Why does Dak play so great against the Eagles yet so bad against the Commanders?

DenCWBY

Well-Known Member
Messages
7,170
Reaction score
5,929
The OP is factually incorrect anyway. Dak has a better record as a starter against Washington than he does against Philly. He's 8-3 against Philly and 9-2 against Washington. That said, I think we need to come to terms with the fact that as a passer Dak is simply behind other QBs who have been raised up in passing systems with better passing coaches than Dan Mullen. Or whoever his high school coach was. Like I keep saying, in high school and college Dak was used a lot like a single wing tailback. He had a lot of games with 20+ carries. Which was great for his teams but did nothing to get him ready to play QB in the NFL. Then he comes to the NFL to be tutored by the greatness that was Jason Garrett... Yeah.. I know.

We have seen that when he is on Dak can throw the ball as well as anybody. He is deadly accurate to all parts of the field and he is one of the best if not the best throwers on the run that I've ever seen. But he can get knocked off kilter at times and it sometimes seems difficult for him to get back "on" when that happens. It's like when a pitcher loses his release point and can't throw a strike to save his life in the middle of the game. In most cases they can't get it back DURING the game and have to be pulled. Dak usually does but what typically happens is that by the time he pulls it back together his receivers have now gone into the tank and Kellen Moore, in his usual oblivious fashion, starts just calling any old plays from all over the play sheet without any rhyme or reason. And we know he isn't going to call a bunch of running plays until Dak can get back on track.. I mean you can't do that can you? I'm sure there's a league rule against it.

I think when Dak gets knocked off track the QB coach or Kellen Moore or Mike McCarthy need to see it and get with him on the sideline and work him out of it. There are key words that help you realign your technique in every sport at every position. So there has to be those for QBs too. Those guys need to whisper those words in Dak's ear on the sidelines between series.. even have him do some simple drills on the sidelines to get himself back aligned. The little hip wiggle drill, footwork drills, whatever it takes. I don't care if it looks silly on TV. Do we want to win the damn game or not?
I relate your "alignment" comments to pro golfers on the 4th day of a tournament holding a slight lead. It only takes one bad shot to take them out of their zone and trying to correct it on the next shot(s) can have devastating effects on the rest of the game since one over-adjustment can throw the other parts of the swing off (or throw in this case) and then in a mental conundrum. Dak is currently mentally struggling for that switch or re-alignment as you call it. He needs a QB guru on the sideline or someone to take him there (asap).
 

RonnieT24

Well-Known Member
Messages
14,405
Reaction score
22,801
Hey RonnieT24,

Here below are Dak support posts from your good self just from this one thread.
What's the going rate at Dak's PR dept to sell sell sell Dak on social media these days
???o_O



The OP is factually incorrect anyway. Dak has a better record as a starter against Washington than he does against Philly. He's 8-3 against Philly and 9-2 against Washington. That said, I think we need to come to terms with the fact that as a passer Dak is simply behind other QBs who have been raised up in passing systems with better passing coaches than Dan Mullen. Or whoever his high school coach was. Like I keep saying, in high school and college Dak was used a lot like a single wing tailback. He had a lot of games with 20+ carries. Which was great for his teams but did nothing to get him ready to play QB in the NFL. Then he comes to the NFL to be tutored by the greatness that was Jason Garrett... Yeah.. I know.

We have seen that when he is on Dak can throw the ball as well as anybody. He is deadly accurate to all parts of the field and he is one of the best if not the best throwers on the run that I've ever seen. But he can get knocked off kilter at times and it sometimes seems difficult for him to get back "on" when that happens. It's like when a pitcher loses his release point and can't throw a strike to save his life in the middle of the game. In most cases they can't get it back DURING the game and have to be pulled. Dak usually does but what typically happens is that by the time he pulls it back together his receivers have now gone into the tank and Kellen Moore, in his usual oblivious fashion, starts just calling any old plays from all over the play sheet without any rhyme or reason. And we know he isn't going to call a bunch of running plays until Dak can get back on track.. I mean you can't do that can you? I'm sure there's a league rule against it.

I think when Dak gets knocked off track the QB coach or Kellen Moore or Mike McCarthy need to see it and get with him on the sideline and work him out of it. There are key words that help you realign your technique in every sport at every position. So there has to be those for QBs too. Those guys need to whisper those words in Dak's ear on the sidelines between series.. even have him do some simple drills on the sidelines to get himself back aligned. The little hip wiggle drill, footwork drills, whatever it takes. I don't care if it looks silly on TV. Do we want to win the damn game or not?

Another post....
I agree.. I don't think he has made it all the way back to where he was before the injury last year. Certainly missing 5 weeks didn't help .. Like I said, he's not as natural with mechanics as some other guys, so he's got to work harder at it. Which you obviously can't do when you're not even allowed to throw the ball. The other issue is the mental shift towards being more aggressive with the ball and "trusting his receivers" this year. He has made far more aggressive and anticipitory throws this year with mixed results. Yes they have led to the offense being ridiculously explosive and efficient at times but obviously the flip side as been the INTs. When you throw in or out breaking routes before the receiver makes his break you're at his mercy. If he gets to the spot where you threw it, it's a great play.. If not it gets picked and everybody's looking at the QB. I would say easily a third of Dak's INTs have been of that variety then another third have been volleyballed.. The last third are just his own brain farts and mis-reads.

If not for the other two groups we could live with 5-6 brain fart INTs over the course of a season. It's when you add the others that it becomes a problem. Obviously there is nothing he can do about the ones the receivers keep knocking up into the air. But he CAN control the anticipation mistakes. Both he and Kellen Moore need to understand who the receivers are. CeeDee Lamb aint winnin a lot of contested balls over the middle. Michael Gallup can win some of those but he cannot reliably get out of his breaks when planting on the damaged knee. And Noah Brown is not getting separation against any decent corner. We don't know what Hilton is yet but I'm not counting on him to win a lot of 50/50 balls either. The play calling and route combos need to take these things into account and quit acting as if all receivers are the same.

Another post.....
Oh I am not absolving Moore.. far from it. Ultimately he's the one calling the plays.. He watches the tape of these plays falling on their face and still keeps calling them. He's there on the sideline after Dak misses a throw or a read and seems altogether disinterested in correcting whatever went wrong. That's why we get all the shots of Dak sitting there on the bench either staring into space or looking at the Pad. Why isn't there a coach over there with him talking through stuff? Just because Dak has been in the league 7 years doesn't mean he no longer needs coaching and adjusting. Hell Usain Bolt had a sprint coach his entire record setting career.. Nuff said..

Another post....The only thing I want from Kellen Moore is to hear he has been hired somewhere else. Even if we win a couple of games in these playoffs I am convinced that it will be because some of the guys just went ham verses he came up with some brilliant game plan. Even if we get to the Super Bowl I will go into the offseason wanting a new OC. UNLESS we get there running the ball 30 times a game and we quit calling all deep routes on 3rd and 5. which will signal that Moore has finally seen the light and I won't have to live with watching his disjointed play calling next year. If he calls three straight games where we don't abandon the run and all the 3rd down passes are not as predictable as the tide.. I might reconsider my offer to help pack his U-Haul truck.

Another post....
It's not one play, one series or even one game that determines if a player is good or bad. It's his body of work that should be examined. Dak's body of work says he's a good quarterback. Nothing more, nothing less. Maybe not great, but more than good enough to accomplish what we as fans want the team to accomplish. I think we will find out next year that without 6 or 7 balls that receivers batted to defenders he will go back to not throwing more than 9-10 INTs per season. I don't believe for a second that 15-20 INTs is going to become the norm for him so I am not inclined to use this flukey *** season to define him. There is no question that he crossed over the line in terms of making more aggressive throws this year.. But I believe he has it within him to dial that back just enough to eliminate at least half of the interceptions that came from them. But as I have stated previously, I don't think it's something he can fix in season. So this Dak is who we got until the Cowboys are eliminated.

And another post....
If you're referring to the Raiders game on Thanksgiving Brown was not wide open and the throw was not "in the dirt." It was low and behind.. A poor throw to be sure.. but no need to exaggerate. That throw was the first indication that his calf was not right to me. That's one of the throws that Dak absolutely excels at. Rolling out, on the move he has an uncanny ability to work is feet and torque his body so that the throw is on the money. His footwork on that throw showed me he did not trust that outside leg. Because to make that throw reliably you have to launch off that outside leg, torque your body pointing the inside foot at the target and then land on the outside foot. Dak basically refused to put any pressure on that outside leg on that throw and as a result it was terrible. He missed a number of throws like that after coming back which is why I never believed him when he said his calf was "fine." Maybe physically it was, but psychologically? Not even close. What we have seen from him throwing on the move this season confirmed that for me. He has gone back to being absolutely lethal outside the pocket.

Most of the head scratchers have come from within the pocket.. and those generally involve bodies in his line of sight or bodies hanging on his arm. Then there are balls that are tipped at the line which people also seem to completely brush aside when discussing his interceptions. There was one against the Packers that replay showed was tipped and then another against Houston. That's why it's so frustrating that people want to go to the "Dak needs to quit throwing interceptions" argument as if all of them or even most of them were just brain dead throws. If you watched the games you saw at least 6 that hit receivers in the hands/chest/face and bounced up. You had two where his arm was hit and two others tipped at the line of scrimmage. That's 10 of the 15 right there which fall squarely on someone other than the QB. If someone wants to go ahead and beat the hell out of him for the other 5 then fine.. but know that you look silly doing so.

LOL...and another...
Not really you specifically.. but obviously a lot of people harp on the "15 interceptions" without any regard to the genesis of them. Easily two thirds of them had little or nothing to do with him.. yet people continually site the number like they don't know that. If they watched the games and still do so then they are either blind idiots or they have an agenda.

Another post....
I don't really think it's even about reads. We have seen plenty of replays where he gets to a third and fourth option. The problem is that if you're getting to the third or fourth option that means a) The defense has properly diagnosed your play and is setup to stop it and b) you're about to get hit by a pass rusher. This line is absolutely not providing good enough protection for Dak to get to the 3rd and 4th read .. When they do, he delivers strikes more often than not. The fun part is that they are actually ranked better at run blocking than they are at pass blocking.. yet our running game has been terrible the last 3-4 weeks. Meaning Dak and the passing game have had to shoulder a lot of the load. The other thing I have noticed about this offense is that a lot of times the 3rd or 4th read is a stationary route. Now that's generally a tight end sitting down in the soft spot of the zone but it seems to me that keeping guys moving makes them more difficult to cover.. But I aint no NFL OC..

One thing I will say is that Dak has repeatedly shown outright hesitance to dump it off to the backs in the flat. He holds the ball waaaay too long before tossing it out there and by the time it gets to the back they have very little room to do anything with it either because the defender is right next to them or they're handcuffed up against the sidelines. He's got to figure out that getting the ball to the backs with room to work is a better option than forcing a contested ball to Noah Brown..

I don't know who this guy is that you're quoting here.. but he has some absolutely brilliant insights..
 

CowboysExchange

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,349
Reaction score
557
Weve had the skins # for 5+ years we just have a problem w playing on grass. Esp against good qbs. The balls just don't bounce in our favor on grass.

Just in rest your starters games against the titans and their practice squad qb

Just cause a person is a good roller skater doesn't mean they can ice skate js

Our record 1-4 says we're no good on grass.

I trust the stats over everything else.
 
Last edited:

CowboysFaninHouston

CowboysFaninDC
Messages
33,987
Reaction score
19,519
Because he’s a 4th round draft pick playing way out of his depth and thus is super erratic.
great guy, good leader , a gamer , competitive , likable , trustworthy all those things describe him well , but you also need to add inconsistent and erratic.
as opposed to Ryan leaf or Baker Mayfield or Turbiskey who were #1, #2 picks in the draft playing at high level...
 

CowboysFaninHouston

CowboysFaninDC
Messages
33,987
Reaction score
19,519
The Eagles weren't playing to win. They would've taken a win if it happened, but you saw how they looked. Dak nearly lost that game, the Texans game, the Colts game, and the Lions game.
You guys see it but won't admit it.
Dak nearly lost the game...77% completion. 350 yards passing. 3 TDs. 40 points....that's how you lose games? wow. let me have this every time. and I know given you fell off the wagon, got drunk and pass out often before actually seeing the end of an NFL game, they are usually 4 quarters. not 3 periods like Hockey. so there was a 4th quarter and we ended up blowing away both teams. you can rewatch the games if you can stay awake
 

Hadenough

Well-Known Member
Messages
11,015
Reaction score
13,486
The Eagles weren't playing to win. They would've taken a win if it happened, but you saw how they looked. Dak nearly lost that game, the Texans game, the Colts game, and the Lions game.
You guys see it but won't admit it.
Yep! Dak comes out throws a ball right to Sweat who returns it for a TD. Do you realize some here will blame the defense for that. Kind of like Daks quick 3 and out in Jags game after Parsons forced a fumble and recovered it with 2 mins left. But they will blame the defense.
 

Hadenough

Well-Known Member
Messages
11,015
Reaction score
13,486
One thing I will say is that Dak has repeatedly shown outright hesitance to dump it off to the backs in the flat. He holds the ball waaaay too long before tossing it out there and by the time it gets to the back they have very little room to do anything with it either because the defender is right next to them or they're handcuffed up against the sidelines. He's got to figure out that getting the ball to the backs with room to work is a better option than forcing a contested ball to Noah Brown
This has been a constant unless it's the designed play. And even then the back is standing there most of the time. You gotta hit these RBs in stride. Dak drops back and tries to play streetball like Mahomes.
 

plasticman

Well-Known Member
Messages
10,497
Reaction score
17,593
We don't have to worry about the playoffs. Zak and the Cowboys only lose to teams with a losing record so......


.......;...oops!
 

pancakeman

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,157
Reaction score
2,848
I just can't believe there are fans who can say with a straight face that Dak didn't play great against the Eagles when he threw for 347 yards, had a 124.4 rating, was named FedEx Air Player of the Week, and the team put up 40 points. Against a team with the best record in the league that had everything to play for.
 

NoLuv4Jerry

Well-Known Member
Messages
7,697
Reaction score
4,906
You can pretty much trace 80% of Dak's performances tied to the play of the Oline. Thats just about any QB.

If the Oline gets dominated the run game doesnt work, its 3rd and long, we become one dimensional, and the QB is under pressure on 3rd and long.

Not rocket science.
This x 1000. Any other reason given is just to fill sports talk radio, morning sports shows, or fan forums like these

There are many levels to fans understanding of the game of football. All of them are needed to make football the king that it is. With that said....it is the JOB of the organization...not the fans.... to know who and what they have in Dak. You paid him the money....but just because you paid him the money...that does not mean it his job alone to win the game. Dak is not that type of QB. Not many are. So if you know this and accept this...you have to put the right pieces around him. He needs consistent oline play. Which provides a consistent running game. Which allows him to throw from a position of comfort (down and distance, time to scan the field). If you do not have this, when you play the better teams and coaches...which is what the playoffs represent...you will lose.

We played the 49ers at home last year in the playoffs and were one and done. Did we REALLY improve the team this offseason? And I don't care about the regular season record and stats. Coming into the season...did we really feel like the team improved?
If we cannot run the football...and with Cee Dee being our only above average receiving threat....it will quickly be ALL ON DAK to rescue this team...and he will not be able to do that for an entire game...let alone a 4 game run in the postseason

Stay tuned....
 

Acceptablename

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,341
Reaction score
1,567
That's what I don't get about Dak. He can play really really well at times. Several instances where he has done that this season and throughout his career. So why does he play so God awful at times? Let's hope we get the good Dak against the Bucs and hopefully in the divisional and beyond.
DAk Is an up-and-down QB can’t read the field many times it’s just a fact
 

CowboyRoy

Well-Known Member
Messages
57,924
Reaction score
38,930
This x 1000. Any other reason given is just to fill sports talk radio, morning sports shows, or fan forums like these

There are many levels to fans understanding of the game of football. All of them are needed to make football the king that it is. With that said....it is the JOB of the organization...not the fans.... to know who and what they have in Dak. You paid him the money....but just because you paid him the money...that does not mean it his job alone to win the game. Dak is not that type of QB. Not many are. So if you know this and accept this...you have to put the right pieces around him. He needs consistent oline play. Which provides a consistent running game. Which allows him to throw from a position of comfort (down and distance, time to scan the field). If you do not have this, when you play the better teams and coaches...which is what the playoffs represent...you will lose.

We played the 49ers at home last year in the playoffs and were one and done. Did we REALLY improve the team this offseason? And I don't care about the regular season record and stats. Coming into the season...did we really feel like the team improved?
If we cannot run the football...and with Cee Dee being our only above average receiving threat....it will quickly be ALL ON DAK to rescue this team...and he will not be able to do that for an entire game...let alone a 4 game run in the postseason

Stay tuned....
Finally a guy that gets it!! Nicely done.
 

kskboys

Well-Known Member
Messages
47,995
Reaction score
50,847
What's really beyond sad is that we can't even have a real discussion about this matter due to the Dak spatters.
 
Top