We're not dinking and dunking

[Manwiththeplan]

I see a lot of comments online about how the Cowboys offense isn't throwing the ball downfield, suggesting that it's a dink and dunk offense, and it's nonsense.

What's true: We're not throwing a ton of deep balls, so don't have as many 40+ and 20+ yard passing plays as the top half of the league.

What's true: Dak's 7.7 YPA is in the top 10 in the league amongst passers with 50+ attempts, and one long pass would push him top 5, as most of the guys in the top 10 are between 7.7-8.0.

What I think a lot of people are failing to understand is that the Cowboys running game is working so well, their 3rd down distance is the lowest in the league. When you're constantly facing 3rd and 2 and 3rd and 3, you throw a lot of intermediate passes to move the chains.

If the Cowboys can run the ball and be successful passing between 11-20 yards, move the chains, control the clock, and score TDs in the red zone then that's much better for the team than chucking 50+ yard bombs in the hopes that you get big plays.

Yea, I'm disappointed with the lack of down field throws, but that doesn't mean we only dink and dunk.

 

[percyhoward]

We're a dink and dunk team led by a dink and dunk quarterback...

We are absolutely dinking and dunking....

Prescott throws fewer short passes than most of the league's top 10 rated passers.

Throws less than 10 yards
(as a percentage of total attempts)
Rthlsbrgr 63.5%
Carr 65.4%
Ryan 66.4%
Wilson 68.4%
Prescott 68.7%
Rivers 70.4%
Bradford 70.5%
Garoppolo 72.9%
Wentz 73.5%
Siemian 75.2%
Hoyer 81.4%

 

[Doomsay]

Prescott throws fewer short passes than most of the league's top 10 rated passers.

Throws less than 10 yards
(as a percentage of total attempts)
Rthlsbrgr 63.5%
Carr 65.4%
Prescott 65.7%
Ryan 66.4%
Wilson 68.4%
Rivers 70.4%
Bradford 70.5%
Wentz 73.5%
Siemian 75.2%
Hoyer 81.4%

Interesting - it begs the question, how does he stack up on intermediate % throws?

 

[Super_Kazuya]

Prescott throws fewer short passes than most of the league's top 10 rated passers.

Throws less than 10 yards
(as a percentage of total attempts)
Rthlsbrgr 63.5%
Carr 65.4%
Prescott 65.7%
Ryan 66.4%
Wilson 68.4%
Rivers 70.4%
Bradford 70.5%
Wentz 73.5%
Siemian 75.2%
Hoyer 81.4%

Not surprising, since QB rating rewards dink and dunk. Anyway, NFL.com doesn't have a formal definition of what dinking and dunking is, so debating where to draw the line seems fruitless to me. All I know is wherever the line is, we're on the dink and dunk side right now, IMO. We never go deep, Dez is averaging less than 4 catches a game and our QB won't throw to anyone who isn't wide open.

 

[Fletch]

Neither was Aikman.

Yep. I'm okay with that. Deep balls are for pornos. They don't necessarily win championships. •Mic drop•

 

[Toruk_Makto]

But that is why he has not thrown any interceptions either. You can't have both all of the time. At some point he will have to do that to get a win, probably in the next few games, and maybe you will see an int because of it but that is the NFL. Right now he is playing low risk football and with our Oline and running game that is working well.

Believe it or not but the appropriate amount of INTs is not zero. Said another way the appropriate level of risk taking on offense is not zero.

 

[Clove]

Of course I did. I'm not saying he doesn't "know how" to throw a deep ball, let's be realistic here.

I'm saying some QB's are better at throwing deep than others, and so far 1/8 is both low attempts and low connection rate. It's not all on him though, and I'm not overly concerned. Just saying, he has missed several deep reads, and also had some accuracy issues on deep ball in the regular season. Preseason be damned.

The deep ball must be keeping you up at night then.

 

[Kevinicus]

We are absolutely dinking and dunking, the problem is the perception that dinking and dunking is somehow a bad strategy when you're winning.

The idea that efficiency is somehow is bad thing is silly, and we just proved last week that we're capable of coming back when we're down a couple of scores - which is the main worry when you have an offense that doesn't get a ton of chunk yardage.

D&D can absolutely be effective in the right circumstances. The Patriots thrive off of it. But like others have said, if it is all you can do, then you'll run into some problems.

The problem with what was proved last week was that it only proved it for teams with poor offenses. It's unlikely this team is going to hold good teams, and good offenses to 3 points the remainder of the way after giving up an early 14 points. In those cases it's going to take 30+ points to win.

 

[DenCWBY]

What bothers me the most is when it third and 12 and we throw a 4 yard pass. Dak get it down the field!!!

It drives me crazy too however better than to risk a pic esp. the way Jones is punting the ball. If our D was any good, we'd be in great shape.

 

[Kevinicus]

Believe it or not but the appropriate amount of INTs is not zero. Said another way the appropriate level of risk taking on offense is not zero.

Well, zero would ideal if you could do that while still taking risks. Not very realistic though.

Alex Smith is very INT adverse. He's typically very safe. This works pretty well when the defense is very ogood or against mediocre competition, but is limited at the top end. This is kind of where we are now. An Alex Smith type offense. Thankfully, we have the advantage of a dominating OL and running game since we don't have anything close to a very good defense.

 

[fortdick]

Dak is doing well, but it is a team effort that is winning game. Beasley, Butler and even TWill getting open under neath allowing him to keep drives going. The problem with relying on 10 play drives is : it doesn't take but one or two bad plays to stop them. We haven't really been in a lot of situations where we needed a 40 yard completion to change or win a game.

The team is winning, and Dak is contributing.

 

[T-RO]

In fairness to Dak...we don't exactly have a lot of guys that are downfield threats.

Back in the day Witten could get deep...and would catch some deep balls. Trust me, I was around to see it with other events from the Stone Age.

Beasley is quick not fast. We don't have any true burners.

Dez is a deep threat only in the sense that though he can't outrun anyone...he can outmuscle and out jump. But Dez has dropped Dak's deeper balls.

 

[Bleu Star]

I see a lot of comments online about how the Cowboys offense isn't throwing the ball downfield, suggesting that it's a dink and dunk offense, and it's nonsense.

What's true: We're not throwing a ton of deep balls, so don't have as many 40+ and 20+ yard passing plays as the top half of the league.

What's true: Dak's 7.7 YPA is in the top 10 in the league amongst passers with 50+ attempts, and one long pass would push him top 5, as most of the guys in the top 10 are between 7.7-8.0.

What I think a lot of people are failing to understand is that the Cowboys running game is working so well, their 3rd down distance is the lowest in the league. When you're constantly facing 3rd and 2 and 3rd and 3, you throw a lot of intermediate passes to move the chains.

If the Cowboys can run the ball and be successful passing between 11-20 yards, move the chains, control the clock, and score TDs in the red zone then that's much better for the team than chucking 50+ yard bombs in the hopes that you get big plays.

Stellar post. Yeah. Eat that clock baby!

That has always been the key to success. In the DeMarco days it was no different. Then we got cute with the whole RBBC crap. Now we are back to nirvana.

 

[Zman5]

We are not dinking and dunking. We are Zekeing and Daking.

 

[slick325]

Some play action passes will open up the offense to some big plays down field. Keep running the ball well and it will happen soon enough. That applies to whichever QB is under center.

 

[DandyDon52]

Just WIN !! I dont care about the how's.

 

[TheHerd]

I never understood the aversion to dink and dunk. We all understand Tom Brady is the master of dink and dunk, right? He thros more passes under 10 yards inthe air than anyone. The key is to find the open guy, complete most of those safe passes, and to lead the receiver into daylight to set up yac.

 

[NextGenBoys]

The deep ball must be keeping you up at night then.

Hardly. Can't tell if mocking or not lol.

 

[NextGenBoys]

I never understood the aversion to dink and dunk. We all understand Tom Brady is the master of dink and dunk, right? He thros more passes under 10 yards inthe air than anyone. The key is to find the open guy, complete most of those safe passes, and to lead the receiver into daylight to set up yac.

Dink and dunk gets the ball out quicker, resulting in less QB hits.

 

[Doomsday101]

I never understood the aversion to dink and dunk. We all understand Tom Brady is the master of dink and dunk, right? He thros more passes under 10 yards inthe air than anyone. The key is to find the open guy, complete most of those safe passes, and to lead the receiver into daylight to set up yac.

I agree, you don't need to be the Mad Bomber to win. Most passes are short to intermediate passes. I have seen enough of Dak in pre season and college to know he can throw the deep ball with no problem. Right now he is hitting the open man, he is moving his team and over the last 3 games we have been putting it in the endzone. I think there is a bunch of moaning going on about this deep. People are saying teams will take that away? well they have not taken it yet and as teams adjust to take it away then great those deep ball opportunities will present themselves