Plankton
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The Jekyll and Hyde routine of the Dallas Cowboys continued yesterday.
And, as the late Dennis Green famously said, they are who we thought they are.
And what that is, is inconsistent, impotent on offense, and with the game on the line, let down by their sideline when they need them the most.
The Cowboys, as has been the mode for this 2018 season, let yet another game on the road slip away, dropping a heartbreaker 20-17 to their archrival, the Washington Commanders. The offense, which had been more dynamic, more inventive within the confines of ATT Stadium, once again went conservative when they needed to be brash. With the offensive line once again breaking down time after time, and the running game, ordinarily their life blood, bottled up to tune of 73 total yards, with a long run of 14 yards by the quarterback. The team also bogged themselves down in mistakes, with repeated penalties keeping the offense in disadvantageous down and distance situations, and wiping out solid gains.
The biggest instance of Jekyll and Hyde behavior comes from the Cowboys own sideline.
Jason Garrett is a conundrum in terms of risk taking. His teams have been generally very good on fourth down, and during early moments in games, he will roll the dice on fourth and short situations, as he did on the Cowboys’ second drive of the game. It was the right call, and what was called did gain the necessary yardage for the first down conversion. The problem was that Dak Prescott had the ball jarred from his grip by Commander safety D.J. Swearinger, and the Cowboys lost possession of the ball.
Faced with the opportunity late in the game to go for the winning touchdown, with plenty of time to take a shot or two, Garrett went conservative, allowing time to drain from the clock, and settling for a 47 yard field goal attempt. When one considers that the Cowboys were at the Commanders 46 yard line with :52 remaining in the game, and a time out in hand, and the Cowboys managed to run two plays before setting up for a field goal is unconscionable. To put it in plain English, they didn’t set themselves up to win, despite how Garrett tried to defend the decision after the game.
When pressed by the media as to why he didn’t have the offense try to either move closer, or go for the winning touchdown, Garrett said, “The biggest thing after we got ourselves into field goal range was to try to get up there and clock the ball, preserve that last timeout and then give us the freedom. I think we were trying to get the ball down to 12 seconds. So once we got down to that point, the biggest thing that we wanted to do was maximize the field goal opportunity and run the ball, make some yards, use the timeout and then kick the game-tying field goal.”
Note that he said maximize the field goal opportunity, and not maximize the chance to win the game.
Let’s examine this a little further. In the NFL this year, across the league, kickers are making field goals between the distance of 40 and 49 yards at a clip of 73.2%. Pretty good, right?
Well, if the Cowboys were a little more aggressive, and gained another 10 yards or so, well, the league rate between 30-39 yards rises to 94.6% success. And, if they pressed further, and got to the 12 yard line, the success rate increases to 97.9%.
Does it sound like they maximized the field goal opportunity?
After the disaster in Houston, where Garrett all but abandoned his scratch, claw and fight mantra in overtime when faced with a 4th and 2 situation, one would think that he would have learned his lesson and maintain his aggressiveness. He didn’t. It was this conservative turn that ended up costing the team the football game.
Forget the ridiculous snap infraction penalty on long snapper L.P. Ladouceur, which pushed the attempted game tying kick back to 52 yards. While one can look at the kick from Brett Maher, and assume that it would have been good from 47, there’s no guarantee that the process would have been exactly the same with it five yards closer. Where the issue lay is at the sideline level, where the conservative nature of the head coach led to the catastrophe seen at the end of the game.
What makes it all the more galling is that a very similar scenario took place with Garrett nearly 6 years ago to the day.
The Cowboys were trailing the Baltimore Ravens 31-23, and drove for a touchdown to close within 31-29. Following a failed two point conversion attempt, the Cowboys recovered an onside kick attempt with :32 remaining in the game. Following a deep pass from Tony Romo to Kevin Ogletree, where the Ravens were whistled for pass interference, the Cowboys were in field position with :26 remaining in the game, at the Ravens 35 yard line. Romo threw short to Dez Bryant, who was unable to get out of bounds, and the other receivers didn’t get back to the line of scrimmage. Garrett held off on calling timeout until there was :06 remaining, settling for a 51 yard field goal. Predictably, the kick was missed, and the Cowboys lost the game. For a person with a strong grasp of history, and a deep knowledge of football, you would think that a scenario such as that would be recalled by Garrett, and adhered to as a way not to proceed.
And, then you have the Houston game and this one.
While not perfect himself on Sunday, Dak Prescott deserved better than this outcome. He fought through a likely concussion on the hit by Greg Stroman in the first quarter (I believe that the only reason why the Cowboys punted on the 4th and 1 play following the hit is because Prescott was woozy), and hung in there despite the offensive line having a putrid performance. Yes, his sack/fumble that resulted in what turned out to be the winning points in the game was a terrible case of watching the rush and not his receivers downfield, but he rebounded from that to put the Cowboys in a position to tie the game.
The defense, which forced a critical three and out following Prescott’s touchdown that cut the Commander lead to 20-17, also deserved better.
One basic tenet of leadership is the importance to remain consistent.
As Garrett has shown in the last two road games, consistency of approach is not a strong suit.
And very Jekyll and Hyde to his team and the fan base.
Other observations from yesterday’s game:
And, as the late Dennis Green famously said, they are who we thought they are.
And what that is, is inconsistent, impotent on offense, and with the game on the line, let down by their sideline when they need them the most.
The Cowboys, as has been the mode for this 2018 season, let yet another game on the road slip away, dropping a heartbreaker 20-17 to their archrival, the Washington Commanders. The offense, which had been more dynamic, more inventive within the confines of ATT Stadium, once again went conservative when they needed to be brash. With the offensive line once again breaking down time after time, and the running game, ordinarily their life blood, bottled up to tune of 73 total yards, with a long run of 14 yards by the quarterback. The team also bogged themselves down in mistakes, with repeated penalties keeping the offense in disadvantageous down and distance situations, and wiping out solid gains.
The biggest instance of Jekyll and Hyde behavior comes from the Cowboys own sideline.
Jason Garrett is a conundrum in terms of risk taking. His teams have been generally very good on fourth down, and during early moments in games, he will roll the dice on fourth and short situations, as he did on the Cowboys’ second drive of the game. It was the right call, and what was called did gain the necessary yardage for the first down conversion. The problem was that Dak Prescott had the ball jarred from his grip by Commander safety D.J. Swearinger, and the Cowboys lost possession of the ball.
Faced with the opportunity late in the game to go for the winning touchdown, with plenty of time to take a shot or two, Garrett went conservative, allowing time to drain from the clock, and settling for a 47 yard field goal attempt. When one considers that the Cowboys were at the Commanders 46 yard line with :52 remaining in the game, and a time out in hand, and the Cowboys managed to run two plays before setting up for a field goal is unconscionable. To put it in plain English, they didn’t set themselves up to win, despite how Garrett tried to defend the decision after the game.
When pressed by the media as to why he didn’t have the offense try to either move closer, or go for the winning touchdown, Garrett said, “The biggest thing after we got ourselves into field goal range was to try to get up there and clock the ball, preserve that last timeout and then give us the freedom. I think we were trying to get the ball down to 12 seconds. So once we got down to that point, the biggest thing that we wanted to do was maximize the field goal opportunity and run the ball, make some yards, use the timeout and then kick the game-tying field goal.”
Note that he said maximize the field goal opportunity, and not maximize the chance to win the game.
Let’s examine this a little further. In the NFL this year, across the league, kickers are making field goals between the distance of 40 and 49 yards at a clip of 73.2%. Pretty good, right?
Well, if the Cowboys were a little more aggressive, and gained another 10 yards or so, well, the league rate between 30-39 yards rises to 94.6% success. And, if they pressed further, and got to the 12 yard line, the success rate increases to 97.9%.
Does it sound like they maximized the field goal opportunity?
After the disaster in Houston, where Garrett all but abandoned his scratch, claw and fight mantra in overtime when faced with a 4th and 2 situation, one would think that he would have learned his lesson and maintain his aggressiveness. He didn’t. It was this conservative turn that ended up costing the team the football game.
Forget the ridiculous snap infraction penalty on long snapper L.P. Ladouceur, which pushed the attempted game tying kick back to 52 yards. While one can look at the kick from Brett Maher, and assume that it would have been good from 47, there’s no guarantee that the process would have been exactly the same with it five yards closer. Where the issue lay is at the sideline level, where the conservative nature of the head coach led to the catastrophe seen at the end of the game.
What makes it all the more galling is that a very similar scenario took place with Garrett nearly 6 years ago to the day.
The Cowboys were trailing the Baltimore Ravens 31-23, and drove for a touchdown to close within 31-29. Following a failed two point conversion attempt, the Cowboys recovered an onside kick attempt with :32 remaining in the game. Following a deep pass from Tony Romo to Kevin Ogletree, where the Ravens were whistled for pass interference, the Cowboys were in field position with :26 remaining in the game, at the Ravens 35 yard line. Romo threw short to Dez Bryant, who was unable to get out of bounds, and the other receivers didn’t get back to the line of scrimmage. Garrett held off on calling timeout until there was :06 remaining, settling for a 51 yard field goal. Predictably, the kick was missed, and the Cowboys lost the game. For a person with a strong grasp of history, and a deep knowledge of football, you would think that a scenario such as that would be recalled by Garrett, and adhered to as a way not to proceed.
And, then you have the Houston game and this one.
While not perfect himself on Sunday, Dak Prescott deserved better than this outcome. He fought through a likely concussion on the hit by Greg Stroman in the first quarter (I believe that the only reason why the Cowboys punted on the 4th and 1 play following the hit is because Prescott was woozy), and hung in there despite the offensive line having a putrid performance. Yes, his sack/fumble that resulted in what turned out to be the winning points in the game was a terrible case of watching the rush and not his receivers downfield, but he rebounded from that to put the Cowboys in a position to tie the game.
The defense, which forced a critical three and out following Prescott’s touchdown that cut the Commander lead to 20-17, also deserved better.
One basic tenet of leadership is the importance to remain consistent.
As Garrett has shown in the last two road games, consistency of approach is not a strong suit.
And very Jekyll and Hyde to his team and the fan base.
Other observations from yesterday’s game:
- I saw a statistic from yesterday that indicated that the Patriots have scored over 21 points in the first half in each of their last four games. By comparison, the Cowboys have scored 20 or more points three times this year. In full games.
- The Cowboy defense has done yeoman’s work this year. Yesterday’s field goal by the Commanders to start the second half was the first points allowed by the Cowboys on the initial drive of the second half this season. As it turns out, it was a critical three points.
- Speaking of that drive, the defensive brain trust of the Cowboys allowed themselves to get seriously outflanked. On third and eight from the Cowboy 36 yard line, the Commanders, playing without receiving threats Jamison Crowder, Paul Richardson and outlet threat Chris Thompson, got their best target, Jordan Reed, isolated on Cowboys fifth corner C.J. Goodwin in man coverage. How this was allowed to happen was anyone’s guess, but Reed broke free for a 27 yard gain that put the Commanders well within chip shot range. On a day where they held Reed in check (only two catches for 43 yards), they allowed a big conversion on a personnel mismatch.
- Outstanding route and throw by Michael Gallup and Prescott on the 49 yard touchdown pass in the first half. Gallup set up Stroman perfectly on a stop and go, and Prescott put the ball on the money for the score. Gallup has been showing signs of breaking out, and is a player to watch in the second half of the year. If Prescott had hung in there with his eyes downfield on the pivotal sack/fumble play, he had Gallup free with no deep help for another score.
- Terrible drop in coverage by Jaylon Smith on the touchdown pass to running back Kapri Bibbs on the Commanders first drive. Smith dropped off to the deep left side of the field, in a space occupied by Sean Lee, and left Bibbs (aided by a missed call on a block from behind) with a ton of room to maneuver for the score.
- Poor game for Chris Jones on Sunday. Jones hit two poor punts in the first half, the first of which set the Commanders up with outstanding field position on a drive that resulted in their first touchdown. The second, from the Cowboy 47 yard line, went into the end zone for a touchback that negated a field position edge for the Cowboys.
- Another week, another tough game for Tyron Smith. His lateral movement appears hampered, and he is struggling with both outside and inside moves. Whether it’s the back issues or lingering problems from his core muscle injury from 2017, Smith is a shell of what he once was as a player. And it’s a real problem for this offense.
- The Alabama connection for the Commanders caused the Cowboy offensive line, and their running game, fits. Both Jonathan Allen and Da’Ron Payne clogged up the interior of the line, and gave Ezekiel Elliott precious little room to operate. Allen also drew a critical holding penalty on struggling rookie Connor Williams, which led to the Prescott sack/fumble/touchdown. Whatever contribution new line coach Paul Alexander has provided to the unit, it hasn’t been a good one.
- Tough game injury wise for the Cowboys. Goodwin went down with a broken forearm in the second half, which impacts the coverage teams on kicks. Geoff Swaim, who has been emerging as a solid player at tight end, suffered what looked like a bad knee injury on a hit in the fourth quarter. Losing Swaim would be yet another blow to a struggling offense. Zack Martin also tweaked a knee, but played through it. The bye week will be time well spent getting guys well as well as replacements up to speed.
- As to the penalty at the end of the game, it’s a shame when a call adversely impacts a football game as much as that one appeared to have. Ladouceur did nothing different than he has on any other conversion snap since he has been a Cowboy. A snap infraction is only supposed to be called when the snapper does something in an effort to draw the defense across the line. Just because the defense jumps, doesn’t mean that they were induced by the center. Payne was clearly coached by the sideline to do just that, and the refs took the bait from the Commander sideline. Just another low moment for the officials, who continue to muck up games with their incompetence.
- As damaging as this loss was, the Cowboy season will be decided in the month of November. Following the Monday night tilt against the Titans, the Cowboys have a four game in 18 day stretch where they face the Eagles and Falcons on the road, as well as a rematch with the Commanders followed by the Saints one week later. They have squandered any room for error at this point, and if they have any hopes of making the playoffs, the Titan matchup is a must win.
