When Dez is one on one and deep

[John813]

Excellent points. Not to mention that winning games and having a lead late, actually works to decrease a QB’s passing yards. 1. Because the team is running more. 2. When a team is down by a lot of points, they spend the whole 4th quarter throwing the ball.

How many times have we seen a QB get 70 yards in garbage time when the opposing defense is just playing prevent defense and letting them drive the field slowly to kill time?

That's Blake Bortles to a T lol. At least until Fournette showed up.

But yea, we invested high draft picks and money in establishing a dominate run game. Offensive line and the RB position have been spots where we paid a premium in order to not only control TOP but also wear down the defense. It helps our defense and the passing game at times where the defense sells out for the run and Dak is able to have his receivers in favorable matchups(more in 16 but besides the point).


Think with Dez, IMO, Prescott just found guys like Beasley and Witten in the short passing game as safer but still productive options. We saw towards the end of last year Dak felt more comfortable going to Dez and connecting. However, we are a team that didn't want to pass the ball more than we had to in 2016. Even in 2014, Romo didn't go over 4k yards, as the team wanted to pound the ball with Murray, but had one of his best years overall. High TD number and a low INT number. Except then he was on point with Dez and they had that chemistry of knowing where to throw the ball/when to go for it in the air.

 

[BobSacamano]

yes 3500 yards passing for a season isn’t an exceptional number. But this is a run first offense after all. And it will remain a run first offense with or without Zeke.

The point of my post is, that the passing offense isn’t really “struggling” this season. The passing offense has been overal very efficient so far. But this offense is not designed to put up 350 yards a game. That is never the teams game plan.

Dak still has things he has to improve on, as any 2nd year QB does. But the other poster trying to lay the “WR’s struggles” solely at Dak’s feet is asinine.

Dak is not a gunslinger high risk/ high reward QB. That is not his playing style and I am perfectly fine with that. The guy is a field general IMO.

You also have to take into account our run/pass balance (we're 5th) and compare it to the other QBs in the top 5.

Then you also have to look at pass distribution. But that's way too much work for me lol

 

[Zekeats]

Its not about having the upper hand one on one. Its about the definition of the word "open" and what it means in NFL terms. Open refers to actually "being open".

And if your just another angry homer that cant have a conversation without insulting others, then get lost.

Omg. It's a figure of speech. He's open when he's covered.

It gets dark early out there.

Thanks for the definition of open though.

 

[khiladi]

He very often runs himself out of bounds giving the QB no option.

He will literally be out of bounds before the ball arrives on many snaps.

Why don't these problems happen with other receivers? Dak gets the ball to Witten in tight coverage.

1. No, he gets the ball to Witten who has a knack of getting open on the zone.

2. It does happen with other WRs.. and Dak struggled with the go route last year to BOTH Dez and TWill..

2. Are you saying Dak pays attention to the feet of Dez when he’s throwing him the ball, giving Dak no choice but to make it uncatcheae? How perceptive is eyesight must be to see where exactly his feet are and surveying the whole fiejd while paying attention to Dez’s feet..

 

[khiladi]

Romo’s Last full season, Dez and TWIll were two of the three top WRs in go routes, while being bottom four in passes attempted.

Dak’s first year here for both Dez was at 38 percent and TWill was at 27 percent go routes.

The fault is in Dak deep no matter how you try and spin it.

And Dez is great on curls and ins and slants. He isn’t the one calling the plays to run go routes at such a high pace with the QB.



https://www.___GET_REAL_URL___/s/ww...-cowboys-wide-receivers-production-route/amp/

 

[xwalker]

1. No, he gets the ball to Witten who has a knack of getting open on the zone.

2. It does happen with other WRs.. and Dak struggled with the go route last year to BOTH Dez and TWill..

2. Are you saying Dak pays attention to the feet of Dez when he’s throwing him the ball, giving Dak no choice but to make it uncatcheae? How perceptive is eyesight must be to see where exactly his feet are and surveying the whole fiejd while paying attention to Dez’s feet..

He has thrown to Wiiten often when the coverage it tight.

Dak is 8 of 11 to Butler on go routes. That's a 72% catch rate. The overall catch rate for Dez this year is about 43%.

Dez is obviously out of bounds by the time Dak is ready to throw. Nobody needs to look at his feet.

 

[HungryLion]

Romo’s Last full season, Dez and TWIll were two of the three top WRs in go routes, while being bottom four in passes attempted.

Dak’s first year here for both Dez was at 38 percent and TWill was at 27 percent go routes.

The fault is in Dak deep no matter how you try and spin it.

And Dez is great on curls and ins and slants. He isn’t the one calling the plays to run go routes at such a high pace with the QB.



https://www.___GET_REAL_URL___/s/ww...-cowboys-wide-receivers-production-route/amp/

Dak does need to improve his deep
Ball.

He has shown the ability to throw deep, as he was hitting them regularly the second half of last season. Just needs to be more consistent.

That being said the WR’s are also not consistently getting much separation deep either. It’s a two way street.

I think Butler does the best deep because he is our best deep threat. Go routes aren’t really Dez and Williams thing.

I have noticed less back shoulder throws this season. It’s curious because Dak was throwing those passes well last year. So I’m not sure why Dak isn’t throwing them as often this year. If that’s by offensive gameplay or he just isn’t pulling the trigger.

 

[ajk23az]

I've always wondered why we don't throw deep to Dez more as well. Most of the time, the defense has a safety over the top but there has to be one or two times that he has a guy 1 on 1. I'm all for giving Dez those chances, chances of a catch or PI are pretty good.

 

[percyhoward]

Why do our QBs never give him a chance on the ball? All I ever here about is Dezs great ball skills to go along with his jumping ability and all the time the ball is thrown 5 yards out of bounds.

Dez's struggles on 15+yard targets go back over 3 1/2 seasons, and include two different quarterbacks.

"Others" refers to all other Dallas receivers who were targeted at that distance.
"Other WR" includes only the other wide receivers' targets.

(Skipping 2015 for obvious reasons)

2016-17
Bryant 18 of 50 (36.0%)
others 34 of 58 (58.6%)
other WR 26 of 45 (57.8%)

2013-14
Bryant 29 of 78 (37.2%)
others 55 of 103 (53.4%)
other WR 32 of 66 (48.5%)

 

[jblaze2004]

I rather get the ball to Dez on a slant. When Dez run deep he tends to run toward the sideline. Being a QB You want him to hold his route straight up the field to give you some space to work with. But didn't people hate when Romo just threw it up. Heck look at Eli manning. He is the classic just throw it up QB. Look at all the interceptions he throw. Yes I know he won the superbowl a couple times but he had defense that was good and could get the ball back. Romo and Dak does not have the luxury. We lose the turn over battle we lose must of the time. I think we need a speed wr. Dez is not as fast or explosive as he use to be. Dak has over throw dez a couple times.

Dak may have a deep ball accuracy problem or maybe he just don't want to risk it. IDK. But Dak has played well enough for us to be 6-1 this year. His only bad game was really vs the broncos.

 

[jblaze2004]

I've always wondered why we don't throw deep to Dez more as well. Most of the time, the defense has a safety over the top but there has to be one or two times that he has a guy 1 on 1. I'm all for giving Dez those chances, chances of a catch or PI are pretty good.

you haven't watched much cowboys games. We would rarely get the PI call. Its normally the other way around. Dez is always get held or interfered with down the field yet gets no calls.

 

[DenCWBY]

Right. Prescott's greatest strength is also a hindrance. He avoids mistakes at the cost of making plays. He's not looking to throw the ball into tight coverage and Dez has trouble separating. So do the math.

Dang Risen, Who in the hell opened your cage? All was quiet and now here we go again.

 

[khiladi]

He has thrown to Wiiten often when the coverage it tight.

Dak is 8 of 11 to Butler on go routes. That's a 72% catch rate. The overall catch rate for Dez this year is about 43%.

Dez is obviously out of bounds by the time Dak is ready to throw. Nobody needs to look at his feet.

Two of the passes you consider go routes were a total of 12 yards and one of them was a TD meaning, in the red zone.

And the play action pass to Butler against Arizona which netted him the big yardage was a drag route.

I highly doubt that they were 8 go routes.

 

[Cowboysfan917]

My dad sent me this YouTube video the other day of every Romo to TO TD as a stroll down memory lane and I finished the video with 2 conclusions:

Romo > Dak
TO > Dez

 

[HungryLion]

My dad sent me this YouTube video the other day of every Romo to TO TD as a stroll down memory lane and I finished the video with 2 conclusions:

Romo > Dak
TO > Dez

Romo was better than Dak currently is. But Dak is also still young. I feel like he is a victim of his own success last year sometimes because people tend to forget he is only a 2nd year QB. He still has a lot of development to do.

 

[panchucko]

Dak gets the ball to Witten when he is tightly covered...

Yup usually for 4-6 yards. He doesn’t do it down field

 

[vaturkey]

Dak doesn't like to throw deep balls unless his receiver is wide open. Seems like more then half the time he will either throw it just out of bounds or just out of reach. I think its more mental then physical.

 

[Beast_from_East]

Dez's struggles on 15+yard targets go back over 3 1/2 seasons, and include two different quarterbacks.

"Others" refers to all other Dallas receivers who were targeted at that distance.
"Other WR" includes only the other wide receivers' targets.

(Skipping 2015 for obvious reasons)

2016-17
Bryant 18 of 50 (36.0%)
others 34 of 58 (58.6%)
other WR 26 of 45 (57.8%)

2013-14
Bryant 29 of 78 (37.2%)
others 55 of 103 (53.4%)
other WR 32 of 66 (48.5%)

Numbers don't lie, for some reason Dez only catches about a third of his targets beyond 15 yards.

Now we can debate why all night long, but to pretend the problem doesn't exist is ridiculous. And this includes both QBs, Romo and Dak and the percentages is almost the same 36% vs 37.2%

So the posters saying Dak is just being more careful with the ball, the stats don't support that. Dez is catching almost the same percentage of passes beyond 15 yards under Dak as he did under Romo. There is something else going on, but the one thing we know for a fact is that roughly every 2 out of 3 passes thrown to Dez past 15 yards are incomplete.

 

[WillieBeamen]

Numbers don't lie, for some reason Dez only catches about a third of his targets beyond 15 yards.

Now we can debate why all night long, but to pretend the problem doesn't exist is ridiculous. And this includes both QBs, Romo and Dak and the percentages is almost the same 36% vs 37.2%

So the posters saying Dak is just being more careful with the ball, the stats don't support that. Dez is catching almost the same percentage of passes beyond 15 yards under Dak as he did under Romo. There is something else going on, but the one thing we know for a fact is that roughly every 2 out of 3 passes thrown to Dez past 15 yards are incomplete.

I’m pretty sure it has to do with Dez getting more attention/facing #1 CBs.

Even in seasons when he was All-Pro, he had the same issue.

 

[black label]

Every single WR on this team is having a down year. The cheerleaders don't want to acknowledge as to why that is. The answer is obvious if inconvenient.