Walking The Plank - Week Eight Observations

[Plankton]

Bye weeks can be looked at in numerous ways.

They can be times to heal up, times to reevaluate and refine strategy, techniques and tactics. They can be times to take a mental break from a stressful job, and allow the team to “reboot” themselves, and prepare for the stretch run.

They can also be times where momentum can be halted, and result in sluggishness, sloppy play and effort unbecoming a first-place team.

If a team demonstrates the ability to show both ways to look at a situation, the Dallas Cowboys in Week 8 were that team.

The 29-23 OT win over the Philadelphia Eagles was not anything resembling the art collection that lines the inside of ATT Stadium, but it was a win that showed the yin/yang of bye weeks – sloppy, lethargic play on the field, but also fortitude, and the triumph of minds that used the bye week to relax and ultimately focus on the job at hand.

No, this win wasn’t a thing of beauty in terms of style and overall manner of play. The Cowboys for much of the game didn’t do anything well except shoot themselves in the foot. The offensive line didn’t take full advantage of an outmanned Eagle defensive line. Cole Beasley and Jason Witten looked to be in the witness protection program, as they didn’t see much in the way of action through three quarters.

The defense played soft and seemingly allowed completions on slant routes anytime that Carson Wentz dialed one up.

And the special teams? Decidedly less than special, save for one play.

Most of all, the talk of the bye week, Dak Prescott, had his least effective game thus far, as he was flummoxed by the many blitzes run by Jim Schwartz. Prescott looked like you would expect a rookie to look – lacking accuracy on many throws, throwing off his back foot, locking into and forcing passes to Dez Bryant, not maintaining proper pace on his zone read game with Ezekiel Elliott.

But, for a team seemingly still stuck in their bye week, in the fourth quarter, they finally seemed to wake up, and continue to show that this team has a little something to it.

The defense, playing soft for most of the game, showed some fangs in the fourth quarter. They held the Eagles to a crucial field goal when a touchdown would have left the Cowboys down 14 points. After the offense had a terrible three and out, the defense rose up and made the key plays that allowed this comeback to take place. Terrell McClain forced a fumble by Wendell Smallwood that gave the offense back the ball in Eagle territory. The offense was still in slumber mode, but Dan Bailey cut the lead to a touchdown. Sean Lee then made the play of the game defensively – his stuff of Darren Sproles on a short pass for a 6-yard loss knocked the Eagles out of field goal range, and forced a punt.

Then, Prescott decided to show some mettle with the game on the line.

After a 63 yard Elliott scamper was called back due to penalty, Prescott went to work. On a 90 yard drive, Prescott went 5 for 8, mixed in a 12-yard scramble for a first down, and finished it off with a touchdown pass to Bryant, who made a brilliant catch. Game tied at 23.

Once the game went to overtime, and the Cowboys won the coin toss, this game was as good as over.

Prescott played his best ball in overtime, coolly leading the Cowboys on a 12 play, 75-yard game winning drive, converting a key 4th and 1 with a QB sneak, and looking positively Romo-ish with his twisting, spinning, off balance touchdown pass to Witten for the win.

While it wasn’t a Rembrandt as a whole, it was a pretty picture when it needed to be.

You can learn a lot about a team, and about people when they encounter adversity. The Cowboys, despite 11 penalties, general sloppiness, sluggishness and a lack of crispness, rose up and played very good football when they needed to. They outscored the Eagles 16-3 from the fourth quarter onward, came up with two sacks in the final stanza, and took advantage of winning the coin toss to close the game out.

You can look at the defense, who allowed repeated underneath completions for three quarters, and tackled as poorly as they had all season in trying to corral the very underrated Darren Sproles. But, in the fourth quarter, they held the Eagles to 42 total yards, forced a key turnover and a key hold to a FG at the beginning of the quarter to keep the Cowboys in the game.

You can look at Prescott, who struggled mightily with the pressure schemes of Schwartz, and looked as indecisive, inaccurate and confused as he has been since he joined the Cowboys. But, with the game on the line, Prescott made the game slow down, and dealt with the end of game pressure better than his fellow heralded rookie, Carson Wentz.

Bye weeks can be tough in terms of regaining momentum, and the Cowboys will need to ride the emotional wave from this win to help them on a somewhat shorter week to a 12p kickoff next Sunday against the winless Browns.

But, the Cowboys have big goals at this point.

One of the biggest is to earn another bye week in January.


Other notes from this week’s game:

• Too many penalties tonight. Jerome Boger’s crew has a reputation of throwing a lot of flags, but the Cowboys didn’t help themselves with 11 total penalties. They need to clean this up.
  
• Speaking of the officials, they blew a big call near the end of the first half that allowed Caleb Sturgis to hit a 55 yard FG. Dorial Green-Beckham did not have possession of that pass on the sideline. It was clear in real time, and clear on replays. How this didn’t get looked at is beyond me.
  
• The special teams nearly cost the Cowboys the game. Whether it was Lucky Whitehead foolishly taking the opening kickoff out of the end zone, and nearly fumbling it away, having 12 men on the field on the Eagles first possession, extending a drive that resulted in a field goal, committing three penalties on returns to kill the field position battle and allowing Josh Huff to break a 53-yard return of a kickoff, the special teams were absolutely awful tonight.
  
• It wasn’t all bad, though. Chris Jones’ 30-yard run on a fake was a huge play, and desperately needed to swing momentum when the Cowboys were down 10 points. I’m not sure if it was planned, but if Jones attempted to kick it, it may have been blocked by Bryan Braman of the Eagles, who had a free run inside at him.
  
• We finally saw Ezekiel Elliott make his presence known in the passing game as a receiver, and this could be very bad news for the rest of the league.
• Here's hoping that the Barry Church and Morris Claiborne injuries aren't serious. The Cowboys will need them as the season goes forward. And, if you asked me whether I would have been saying this prior to the season, I would have laughed at you.
  
• Next week is the quintessential trap game. With the announcement that Prescott is starting, the focus now needs to be on cleaning up the sloppiness from tonight. They were sloppy enough to lose tonight, but persevered enough to win. Playing that sloppy will not result in wins going forward.
• All that being said, right now, there is no team in the NFC playing better than the Cowboys, and in the AFC, perhaps the Patriots are the only team. It should be a fun back half of the season.

 

[Kaiser]

The defense played soft and seemingly allowed completions on slant routes anytime that Carson Wentz dialed one up.

Great post, though I would nitpick this one line. I think the Defense overperformed and the Offense underperformed. But I would give you multiple Likes because "walking the plank" is more clever than "Kaiser Rolls".

 

[AsthmaField]

That's what good teams do... they win even when they're having an off day. And that was decidedly an off day.

I've seen it back when Jimmy coached and the team was dominant. They still had days when nothing went right. All teams do. The key is digging down and doing enough to win even with things going against you.

That's what this team did. That is what Dak did. He proved yet again that he is a gamer.

Really great win for the team tonight and it says more about the team than some of the easy victories did.

This team is going places.

 

[percyhoward]

Go back and read the OP again while listening to this.

 

[AsthmaField]

Go back and read the OP again while listening to this.

I like this one:

 

[big dog cowboy]

That's what good teams do... they win even when they're having an off day. And that was decidedly an off day.

Exactly right. We played a bad game and still won.

 

[Verdict]

Very nice write up Plankton. I always enjoy your wrap ups of the game. Here are a few things I would like to hear your thoughts on.

1. Do you think the bye week caused the sloppy play? In the same vein could it also be possible that the Eagle collapse in overtime was due to the fact that we were fresher than they were due to the same bye?

2. Elliott said he was exhausted from this game and I have never heard him say that before. Other than lack of conditioning (which we can't see on game tape) was there anything during the game cast that you saw that would explain his extra fatigue?

3. What was wit Beasley being so quiet during the first half of this game?

4. The Cowboys Coaches seemed to make a few grew at calls (the fake punt and the 4th and 1 to seal the game come to mind) but they also seemed way out of sync this game for most of the game. How do you see it?

5. Did our coaches let the Eagles Defense dictate personnel? If so do u think we should just play our game and force the issue instead of trying to Mach up with them??

 

[Plankton]

Very nice write up Plankton. I always enjoy your wrap ups of the game. Here are a few things I would like to hear your thoughts on.

Thanks for the feedback.

1. Do you think the bye week caused the sloppy play? In the same vein could it also be possible that the Eagle collapse in overtime was due to the fact that we were fresher than they were due to the same bye?

I think that they did look a little lethargic in the game, and they lacked sync, especially offensively. On defense, I don't think that they tackled as well as they had in previous games. I do think that the bye week had a hand in it, but I also think that the Eagle defense presented some obstacles that the Cowboy offense had not seen to this point, and they made it hard on Prescott.

As for the collapse in OT, I don't know that it was a question of being fresher. I do think that the Cowboys had momentum on their side, and they went into that drive with a determination to end the game without the Eagles getting the ball. Garrett choosing to go for it on 4th down when it was well within Dan Bailey's FG range was evidence of that.

2. Elliott said he was exhausted from this game and I have never heard him say that before. Other than lack of conditioning (which we can't see on game tape) was there anything during the game cast that you saw that would explain his extra fatigue?

He was tired for a couple of reasons. One, was the struggle of the game itself. Divisional games are always tough, but the Eagles on defense play with a definite edge, and play a very physical brand of ball. Two, he had to be much more active in pass protection in the game with all of the blitzing that the Eagles did. Those hits add up, just as much as the hits taken when he runs the ball and when he carries out fakes.

Think of it also in this manner. In baseball, you have pitchers who now seemingly cannot pitch once they hit the 100 pitch count. I can remember in the 2009 World Series, Cliff Lee pitched a complete game in Game 1 to beat the Yankees. Lee threw 127 pitches in the game. He looked as fresh in the 9th as he did in the 1st. Why? Because he pitched stress free the whole game - he was never threatened by the Yankees in the game, and was able to pitch without the grind felt many times in the postseason. Now, last night, Jon Lester pitched 6 innings, and threw 90 pitches. He was basically out of gas when he was removed. Unlike Lee, Lester had some stressful innings and had the Cubs' season on his shoulders.

Elliott, for a lack of a better word, "pitched under stress" last night. The intensity and physicality of the game wore him out both physically and mentally.

3. What was wit Beasley being so quiet during the first half of this game?

I will have to look more closely at the All-22, but I think that there were a couple of things at play:

1. The game plan likely had a big focus on getting Dez Bryant involved, because Prescott looked his way a lot early on. Bryant was also singled up in coverage quite a bit, which is surprising.
2. The Eagles were physical with Beasley as he ran down the field, with the LBs and safeties rerouting him as he got into his routes.
3. Prescott was unsteady in the pocket, and didn't let plays develop enough.
4. Finally, the Eagle defense just did a good job keeping the offense off balance and unsure of themselves.

4. The Cowboys Coaches seemed to make a few grew at calls (the fake punt and the 4th and 1 to seal the game come to mind) but they also seemed way out of sync this game for most of the game. How do you see it?

I'm not one that complains about play calling because we lack all of the nuance of what went into the play call while sitting on the couch. Garrett knew the importance of getting this win - extending the divisional lead to two games, pushing the Eagles down, and putting pressure on the Giants and Commanders to keep up. The fake punt was a terrific call at a time when the team needed some momentum, and were down two scores. Without that play, the Cowboys likely don't win the game. The 4th and 1 call, to me, was a no brainer. You have the best line in the league, all of the momentum, and a chance to end the game without the Eagles getting the ball. You have to go for it there.

I do think that Jim Schwartz found a way to attack Prescott and the Cowboy offense, and exposed a couple of issues. One is Prescott lacking accuracy on down the field throws. The second is Prescott not setting his feet well when faced with pressure. This results in high throws. While I think he generally had the better in the matchup with Scott Linehan, I think that Garrett absolutely pantsed Doug Pederson when it counted. Pederson's decision making in the 4th quarter was curious to say the least.

5. Did our coaches let the Eagles Defense dictate personnel? If so do u think we should just play our game and force the issue instead of trying to Mach up with them??

The Eagles packed the box pretty tight last night, but also took away the perimeter runs. I think the Cowboys could stand to run a little more motion to help Prescott out a bit in assessing the defense. In terms of style of play, the Eagle defense absolutely forced the Cowboys to play the way they wanted the game played. Prescott did break contain at times, but his accuracy still waned. But, when the Cowboys needed to make a drive, the Eagles were incapable of making the stops necessary. This was indomitable will defeating the irresistible force.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]