Unimpressed so Far

[khiladi]

Isn't this the same offensive gameplan we had in 2007 when we were #2 in the league in offense and #2 in points per game? I think what's lacking from 2007 and in recent years was offensive line. It comes down to execution. Every time we have any sort of momentum we either get a penalty or we can't run the football. How many penalties killed our drives yesterday?

Not realy.. TO, as the primary receiver, operated in motion some in the beginning, from what I recall. I remember his taking it to the house on a quick slant after a motion play against their first game against the Eagles..

 

[Idgit]

I think one problem with the offense -- which has come up in past years -- is its predictability. I'd like to see more draws, more screens (and not of the "bubble" variety) and less of the stretch run -- unless the current O-line is more agile than past years, when the defense has been able to stop the stretch pretty routinely.

The offense has a ton of talented skill players who should be scaring defenses a lot more than they have in the past few years.

What measurement of 'how much we're scaring defesnes' are you using to make this point? I'd like to try to refute it, but I have to admit that I'm struggling to find a reasonable way to do that.

 

[Gadfly22]

What measurement of 'how much we're scaring defesnes' are you using to make this point? I'd like to try to refute it, but I have to admit that I'm struggling to find a reasonable way to do that.

From the Sunday night game, I'd cite the offensive production in 37:10 of playing time -- total net yards of 331. That's as opposed to 478 total net yards for the Giants in only 22:50 of playing time. Average gain per pass play was 4.8 yds compared with the Giants 9.5 yds - about double the Cowboy average. The Cowboys' long gain run play was 13 yards and the long pass 23 yards. Those kinds of offensive totals may have trouble winning games where your defense doesn't score 14 points.

Or, in short, the Cowboys' big play potential currently looks to be below average, which -- combined with their problems in the red zone -- means that defenses will give up the short stuff and wait for a Cowboy mistake. The ratio of offensive points to offensive net yards gained makes that kind of patience pay off, which -- in the figurative sense -- means that adversaries may not fear an offensive explosion from the Cowboys that will change the character of a game quickly.

 

[Idgit]

From the Sunday night game, I'd cite the offensive production in 37:10 of playing time -- total net yards of 331. That's as opposed to 478 total net yards for the Giants in only 22:50 of playing time. Average gain per pass play was 4.8 yds compared with the Giants 9.5 yds - about double the Cowboy average. The Cowboys' long gain run play was 13 yards and the long pass 23 yards. Those kinds of offensive totals may have trouble winning games where your defense doesn't score 14 points.

Or, in short, the Cowboys' big play potential currently looks to be below average, which -- combined with their problems in the red zone -- means that defenses will give up the short stuff and wait for a Cowboy mistake. The ratio of offensive points to offensive net yards gained makes that kind of patience pay off, which -- in the figurative sense -- means that adversaries may not fear an offensive explosion from the Cowboys that will change the character of a game quickly.

Oh. I thought you were going off of our performance the past few years and not just on Sunday's game. I don't think Sunday will end up being a very good indication of how many big plays our offense is capable of making, but perhaps you're right and it will be.

Having Dunbar back will help with the screen game, probably. Though he'll use the stretch runs a lot, too. I'm confident there won't be many games where Dez is muzzled like he was this week. And at some point, Terrance Williams is going to make a defense pay for sliding coverages to Dez and Witten. I think we'll be ok in the long run--at least as effective as we've been offensively in recent seasons, which is pretty effective.

 

[Gadfly22]

Oh. I thought you were going off of our performance the past few years and not just on Sunday's game. I don't think Sunday will end up being a very good indication of how many big plays our offense is capable of making, but perhaps you're right and it will be.

Having Dunbar back will help with the screen game, probably. Though he'll use the stretch runs a lot, too. I'm confident there won't be many games where Dez is muzzled like he was this week. And at some point, Terrance Williams is going to make a defense pay for sliding coverages to Dez and Witten. I think we'll be ok in the long run--at least as effective as we've been offensively in recent seasons, which is pretty effective.

No, I was focusing on the "so far" part of this thread. First games of the regular season can be aberrations, and there are 15 (or hopefully more) games for the offense to really start clicking, putting points on the board and turning "unimpressed" into "very impressed". But I think the offense will have to score more than the 22 points it scored against the Giants per game if this is going to be a playoff-bound season.