This is such a tough game to assess. Were mistakes made? Yes. But scrutinize any team in any game the way you scrutinize the Cowboys and you will find mistakes made.
My questions are, what happened to the offense after the 1st two drives? I saw Miami blitz more and get more pressure on Dak, but why didn't they take advantage of those blitzes at some point? Somebody had to get open somewhere when 2 guys are taken out of coverage to rush the QB.
Why did Dak stop throwing to CeeDee after the 1st quarter? Did Miami do something different? Was Dak under too much duress to find him?
I can't really fault the defense for holding Miami to 5 FGs and 1 TD. On the road that was a pretty good performance against the top offense in the league playing at home. But at the same time at the end of the game when they knew Miami was going to run to kill the clock, they could not stop the run. Of course if the refs call some of the holding Miami was doing, that drive ends quicker and maybe with less success. We will never know. Still. The Cowboys gave up points late in the half and late in the game. Would like to see that stop. This defense still lives and dies on turnovers. Again, they had none.
There is definitely something wrong with this offense on the road. I think they need to run the ball more. This was a close game and the Cowboys handed it off to the RBs only 14 times. Sure they run those reverse and sweeps to WRs but that is more trickery than a running game. I find it hard to believe other teams are loading the box against Dallas. So why are they so frugal with hand offs? There are two schools of thought when playing high scoring teams. 1 is to get into a shootout and hope to keep up with them. The other is to slow the game down, run the ball, and play keep-away. I have no idea what the Cowboys strategy was, but I think they did not run the ball enough. The run the ball poorly because they can't get into a rhythm.
I have been calling for Luepke to get more carries all season. What happened yesterday was inexcusable. But maybe if they had been handing it off to Luepke all season this fumble would not have happened at such an inopportune time. I think Luepke was so shocked he was getting the ball he forget to get the ball! I just hope they continue to feed him in short yardage situations because I think he can be effective. Only he knows why he lost that handoff. But I don't think that will be a long term problem.
The Cowboys were missing 3 key starters on defense yesterday. Diggs, LVE and Hankins. They have managed to get along without Diggs, although they could use his INTs every now and then. LVE is not much of an upgrade over Clark, but I think he is an upgrade. The Big loss was Hankins, especially late in the game when they were running the ball up the middle. Hankins knows how to occupy blockers and keep them off the LBs and safeties. Maybe he would have forced the Dolphins into throwing the ball for a first down. Maybe that stops the clock. Of course every team has injuries. The Dolphins had backups in the game on their OL - although those backups were holding a lot and not getting called.
The Cowboys were also missing Tyron Smith and it really hurt them. Tyron does not make the mental mistakes Edoga made yesterday. Letting Chubb come free unblocked multiple times was a huge fail. I think we all know Tyron does not let that happen. I have no idea what Edoga was thinking.
