, that's the label he will carry for his career. Just like Dallas has carried it for the last 28 year.

No more excuses.

Casual fan.

 

[blueblood70]

As much as some people here want to make it about just one player, this has been a common theme in just about all the playoff losses over the past three decades, even pre-dating the Dak era. There is such a fixation here about Dak that you would think the Cowboys can just change the quarterback and suddenly the Super Bowls will start flowing in.

Dak is not blameless at all, but he is far from alone. The Cowboys as a team, offense, defense, coaching, everything, has underperformed in the postseason.

I go back to last year's Chiefs-Ravens AFC Title Game. The Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City offense scored 17 points, zero in the second half. But the Chiefs won.

Now, ask yourself how many playoff games the Cowboys would win scoring just 17 points and getting shutout after halftime. And imagine the "Dak choked" narratives. This Dallas team does NOT play complementary football in the postseason. If the offense bogs down, the defense is just as bad. If the defense plays well, the offense does not. And so on and so on.

This is not a Dak apology post because I will say, he has been bad the majority of the time in the playoffs. But I also think it's about time some fans take off their Dak blinders and see the rest of this team is just as much, if not more, to fault for these failures.

Exactly and not only that chief's game what really is eye opening is the lions versus the 49ers... They literally had very similar first half we had but their team instead of giving up laying down and getting their butts beat found a way on defense and special teams and some creative coaching to hold them long enough for the offense to catch up and they end up winning and our defense comes out and gives up three straight touchdowns there's no way you can ever win a game that way it's always how you finish not how you start games and in our case the defense started back and finished bad and yeah in between our office didn't look good either but yeah blaming one player especially the quarterback did not have a run game a defense or anything special happened in a game to help turn a game around that's how it's going to happen...

That happened a lot in the playoffs last year,

you saw the Ravens I mean did Lamar Jackson just get paid? Aren't they known for defense I mean they're defense held the chiefs scoreless in the second-half in the mark Jackson in the offense never able to get anything going at all see you saw the chief side of it being able to win with 17 points but I say it is how can the Ravens not score in that situation where their defense stepped up they had a phase that was stepping up I mean they help Patrick mahomes scoreless in the second-half and Lamar Jackson can't even make it competitive I mean from memory they never looked like that game was ever in jeopardy the chiefs had a hold of it early...

The team game concept is a real thing we saw Trevor Lawrence and Josh Allen in the 2022 playoffs literally have three or four turnovers each and they still won the game I watched Matthew Stafford lead the league in interceptions and have two in the Super bowl and his team still won and again you point out the Ravens game I point out the lions game in which the 49ers were able to make a comeback in the same situation we were in they were down at halftime and it looked bleak our team came out and just got worse especially on defense there's found a way to pull it all together...

That was my point you're one of the only ones that got it I mean this is not all on the quarterback everyone who thinks we've had the team come out and play well all these losses were very similar the defense didn't play well they didn't stop the run we didn't run the ball well we were one-dimensional on offense and we were expecting the quarterback to just find a way to pull it out by himself... And yes we saw that with Tony Romo too we had DeMarco Murray fumble we had Dan Bailey missed 2 field goals and that same Dez caught it game people forget about those little things and the fact that Aaron Rodgers was able to end Tony Romo and then come back in 2016 and do it to dak... So yeah even in those games even off the top of my head my memories you go back to the Patrick Creighton game everyone blames them for going to Cabo sure it wasn't a good look but those guys who went to Cabo weren't the ones that play terrible in the game it was Patrick Creighton and a few other plays that cost us that game...

 

[blueblood70]

Being honest Emmitt missed so few games over his career it's hard to make a real judgment. There was the 0-2 start in 1993 when Emmitt held out. He missed one game in 1994 which was a loss; but that was a meaningless regular season finale in which Aikman only played less than a half.

Emmitt did not miss a start again due to injury until November 1999; and ironically Troy also missed those two games.

Yeah but the heartbeat of both are 70s and 90s championship teams were the run game and in the trenches you needed a very good offensive line that yes made Tony Dorsett Emmitt Smith more successful but you'd also need the running back but we had that and DeMarco Murray and Ezekiel Elliott were very capable had their offensive line done anything the fact is in the bigger games our offensive line we're not physical enough they didn't move the defenders they got pushed back into the line it wasn't even fair that's why we say the trenches matter but I'm telling you that Troy and Roger never had to find out what it was like to be 1 dimensional in the game if anything they were run heavy and then they were able to pass efficiently that was supposed to be the Tony Romo friendly offense was to rely on the run game and then pass efficiently when you needed to or get a big play through the passing game when you needed to we never got to that point Tony and Jack have never played in a big playoff game where they got the support from the offensive line the run game and the defense not out of consistent basis most of it was missing in almost all the losses..

I mean like I said I did this study it literally looks like most of our run games and most of those losses were under 3 yards per carry with the exception of last year was 3.7 but most of that was in garbage time I mean that's a whole game where you have a player have 15 carries at an average of 3.7 yards per carry come on people it's it's not a secret the team that can run the ball most effectively and that can stop the run makes it easier for the rest of the team to function and they didn't even bring it in the fact that Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson are better than anything that Romo or Prescott had his coaches.. Coaching Staffs game plans and adjustments in game matter they never hung their quarterback out to dry...

 

[CT Dal Fan]

What is amazing to me is Tony Pollard averaged just 59 rushing yards in the Cowboys' 12 victories last year. In fact his only 100 yard game was the loss to Arizona.

Just a reminder of how much the game has changed. But in the playoffs, the margin grows smaller and you need more balance to be successful. The Cowboys have probably asked Dak to do too much. Even as a fan of his, I know he is not the type of QB that can carry an entire offense against elite defenses.

This is not to say he can't ever do it. But the Cowboys need to recognize what he can and cannot do and build a team around him that allows him to excel. It seems this year they are asking both Dak and Mike McCarthy to do more with less compared to past seasons.

 

[12+88=7]

Casual fan.

My first QB was Dandy Don, so not a casual fan. I have learned that players come and go. That's why I root for the team, not the players.

I have said this before, after this 53 man roster is gone, coaching staff gone, ownership gone, I will still root for Dallas. Like Seinfeld said, I root for the laundry.

Dallas is the only thing that matters. The only thing. Everything else is B S.

 

[zrinkill]

My first QB was Dandy Don, so not a casual fan. I have learned that players come and go. That's why I root for the team, not the players.

I have said this before, after this 53 man roster is gone, coaching staff gone, ownership gone, I will still root for Dallas. Like Seinfeld said, I root for the laundry.

Dallas is the only thing that matters. The only thing. Everything else is B S.

That guy is a Jerry Jones fan ......... he could care less about the Cowboys.