CFZ What Dak is Doing Is Not Normal

[jaythecowboy]

I'll take the obvious scapegoat.... Kellen Moore.

The Dak haters were saying "watch Moore with Herbert." Well... what now? His mighty Chargers 10 points and 6 points in consecutive weeks. His offense is obviously not complex. Denver, KC, and 49ers figured it out. Some teams seem to really know what they're doing against his offense. And it's showing in LA.... they're somehow MUCH worse this year and their offense is just as much to blame as their defense.

This is the first year of Daks career outside the Garrett coaching tree

 

[Nav22]

Rich Gannon won an MVP at age 37.

John Elway was in his late 30s when he won his 2 Super Bowls.

QB is a position where guys can improve in their 30s.

 

[john van brocklin]

This performance surge is not normal. In fact, I can’t think of another QB that had late career surges like this. I give up trying to project QB play. For me it goes back to Wentz vs Dak. I went back and forth on that 10x before Wentz fell off the cliff.

But Dak was no saint then, and until after this years bye week, I saw the same Dak I always have seen since after his rookie year. Consistently inconsistent, game to game and even qtr to qtr. He COULD be awesome, but also COULD be a tragedy at times.

All this time I have assumed Hurts had the ultimate higher ceiling due to youth, and yet Dak has become randomly…consistent. But he’s also randomly….better. ALOT better. Better than he’s ever played, and that makes 0 sense to me at this stage of his career. I keep waiting for his inconsistency to pop out and say hi and it just hasn’t yet.

I know we’ve played some bad teams in that stretch, but he was great against the eagles and the Seahawks (who admittedly played their best game of the season IMHO).

My complaints against Dak have almost all gone sideways. His pocket presence and footwork has improved ALOT, despite not great pass pro. He keeps his eyes downfield. He is balancing using his legs better than I’ve seen since his rookie year. He even throws the ball away ON PURPOSE when he needs to. He’s throwing with anticipation and letting his instincts control his aen and he seems so relaxed doing it. Maybe my only complaint that still has life is his accuracy isn’t always great on every throw, but he’s throwing some dimes lately.

Am I wrong in this? No one can convince me that he was this good all the time. I’m not looking for a Dak worshipper to tell me it was always like this because I know it wasn’t. Even you apologists have to admit it’s on another level right now. But the Dak critics also have to see it.

The guy is absolutely balling. Let’s pray he had some late career eureka moment and that this sticks, cause if so, I’m not worried about QB for a while. Hopefully MVP Dak is here to stay.

He had a similar surge in great play the first 7 games of 2021.
So this has happened before.
But it is highly unusual.

 

[Zman5]

People need to pay attention to what MM has done with QBs throughout his career.
Favre led the NFL with 29 INTS the year before MM became the HC of the Packers. The following two year, he cut it to 18 and then 15.

Rodgers wasn't the QB we know now from the start. Remember the video of him dropping to late 1st round? Him being in the draft room while other QBs were getting picked ahead of him. MM was the one who developed him.

Rich Gannon says it was MM who unlocked his career when MM was his QB coach in KC.
MM worked with Joe Montana, Elvis Gerback also.

 

[Zman5]

Also this is a video that was put out before the season started and for the most part, the guy got it right on how our new offense will look this season. He also talks about how and why he thinks Dak will succeed in the new offense. He also debunks some of the myths about Dak's "short comings".

 

[Rockport]

He had a similar surge in great play the first 7 games of 2021.
So this has happened before.
But it is highly unusual.

You guys just don’t get it. You need a great QB to have a chance but you need so much more than that to have Super Bowl aspirations.

 

[LovinItAll]

This performance surge is not normal. In fact, I can’t think of another QB that had late career surges like this. I give up trying to project QB play. For me it goes back to Wentz vs Dak. I went back and forth on that 10x before Wentz fell off the cliff.

But Dak was no saint then, and until after this years bye week, I saw the same Dak I always have seen since after his rookie year. Consistently inconsistent, game to game and even qtr to qtr. He COULD be awesome, but also COULD be a tragedy at times.

All this time I have assumed Hurts had the ultimate higher ceiling due to youth, and yet Dak has become randomly…consistent. But he’s also randomly….better. ALOT better. Better than he’s ever played, and that makes 0 sense to me at this stage of his career. I keep waiting for his inconsistency to pop out and say hi and it just hasn’t yet.

I know we’ve played some bad teams in that stretch, but he was great against the eagles and the Seahawks (who admittedly played their best game of the season IMHO).

My complaints against Dak have almost all gone sideways. His pocket presence and footwork has improved ALOT, despite not great pass pro. He keeps his eyes downfield. He is balancing using his legs better than I’ve seen since his rookie year. He even throws the ball away ON PURPOSE when he needs to. He’s throwing with anticipation and letting his instincts control his aen and he seems so relaxed doing it. Maybe my only complaint that still has life is his accuracy isn’t always great on every throw, but he’s throwing some dimes lately.

Am I wrong in this? No one can convince me that he was this good all the time. I’m not looking for a Dak worshipper to tell me it was always like this because I know it wasn’t. Even you apologists have to admit it’s on another level right now. But the Dak critics also have to see it.

The guy is absolutely balling. Let’s pray he had some late career eureka moment and that this sticks, cause if so, I’m not worried about QB for a while. Hopefully MVP Dak is here to stay.

Everybody - you, me, Dak Prescott - has an environment that will bring out our best. Often that has to do with confidence. In his early years, the tandem of Dak and Zeke led the team. It helps when we have a sidekick to take up the slack. As Zeke’s production went down, it became more Dak’s responsibility to lead the team. Who knows what goes on inside someone’s head, but Zeke was still there. Maybe Dak felt like Zeke was still able to help shoulder the load and had yet to have the revelation/confidence that his is a one man job. Idk….pure speculation. Maybe flushing Moore out of the building and his relationship with McCarthy has brought about the level of calmness and confidence we’re seeing now. Not that I ever cared, but we don’t see Dak doing that wonky hip snap during pre-game anymore. Maybe it finally became visceral, or maybe it was never necessary. Again, I don’t know.

I do know that this player was always within him. Going back to what it takes to bring out the best in anybody, whatever it was, he or someone else found it, and I’m not complaining. We’ve seen Dak absolutely ball out before. Many times it was when we had fallen so far behind in a game that I guess he just said *** it, I’m going to cut loose. We mostly came up short in those performances. We’ve seen him ball out from the jump, too, but not with this level of consistency.

I keep harping on this, but it bears mentioning again: only one team has won more games since Dak signed his new deal, and that’s the Chiefs, so he’s been playing top shelf winning ball for almost 3 years, but not elite QB ball for that period of time. Right now, dude is elite. Can he keep it up? Who knows. We know for sure now that he CAN be that guy. Hopefully he’ll continue being that guy.

 

[SackMaster]

If I had to guess why all of a sudden the "light came on" for Dak, and that is that for the first time in his career he isn't playing under Garrett or Garret Jr.

I mean, have we had any "all 4 receivers run to the sticks and turn around" plays this year? I mean, that was a staple in the Cowboys offense since Romo was playing, yet I can't recall a single play like that this year. We use stop routes still, but not with everyone doing it on the same play.

So while the complaint were that Dak "wasn't a real NFL QB", maybe, just MAYBE, that because he never ran a real NFL offense.

I'm sure this is an oversimplification, and I really did not like Garrett or KM (once he showed he was VERY Garrett-like), but it's just a theory ... A football theory.

 

[GimmeTheBall!]

We are playing bottom feeder teams. I would hope he would light them up. He’s been playing great but I just hope he can remain competent under brighter lights. I’m not saying he should light them up but he needs to be zeroed in next week, in Buffalo, and in Miami.

At the start of the season I would have shuddered at the thought of playing Buffalo. Midseason I shuddered to think about The Dolls. No more. The Cowboy chaps are playing at an elevated level and can trounce either. Micah and the Boys will destroy Tua.

 

[CATCH17]

If I had to guess why all of a sudden the "light came on" for Dak, and that is that for the first time in his career he isn't playing under Garrett or Garret Jr.

I mean, have we had any "all 4 receivers run to the sticks and turn around" plays this year? I mean, that was a staple in the Cowboys offense since Romo was playing, yet I can't recall a single play like that this year. We use stop routes still, but not with everyone doing it on the same play.

So while the complaint were that Dak "wasn't a real NFL QB", maybe, just MAYBE, that because he never ran a real NFL offense.

I'm sure this is an oversimplification, and I really did not like Garrett or KM (once he showed he was VERY Garrett-like), but it's just a theory ... A football theory.

My complaint was he was completely mediocre and we have to pay him like he’s elite while having to build a team that has to carry him somehow.

Dak is finally doing some of the carrying.

 

[jay94]

The passing oline seems well above average with the exception of Steele, that definitely helps.

 

[Kwyn]

Players get hot. Dak is currently on fire. We just have to hope it coutinues for the rest of the year.

 

[StarLord]

Just hoping this becomes the norm in the playoffs.. we'll see! *fingers crossed*

 

[Zman5]

ANd he's doing all this with a below average run game.

 

[Nav22]

My complaint was he was completely mediocre and we have to pay him like he’s elite while having to build a team that has to carry him somehow.

Dak is finally doing some of the carrying.

Who carried the offense last year? Or the year before?

Who gets the most credit for our offense that keeps scoring at an elite level, despite multiple OC changes?

The common denominator is literally Dak Prescott.

It's hilarious how you either still can't see the obvious, or you're just not man enough to admit it.

"Completely mediocre" last year while the offense scored over 30 PPG with Dak LOLLLL!

 

[CATCH17]

Who carried the offense last year? Or the year before?

Who gets the most credit for our offense that keeps scoring at an elite level, despite multiple OC changes?

The common denominator is literally Dak Prescott.

It's hilarious how you either still can't see the obvious, or you're just not man enough to admit it.

"Completely mediocre" last year while the offense scored over 30 PPG with Dak LOLLLL!

Listen, you really have to have an untrained eye to say the things you’re saying.

If you can’t see the difference that’s on you at this point.

 

[DanA]

Dak’s improvement IMO is a combination of being healthy and in a system more suited to his attributes. I don’t think there’s been some massive leap in ability.

 

[Nav22]

Listen, you really have to have an untrained eye to say the things you’re saying.

If you can’t see the difference that’s on you at this point.

Dak's currently on a major roll, yes. Maybe his best ever.

But you still don't understand that Dak's always been at least a "very good QB", and now he's playing like a "great QB."

You were always wrong about him. Period. Look around the NFL and tell me how many QBs can put up the high PPG as consistently as Dak.

That's not "mediocre." Mediocre QBs don't have Dak's career win percentage and stats, and their offenses aren't consistently as highly ranked as the Cowboys offense has been.

He's always been good. You can say he wasn't elite, you can complain about him losing to the very best team in football with zero run game in the playoffs (SF, twice)... but you're blind if you still think he was "mediocre."

 

[nyc-cowboy]

Denver owns the Cowboys. The 2013 Romo 5 TD 500 yard game aside...... Denver whips Dallas up and down the block with every QB, coach, or coordinator.

And last I remember, that 2013 game was a loss, altho as honorable a loss as it gets.

Point was they were never really the same after that - and we know what happened in the playoffs in Dallas

 

[plasticman]

Dak’s improvement IMO is a combination of being healthy and in a system more suited to his attributes. I don’t think there’s been some massive leap in ability.

I would also include the health of the offensive line. When was the last time the intended starters were all healthy at this point in the season? Tyron Smith being the old Tyron Smith is allows much better protection. There is also Tyler's improvement to an almost elite level.

I would also add in the improved group of receivers with Cooks and Ferguson both playing a significant roll

Quite often the offense has been gifted with defensive scoring. This took pressure off the offense. Typically, when an offense retakes the field the opponent's scoring has either increased or remains the same. They rarely go back out to an increase to their own score.

In other words, DaRon Bland being the Cowboys 3rd leading score allows the offense to play with more leads.

However, I do think you listed the two most significant reasons.