Plankton
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By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
· Benjamin Franklin
After a week of being praised for their efforts against a team that vexed them for two of their three losses in 2016, the Dallas Cowboys had an opportunity to once again take an early stranglehold over the NFC East. They also had an opportunity to conquer one of their houses of horror, in facing the Denver Broncos in Denver, a site that they had been winless in since the 1992 Super Bowl winning season.
With the quarterback of that 1992 team in the broadcast booth, and another former Cowboy great, DeMarcus Ware, serving as an honorary alumnus for the opening coin toss, the Cowboys showed that they have bigger problems to worry about instead of the state of the rest of the NFC East.
In the nationally broadcast late game, no inspiration was drawn from their past greats being in attendance. No divine intervention was in place following a one hour and two-minute lightning delay. The Cowboys came out for today’s game, and promptly laid an egg on national television.
In today’s 42-17 beatdown, the Cowboys were thoroughly embarrassed by the Broncos, and when the Broncos weren’t embarrassing them, the Cowboys embarrassed themselves. The lines for the Cowboys, so strong and in control one week ago, were seemingly on another planet in this game. The Cowboy offensive line was overwhelmed by a slanting, stack front deployed by the Broncos, unable to create the smallest of creases for Ezekiel Elliott in the running game. The defensive line wasn’t much better, getting pushed around by the Broncos to the tune of allowing their first game of 100 yards by an opposing rusher since the finale of the 2015 season. On passing downs, the defensive line, save for continued pass rush production by DeMarcus Lawrence, was unable to disengage from a makeshift Bronco offensive line, and left Trevor Siemien ample time to carve up a depleted Cowboy secondary.
There wasn’t a phase in the game where the Cowboys weren’t humiliated and outplayed. Mental mistakes galore in all three phases, and it began early on in the game.
It appeared that this loss was a failure to be prepared for what they were facing. And, that falls on the coaching staff and team leaders.
The Cowboys weren’t prepared for the Broncos to stack the box with 8-9 players on each down, and unable to take advantage of man coverage against their wide receivers. The Broncos have had the best pass defense in the league for the past two seasons, but this was a team that had Ware retire after the 2016 season, and were missing edge rusher Shane Ray. Yes, they had Von Miller, one of the most explosive rushers in the game, but the remainder of the defensive front did not seem to be an otherworldly challenge for this offensive line.
That feeling was wrong.
As well as the Bronco secondary played, limiting the run after the catch for Cowboy wideouts all game long, it was the Bronco front that gave the Cowboys fits. The interior linemen of the Cowboys, Chaz Green, and All-Pros Travis Frederick and Zack Martin, got little push in the run game, and were largely dominated. The Cowboys were held to 40 yards rushing at 2.9 YPC. Elliott had the worst game of his professional career, having 0 yards rushing late in the third quarter, and finishing with 8 yards on 9 attempts. You would have to go back to Thanksgiving of 2015 to see a worse performance in the run game by this team.
The passing game wasn’t much better. Dak Prescott was off again with his accuracy, but received little help from his receivers. Dez Bryant dropped an easy slant that resulted in a Chris Harris interception. Jason Witten dropped an easy touchdown throw. There was no run after the catch, no explosive plays, seemingly no clue as to how to solve the Bronco defense.
After the game, Bronco coach Vance Joseph indicated that their defensive strategy was to make it impossible to run, and to force the Cowboys to throw. Mission accomplished. Without Elliott playing a large role in the game, it was on Prescott to make the plays necessary to win. He was not up to the task, and this is an area that the Cowboys are going to have to work hard to shore up. It also underscores how important Elliott is to how the Cowboys play on offense.
The Broncos prepared for this game, and asserted their influence early and often. The Bronco offense established the run early, and played on the plus side of the sticks throughout the game. The Cowboys, on the other hand, were faced with long yardage situations series after series, and played right into the hands of the Bronco defensive strength – their secondary. Cowboy receivers had difficulty getting separation, and when they did make catches, they were contested, and didn’t result in long gains. Until Witten’s 28-yard touchdown with the Cowboys down 35-10, the long play for the Cowboys was a 15-yard reception by Bryant.
On offense, the Broncos had the Cowboy defense off balance and confused. They took advantage of injuries in the Cowboy secondary, and poor tackling by the Cowboy defense to sustain long drives. They played on the Cowboy side of the line of scrimmage, and dominated the interior of the Cowboy defense. The secondary, now resembling a M*A*S*H* unit due to all of the injuries, played soft, and were eaten up underneath. By staying ahead of the sticks (Broncos 1st Down Yards Gained Average - 4.2 yards, Cowboys 1st Down Yards Gained – 2.92), the Broncos were able to put the Cowboy defense in uncomfortable positions. With starting corner Nolan Carroll and nickel corner Chidobe Awuzie leaving the game with injuries, it stressed the Cowboy defense even more. Cracks formed with overrun plays, missed tackles and blown assignments.
Even when the Cowboy defense made a big play, with Lawrence’s forced fumble on a sack setting up the first Dallas touchdown, the Broncos continued to punish them. Following a seemingly huge momentum swinging play, the Broncos and Siemien were so rattled that they scored touchdowns on four of their next five possessions, with the only failure coming when they took a knee to end the first half.
Today, the Cowboys looked like a team that had read press clippings all week, and didn’t do the little things necessary to win the game. Things like not getting a leverage penalty when the defense forced a field goal attempt, instead extending a drive for a touchdown. Things like rookie Xavier Woods misplaying a perfect Chris Jones punt into a touchback by standing on the goal line instead of stopping at the 1-yard line. Things like failing to prepare for a road game, and having their lunch handed to them.
And failing to prepare is indeed preparing to fail.
One only needed to watch today’s game to confirm this.
Other observations from today’s game:
· Benjamin Franklin
After a week of being praised for their efforts against a team that vexed them for two of their three losses in 2016, the Dallas Cowboys had an opportunity to once again take an early stranglehold over the NFC East. They also had an opportunity to conquer one of their houses of horror, in facing the Denver Broncos in Denver, a site that they had been winless in since the 1992 Super Bowl winning season.
With the quarterback of that 1992 team in the broadcast booth, and another former Cowboy great, DeMarcus Ware, serving as an honorary alumnus for the opening coin toss, the Cowboys showed that they have bigger problems to worry about instead of the state of the rest of the NFC East.
In the nationally broadcast late game, no inspiration was drawn from their past greats being in attendance. No divine intervention was in place following a one hour and two-minute lightning delay. The Cowboys came out for today’s game, and promptly laid an egg on national television.
In today’s 42-17 beatdown, the Cowboys were thoroughly embarrassed by the Broncos, and when the Broncos weren’t embarrassing them, the Cowboys embarrassed themselves. The lines for the Cowboys, so strong and in control one week ago, were seemingly on another planet in this game. The Cowboy offensive line was overwhelmed by a slanting, stack front deployed by the Broncos, unable to create the smallest of creases for Ezekiel Elliott in the running game. The defensive line wasn’t much better, getting pushed around by the Broncos to the tune of allowing their first game of 100 yards by an opposing rusher since the finale of the 2015 season. On passing downs, the defensive line, save for continued pass rush production by DeMarcus Lawrence, was unable to disengage from a makeshift Bronco offensive line, and left Trevor Siemien ample time to carve up a depleted Cowboy secondary.
There wasn’t a phase in the game where the Cowboys weren’t humiliated and outplayed. Mental mistakes galore in all three phases, and it began early on in the game.
It appeared that this loss was a failure to be prepared for what they were facing. And, that falls on the coaching staff and team leaders.
The Cowboys weren’t prepared for the Broncos to stack the box with 8-9 players on each down, and unable to take advantage of man coverage against their wide receivers. The Broncos have had the best pass defense in the league for the past two seasons, but this was a team that had Ware retire after the 2016 season, and were missing edge rusher Shane Ray. Yes, they had Von Miller, one of the most explosive rushers in the game, but the remainder of the defensive front did not seem to be an otherworldly challenge for this offensive line.
That feeling was wrong.
As well as the Bronco secondary played, limiting the run after the catch for Cowboy wideouts all game long, it was the Bronco front that gave the Cowboys fits. The interior linemen of the Cowboys, Chaz Green, and All-Pros Travis Frederick and Zack Martin, got little push in the run game, and were largely dominated. The Cowboys were held to 40 yards rushing at 2.9 YPC. Elliott had the worst game of his professional career, having 0 yards rushing late in the third quarter, and finishing with 8 yards on 9 attempts. You would have to go back to Thanksgiving of 2015 to see a worse performance in the run game by this team.
The passing game wasn’t much better. Dak Prescott was off again with his accuracy, but received little help from his receivers. Dez Bryant dropped an easy slant that resulted in a Chris Harris interception. Jason Witten dropped an easy touchdown throw. There was no run after the catch, no explosive plays, seemingly no clue as to how to solve the Bronco defense.
After the game, Bronco coach Vance Joseph indicated that their defensive strategy was to make it impossible to run, and to force the Cowboys to throw. Mission accomplished. Without Elliott playing a large role in the game, it was on Prescott to make the plays necessary to win. He was not up to the task, and this is an area that the Cowboys are going to have to work hard to shore up. It also underscores how important Elliott is to how the Cowboys play on offense.
The Broncos prepared for this game, and asserted their influence early and often. The Bronco offense established the run early, and played on the plus side of the sticks throughout the game. The Cowboys, on the other hand, were faced with long yardage situations series after series, and played right into the hands of the Bronco defensive strength – their secondary. Cowboy receivers had difficulty getting separation, and when they did make catches, they were contested, and didn’t result in long gains. Until Witten’s 28-yard touchdown with the Cowboys down 35-10, the long play for the Cowboys was a 15-yard reception by Bryant.
On offense, the Broncos had the Cowboy defense off balance and confused. They took advantage of injuries in the Cowboy secondary, and poor tackling by the Cowboy defense to sustain long drives. They played on the Cowboy side of the line of scrimmage, and dominated the interior of the Cowboy defense. The secondary, now resembling a M*A*S*H* unit due to all of the injuries, played soft, and were eaten up underneath. By staying ahead of the sticks (Broncos 1st Down Yards Gained Average - 4.2 yards, Cowboys 1st Down Yards Gained – 2.92), the Broncos were able to put the Cowboy defense in uncomfortable positions. With starting corner Nolan Carroll and nickel corner Chidobe Awuzie leaving the game with injuries, it stressed the Cowboy defense even more. Cracks formed with overrun plays, missed tackles and blown assignments.
Even when the Cowboy defense made a big play, with Lawrence’s forced fumble on a sack setting up the first Dallas touchdown, the Broncos continued to punish them. Following a seemingly huge momentum swinging play, the Broncos and Siemien were so rattled that they scored touchdowns on four of their next five possessions, with the only failure coming when they took a knee to end the first half.
Today, the Cowboys looked like a team that had read press clippings all week, and didn’t do the little things necessary to win the game. Things like not getting a leverage penalty when the defense forced a field goal attempt, instead extending a drive for a touchdown. Things like rookie Xavier Woods misplaying a perfect Chris Jones punt into a touchback by standing on the goal line instead of stopping at the 1-yard line. Things like failing to prepare for a road game, and having their lunch handed to them.
And failing to prepare is indeed preparing to fail.
One only needed to watch today’s game to confirm this.
Other observations from today’s game:
- DeMarcus Lawrence continued his strong efforts rushing the passer today, notching two more sacks, and causing a fumble that led to the first Cowboy touchdown. However, his leverage penalty was a crushing blow only made worse by the fact that he did the same exact thing later in the game on an extra point, and got away with it.
- All throughout training camp, we heard how Maliek Collins was unblockable, and causing Zack Martin problems. That guy must still be in Oxnard, because we haven’t seen THAT Maliek Collins so far in the first two games. He was dominated by Ron Leary and Allen Barbre today.
- The Bronco secondary is renowned as being the best, or amongst the best, in the NFL. That being said, it is unsettling to see how much difficulty the Cowboy wideouts had getting separation today. If there is one thing that this offense lacks is an explosive threat that can take the top off of a defense.
- Not sure what the coaching staff was thinking in terms of the roster configuration today, and it came back to bite them. It was known that the secondary was missing Orlando Scandrick, and they had injuries to Byron Jones, as well as two young players coming off of hamstring problems. They chose to activate a sixth wideout (Noah Brown) that only played a handful of plays, and paid for it when Carroll and Awuzie left the game with injuries. I know that Terrance Williams wasn’t 100%, but the loss of the corners put players in bad positions, and guys like Jeff Heath had horrendous games in being asked to do things that they aren’t proficient at.
- Jaylon Smith had 10 tackles today, but was abused in the run game. He didn’t get off of blocks very well, and was taken for a ride by C.J. Anderson on a number of plays. It’s a tribute to him that he’s on the field competing, but today wasn’t a good day for him.
- Jourdan Lewis had a difficult debut game today, but did run into an interception on a poorly thrown Siemien pass. Better days loom ahead for him as he gets more experience.
- All things being equal, La’el Collins had a good game against Von Miller, limiting him to zero tackles until two late coverage sacks. The RT conversion has been a bright spot thus far.
- The coaching staff is going to have to look long and hard at ways to combat teams stacking the box, and slanting hard against the run the way the Broncos were able to. This was a disruptive effort, and the Cowboys didn’t solve it at all today. Without the ability to run, this offense is seriously slowed.
- That being said, Ezekiel Elliott looked like he was running in mud today. His conditioning appears suspect, and his lack of effort following Prescott’s first interception was pitiful.
- Dez Bryant, as good as he is at competing for balls in tight coverage, doesn’t do his quarterbacks many favors in the ways that he runs routes. He ran a number of lazy sideline routes, one of which went back 103 yards for a touchdown.
- The last time the Cowboys lost in Denver was 2009, with Tony Romo throwing consecutive passes to Sam Hurd in the end zone, when guarded by Champ Bailey. The end result that season? Winning the NFC East title, and winning a playoff game. The Cowboys can only hope for the same outcome this time around.
- If the Cowboys play the same type of game against the Cardinals, they will be embarrassed again. The Cardinals have two good edge players in Chandler Jones and Markus Golden, as well as a premiere cornerback in Patrick Peterson. They need to be more focused and prepared next week.
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