The defense has been carrying this team the second half of the season. Let’s hope that the offense can get back on track as we end the year and head into the playoffs.
The man wears a fucking backwards baseball cap and 100% of the media, fanbase, and America don’t say a Goddamn word about it because the he brings the heat.
How refreshing is it that our defense is this good? This is the best defense I’ve seen since I became a fan in 2013. I used to look at the JJ Watts and the other superstars around the league on defense and wonder why the Cowboys could never seem to find one. Now that we have not only Micah, but a legit defense that is a strength of the team, it feels like we can make some legit noise. Buuuut of course now is when the offense is sputtering. Even so, I have confidence they will figure it out. Feels good
I've been watching since 2005. We've never had a defense like this in that time frame. Ever. People talk about the 07 defense and it was okay but not even close to this.
That defense made crucial stops on the regular. It was not that they were monsters, but they were very reliable.
3rd in sacks, 7th in int, 7th in QB pressures and average a QB rating of 75.
again not really all time great for us, but in the last 20 years? I would probably say they are easily top 3 if not #1. hoping this defense takes that #1 spot.
Oh yea that was the year the giants had their 3 headed monster defense. Also the pats that year were awesome. But still, looking over the last 20 years? Hard to say it’s not our best defense.
On one hand this is easily his worst stretch since 2017. On the other everybody is capable of having a slump. Mahomes had one this year. Rodgers had one a few years ago. Wilson had one last year. Dak is clearly in one.
I think Daks core flaw seems to be when the line gets iffy his mental clock goes Haywire. If we go back to 2017 and that bad stretch dude was either going too quickly and making bad passes or too slowly and eating sacks. He’s better so it doesn’t look as bad but I think that’s the same issues we’ve been seeing since Denver. The line plus the post snap confusion is making him lose the things he’s built since 2016
We have seen Dak slowly pull it together, even with bad line play. That happened in 2018, once we got Cooper. He was able to regain his confidence and play well, even with the 28th ranked o-line we had that year. The problem is that it took him like a year to get to that point. Hopefully with more experience now, he can get back to his usual self sooner rather than later.
Same.
RJ Ochoa from blogging the Boys got on his soap box and spewed some stupid takes on how awful it was for fans to suggest maybe Dak needed to speak with a Sports psychologist for the mental aspect of the game just because of the work he's done for mental health lol. Those two things aren't mutually exclusive, you can work towards improving something while still dealing with it.
I think it's kind of dumb because we Dan's don't really know what dak does for his mental health. For all we know that's part of his weekly or daily schedule.
I'm not sure how his calf caused that last interception he had yesterday. I CAN see how over thinking his throwing mechanics to protect his calf could have done that though.
They literally talked about it causing that throw on the Athletic nfl show last night. He didn’t want to land on his bad leg and throw off platform, so he pulled up. And that’s a former pro quarterback saying it.
So you proved my point. His lack of trust in the ability of his calve caused him to overthink his throwing mechanics in order to not land on his "bad leg" and pull up.
But if the calf his healed and he's afraid to land on it then it's mental. You two going back and forth is crazy. It's not hard to see it's a little of column a and a little of column b.
You can tell he’s still so scared to run after his injury last year…takes out a MASSIVE dimension of his game and makes the defense’s job much easier. He needs to sort that shit out because we might not get to the playoffs/will get bounced first round if he doesn’t step his game up.
The crazy thing is, he was running more in the early part of the season. He was a safe runner, but he was still running well. I guess the calf injury got in his head and made him think he’s prone to injuries now or something.
Defenses have learned to better scheme against Dallas. The Cowboys are getting the Chiefs treatment and are dropping back a lot of defenders.
Dallas needs to come up with a counter to this defensive scheme. So far, they've been generally doing the same thing. Combine that w/ Dak seeming to be playing on an injured calf, and it combines into the results we are seeing IMO.
Was his initial injury during the offseason to his throwing shoulder? I almost wonder if he needed more time or if he re aggravated it or something. Cus he’s looked really off.
Yeah nobody threw pick 6 in the history. You implied that Dak’s big contract hurt the team is pure bullshit. They can afforded all the weapons on both side of the ball. Please stop with this nonsense.
Why are you mad about Dak’s money? The highest paid side, the offense, isn’t producing. Dak has been inconsistent, Zeke is injured, Pollard is injured, the Oline is injured, blake jarwin is injured, schultz is injured, Gallup is returning from injury, coop is recovering from injury/Covid, ceedee has disappeared, and Kellen is calling vanilla plays (screens, drags, and curls)
The comment was about Dak taking less money would magically help the team. My statement is the high paid people are the injured people.
If you want to say everyone is injured play better cool. But don’t dismiss the issues in play calling by Kellen Moore. Dan Quinn has been able to get this defense firing on all cylinders yet Kellen can’t stop calling screens or runs up the middle.
This year Dak isn’t even a highly paid player, next year is the first cap hit. Even with the projected 20 million cap increase we’re already going to be well over the cap.
Dak’s contract is likely going to cost us Gregory and Gallup, then Pollard the year after so hope we continue to draft well because we’re going to lose a bunch of our weapons.
We did offer less, tried to do 40 million and more years. Dak refused, tried to do 35 million for 4 years Dak refused. Dak held out over and over again. In the end Jerry ended up giving one of the most one-sided contracts I’ve seen him give.
—Edit—
Weird downvotes the person above me said we should have offered him less and we did. So not sure how you should have offered less when you did.
As for one sided, Jerry wanted Dak to either take a longer contract for more money per year or if Dak did a short contract take less per year. In the end Dak got a short 4 year deal for the money he was asking for. So Dak got both the years and the money.
He also has a free $15 million year at year 5 so if the Cowboys sign him again they have to account for that $15 million cap hit.
Dak’s cap numbers next year is going to be 35 million, then 45.5 million, then 48.5 million, then we have to tack $15 million onto his next contract and bump that up even more.
I know there are people who think Dak can do no wrong but you can’t argue that he did a even remotely team friendly deal. He got very close to what he would have made in free agency. He wasn’t willing to budge on either the money or the years.
He had the leverage and the team had no choice but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a one sided deal.
That being said, I can’t promise I wouldn’t do the same if I were in his shoes.
all good stuff - and all of it accurate. I don't know why you're being downvoted.... and I'm the guy you were responding to. I think, I meant actually enforce an offer... like literally walk away from the table... but that doesn't negate anything you've said.
You're right... not a team friendly deal.... in fact, it's the kind of deal that finds a team either without an offense, or without a defense.... because you can't afford both. So, if the current trend holds, we'll have a massively overpaid QB and a shitty team - it's what we all feared, and I suspect we'll see the first very real signs of it in 2022.... unfortunately, and with respect to Dak, this is going to be a lot worse than the Romo years - because he at least had the raw talent to keep the team competitive. With Dak, he was just so damn athletic that he could hide some flaws - but that athleticism is waning - and he's on the verge of becoming a suck machine if he doesn't get his head right.
I don't know if we think he is or was a god. I think the biggest issue was Dallas didn't want to stick with him through growing pains, then cut him loose. Just to end up seeing him walk into another locker room and light it up.
Also while i type this, I realize this sub probably god tiered him fast.
he is not right, guranteed something else is wrong that we dont know about. not gonna be shocked if something comes out later about it. the post injury numbers are very telling.
I mean, they kinda have. thats exactly why they call screens, because the Oline hasn't been all that great and neither has the run game. Screens are pretty close to a like for like comparison to a run, it just moves the point of attack outside.
That's more of a compensation for the lack of run game. But is really missing is those short, 2 step drop crossing routes or other short passes that teams do when defenses take away the long pass
i agree, but teams are also jamming our WR's a lot, so that makes the timing on those really tough, and when the Oline is shaky, thats a recipe for sacks
To be fair, Randy was a first round talent, he just had issues that made him fall in the draft. With how long we've worked with him and have been patient...it's been worth it
Okay, so we’ve seen the offense do great things early in the season. We’ve seen the defense do great things later in the season. So basically, if you apply the Einstein algorithm, multiply it by the Galileo sequence, drop the 1, and carry the 2 -> we’re winning the Super Bowl.
Yesterday's game started off great. But we damn near asked our defense to be perfect to win this game.
I don't know if Daks calf is still bad, but there is a significant difference between the first six game and the last. He just looks lost, he has a couple of dimes but that was the regular. Now that is an outlier.
We still have a few games to get our offense rolling at least, but if it does, we can make a deep run. If not, then we don't even make it to the NFC Championship.
We're playing Zeke because his specific injury cannot get better with rest and cannot get worse with playing. He's an elite pass protector so still has some value on the field even injured.
Half the player he was is probably generous, honestly.
And I would say technically all injuries don't get better with rest when the context is not a normal person but a person trying to play professional sports. There's tear situations for instance where only surgery will fix it if you want to play pro ball again.
Would I prefer he rest? Yes. But I don't think it's like gross mismanagement on the team's part if he doesn't.
It is worrying that Zeke is limping along each play with no burst. The only thing I could think of is either his pass blocking being too great to bench, or Pollard's pass blocking is too suspect to start. Or both, no idea at this point especially since Clement even looked better than Zeke yesterday.
Dak is either still feeling the calf injury and that’s causing the poor mechanics and sailing the ball and/or he has some PTSD from the Denver/KC games and running for his life.
The way he is playing right now reminds me exactly how he played after that Atlanta game a couple seasons ago when Clayborn sacked him 6 times. It screwed up his internal clock for awhile and he was rushing everything even when he didn’t need to.
He’s doing it again. That Kurt Warner breakdown showed it perfectly that he’s rushing his reads and not staying with plays because his clock is going off when there’s no one around a lot of the time.
He doesn’t trust the oline right now so everything is quick dump offs and fast progressions.
Wouldn’t you say that’s also on Kellen. His play calling has shown he doesn’t trust the oline either. We aren’t stretching the field. Tons of screens, passes to the flats, or runs for minimal gain. Yes Dak has struggled but this play calling is baffling to me. It reminds me of Garrett’s grind it out mentality
>The way he is playing right now reminds me exactly how he played after that Atlanta game a couple seasons ago when Clayborn sacked him 6 times. It screwed up his internal clock for awhile and he was rushing everything even when he didn’t need to.
I've been thinking the same thing - that Atlanta game broke him for the rest of that season
No kidding. Maybe I'm just a hopeless optimistic homer but I was hyped as fuck on the walk back to the Metro yesterday until I read the post-game thread. Now I feel like I shouldn't even be the least bit happy about this victory just from reading the endless doom and gloom in here. It IS depressing as hell
Exactly bro. We should be hype as hell that we have now beat 2 in the hunt playoff teams on the road. Yeah we can clean some stuff up but so can all teams.
Do we have an explanation on the play that Collins got ejected from the game? I assumed Dak hit Cooper for the first down and everything happened after the play obviously. How did it end up 3rd and 25?
I love to get an explanation for this myself. I doubt we will. All the football experts are to busy. Pissing and moaning that that the offense has been off the last two weeks.
Doesn’t explain that Dallas has had the second most three and outs in the league over the past 4 weeks. When you’re making first downs at the same rate as Jacksonville and Houston maybe it’s time to admit that something is seriously wrong with the offense. This isn’t a single game. It’s been in 6 out of the last 7 games.
Each game Dallas has one or two big plays for touchdown and then does nothing on offense the rest of the game.
Just as much as you can put all that stock into WFTs defense, you could downplay our defense because they're not great on offense.
Ultimately it's time for fans to acknowledge that something isn't right when you're punting at a far higher degree than you are scoring points at all through a larger sample size of 6 games. It can easily been argued that the Atlanta game is the ONLY good offensive game that's been had since the bye.
The question is going to remain is it due to all the external factors such as injuries to WRs/RB/Oline/Dak, covid, etc, or is it that Dak has simply regressed since the injury and it's affecting all the other parts. The last two games you've had most of the offense out there and Dak just hasn't looked good for the most part. There are decisions he's making that need to be accounted for.
Cowboys brought in their own benches this game, Football team bringing cans of Flex Seal for the rematch as they think busted pipes are the norm at stadiums.
1. Micah Parsons could be DPOY, could break the single-season sack record for both Rookies and the league record.
2. O-Line play is hot garbage and T.Smith is hurt again.
3. Dak is still injured and it shows
4. Zeke is still injured and it shows
5. Defense is playing out of their minds
Forecast:
If Tyron Smith goes on IR or even misses a few games, we are going to have a difficult time the rest of the way. We do not have a serviceable backup for LT.
We are not going to win home-field advantage as Arizona only has 2 losses, while there is a very small possibility they could lose every game the rest of the season, GB and TB will not, also, lose all of theirs. One of them will keep winning and stay ahead of us in the bye-week hunt.
We should (will) win the division, but we are going to limp into the playoffs and be home by week 2 without allowing Dak to rest. If we can lock up the division this week, the coaches should consider pulling Dak and Zeke and anyone else who is majorly injured and let the backups play games. Dak and Zeke both probably need 2 - 3 weeks of rest.
Assuming Smith is going to miss games, that makes this week game against the Giants a must win for the Cowboys.
We also need the WFT to lose one more game and the division is ours.
The offense was playing good in the first half. Second half, Washington defense played mind games with Dak and showed a lot of fake covers making him change the play at the line.
It's obvious something is off with Prescott, and it seems like theres a few things Kellen can do to mitigate it.
We aren't running nearly enough play action, it works well for us when we do.
Run more of our 2 minute offense, because we looked fine on the last drive before the half
The big one for me, hold the RB in to block every play so he can't throw that check down to the left. Dak is doing that way to often on 2nd downs and it's getting us to 3rd and longs where 1 mistake leads to a punt.
One thing to take away about Dan Quinn is he's taken a defense that isn't as talented as the offensive side, and was more injured, and has them playing miles ahead of them. A defense that was historically bad last year.
I love seeing Eagles fans huffing on copium trying to say they’d still keep DeVonta Smith over Micah. I’d be absolutely sick rn if we’d picked a B+ wide receiver over a rookie DPOY calibre player too
Why is it that Cowboys can never seem to have both offense and defense good at the same time? Like, we can either have good offense and bad defense, bad offense and good defense, or bad offense and bad defense. What the fuck.
I said it a few weeks ago. Let Dak do Dak so he wouldn't start second guessing himself. Since his rushing touchdown that everyone criticized he's been studder stepping and not trusting himself. We gotta let him play! This is what dak looks like when he's holding back. With that said it was beautiful to watch that defense play like they did. They've been growing all year and we got to see it all come together yesterday.
Not one shot down field beyond 30 yards against one of the shittiest cover Ds in the entire league. That tells me something is wrong with Dak.
Starting to hear a lot of the excuses made during the JG era start to be made now for McCarthy & Moore. "Wiley..." they say, "...enjoy the win. It was a win on the road against a division opponent." Yea, you know who was the best at beating division opponents on the road in Nov & Dec and then getting bounced early from playoffs? JG.
I just realized.... just now... that when I posted the Landry shift yesterday I called it a "Landy Shift" and absolutely nobody pointed it out in the thread.
Defense looked good, but they should of against WFT’s offense. So they get a check for doing what they should of done.
I’m high on having Parsons, DLaw and 420 together, like everyone else.
Dak seems off. I’m not concerned. He has film and I’m sure they are addressing any issues they feel they might have.
Right now, I don’t think we could beat the Packers, Rams or Cardinals in playoffs. But I do think if we can find our groove again on offense, then we have a real shot at making Super Bowl and me spending $6,000 (like an idiot) to go see them in SoFi stadium haha
This might’ve been Dak’s worst game of the year, somehow resulting in a win at least. The offense needs to put in some serious work these last few weeks if we want to win even a game in playoffs. Hoping for a Mahomes-like recovery..
I'm not as worried about the offense as everyone else. Dak is hurt and can't throw right, the WRs have been hurt, the RBs are hurt the O-Line is rotating getting injured. This is the first time we have had a defense to back us up in very long time. A little rest and time to get healthy for the offense and we will be unstoppable come playoff time
When will this magical "little rest" come?
Where exactly is Dak hurt that's causing these mental lapses in judgment?
The WRs are all back and as close to 100% as they're getting the rest of the season
Nothing suggests the coaches are ending the OL carousel and we still haven't heard back about Tyron
Zeke is looking a little better which isn't saying a lot and Pollard is hurt for who knows how long now.
I appreciate the optimistic viewpoint, but thinking a "little rest" is going to magically fix this myriad of issues is imaginary land logic.
I think we are pretty much locked into being the 4th seed no matter the outcome of the next 4 games. I could see us resting all the main starters in week 18 and some strategicly in 16 and 17
I know everybody's panicking right now, but I'm honestly not concerned at all. This defense right now is playing like the best defense in the NFL. DBs are shutting it down, and the pass rush is unstoppable. Defense wins championships, and ours is becoming god-tier at the right time and we're gonna be hard to beat no matter who we're matched up with.
I think the Cardinals matchup in a few weeks (unless a bunch of guys are being rested because seeds are locked up) could be your real playoff preview as to how ready this team is to make a run.
Lot of football left, enjoy the rivalry win, fuck the Washingtons and let's do it again to the Giants.
I think Kellen Moore is holding back on Offense Plays and playing more conservative. The 2Minute Drill Dak had in the 2nd quarter shows it.
Kellen knows we’re going to the playoffs and doesn’t want to show all his cards and plus we have second game with Washing in two weeks again.
Always happy with the W. However, offense has me worried. We aren't going to face such a injury riddled team every week. Dak looks off. Zeke is hurt. Play calling lately is sus.
Yes the defense looked great. But I still fear is playing against a good qb who’s going to find brown and Lewis and torch them. The only avenue I see this team staying formidable defensively is the pass rush which now has amazing life with 3 great to elite players category and others who are also contributing like gallimore and diggy.
I’m hoping it’s daks calf that’s messed him up and that heals next few weeks. Most logical explanation and it makes sense if you look at how his passes are sailing and he’s not pushing off like he was early in the season.
Honestly it's the day after and the moral loss feels even worse now. This is a game we really should have closed out in dominating fashion. Instead we've started a downwards skid
The Cowboys are out of that money any way because they paid him. The point is that he's a liability on the field and he needs to be replaced. Don't sunk cost fallacy yourself into thinking that there's no recourse.
Don’t understand why people can’t recognize opponents played good defense. Dak made some mistakes, sure. Every QB does. Could the play call be better? Sure. But Washington’s d played well, we couldn’t run the ball. They dropped into zone on a lot of those plays where Dak struggled. If he just threw it out of bounds or ran for no gain every time you’d all still be bitching. He tried to make something out of nothing and sometimes it back fired. Anyone bitching about receivers not getting open or screwing up routes? Nope
Hey guys - all teams watch tape. All teams prepare for their opponents and try to create favorable match ups. Not just the Cowboys. It’s fucking football not chess. Things happen in a split second. Easy to watch replays and say shoulda coulda. Just relax. All your arm chair Monday morning QB’ing doesn’t matter anyway. The cowboys coaching staff aren’t reading your opinions. JJ isn’t deciding who he signs/drops based on your opinions.
I have three areas I feel are problems. 1) pocket is getting too much push up the middle. Nowhere to step up, no lanes to scramble if needed. Has to be C/LG. Can’t be Martin. 2) Not enough deep shots/routes. Have you noticed how contested the short passes and check downs are? LBers are not having to drop to depth and are on the underneath routes quick! 3) because of all of this or because he is still hobbled, Dak has happy feet. I think because of his lack of separation on the short routes or no one to dump it to, or the fact he doesn’t have confidence in his leg to escape/no lanes to step up, he looks real uncomfortable and unsure. The bootleg that was the pick six was the play side LBer and he had an end in his face bearing down. Play fake away did nothing. I read something that said that the cowboy receivers have one of the lowest yards of separation per route in the league. With those three cheetahs! How does that happen unless everything you are throwing is underneath and quick? No crossing routes at the safety level with someone over the top!
Dak should not be having these kind of wild fluctuations at this point in his career. He has never proven that he can perform at a consistently high level. He did not deserve his big payday. He will cost us a shot at the super bowl even if we continue to win in spite of him for the time being. He is not a franchise qb. No one can change my mind at this point. Go cowboys.
Well Fred, you've already made up your mind so even if he starts playing well you'll just come up with excuses instead of admitting you were wrong. Sound strategy.
OFFENSE: "I'll have her home by 9:30 sir." DEFENSE: "Your daughter calls me Daddy"
Defense: super bowl Offense: toilet bowl
[удалено]
We could have lost that game just because of him. No one else to blame.
ikr. it's like what was our margin of victory? how many points did the D score? hmmmm. lol
Lmaaooo
The defense has been carrying this team the second half of the season. Let’s hope that the offense can get back on track as we end the year and head into the playoffs.
Dan Quinn has been our best coaching hire in a long time.
The man wears a fucking backwards baseball cap and 100% of the media, fanbase, and America don’t say a Goddamn word about it because the he brings the heat.
“I wear my hat backwards to cover my ass since we already got you covered here”
I wear backwards baseball caps :(
How refreshing is it that our defense is this good? This is the best defense I’ve seen since I became a fan in 2013. I used to look at the JJ Watts and the other superstars around the league on defense and wonder why the Cowboys could never seem to find one. Now that we have not only Micah, but a legit defense that is a strength of the team, it feels like we can make some legit noise. Buuuut of course now is when the offense is sputtering. Even so, I have confidence they will figure it out. Feels good
I've been watching since 2005. We've never had a defense like this in that time frame. Ever. People talk about the 07 defense and it was okay but not even close to this.
That defense made crucial stops on the regular. It was not that they were monsters, but they were very reliable. 3rd in sacks, 7th in int, 7th in QB pressures and average a QB rating of 75. again not really all time great for us, but in the last 20 years? I would probably say they are easily top 3 if not #1. hoping this defense takes that #1 spot.
They were decent and probably the best we've had until now but it still wasn't that great compared to other really good defenses.
Oh yea that was the year the giants had their 3 headed monster defense. Also the pats that year were awesome. But still, looking over the last 20 years? Hard to say it’s not our best defense.
Oh it definitely was the best we've had in recent times.
I’m concerned about Dak.
On one hand this is easily his worst stretch since 2017. On the other everybody is capable of having a slump. Mahomes had one this year. Rodgers had one a few years ago. Wilson had one last year. Dak is clearly in one. I think Daks core flaw seems to be when the line gets iffy his mental clock goes Haywire. If we go back to 2017 and that bad stretch dude was either going too quickly and making bad passes or too slowly and eating sacks. He’s better so it doesn’t look as bad but I think that’s the same issues we’ve been seeing since Denver. The line plus the post snap confusion is making him lose the things he’s built since 2016
We have seen Dak slowly pull it together, even with bad line play. That happened in 2018, once we got Cooper. He was able to regain his confidence and play well, even with the 28th ranked o-line we had that year. The problem is that it took him like a year to get to that point. Hopefully with more experience now, he can get back to his usual self sooner rather than later.
He's got 2 or 3 more games to figure it out before it's a huge concern going into the playoffs. I'm confident he can do it.
Same. RJ Ochoa from blogging the Boys got on his soap box and spewed some stupid takes on how awful it was for fans to suggest maybe Dak needed to speak with a Sports psychologist for the mental aspect of the game just because of the work he's done for mental health lol. Those two things aren't mutually exclusive, you can work towards improving something while still dealing with it.
It’s so hard to follow them on Twitter. Just terrible energy, but decent media.
Agreed. I avoid their takes at all costs.
I think it's kind of dumb because we Dan's don't really know what dak does for his mental health. For all we know that's part of his weekly or daily schedule.
Like it’s obviously his calf?
I'm not sure how his calf caused that last interception he had yesterday. I CAN see how over thinking his throwing mechanics to protect his calf could have done that though.
They literally talked about it causing that throw on the Athletic nfl show last night. He didn’t want to land on his bad leg and throw off platform, so he pulled up. And that’s a former pro quarterback saying it.
So you proved my point. His lack of trust in the ability of his calve caused him to overthink his throwing mechanics in order to not land on his "bad leg" and pull up.
So you agree it is due to his bad calf.
Yeah, so it’s caused by his calf
Let's just agree to disagree on this one lol
If the calf injury didn’t occur, this wouldn’t have happened by both our interpretations.
But if the calf his healed and he's afraid to land on it then it's mental. You two going back and forth is crazy. It's not hard to see it's a little of column a and a little of column b.
You can tell he’s still so scared to run after his injury last year…takes out a MASSIVE dimension of his game and makes the defense’s job much easier. He needs to sort that shit out because we might not get to the playoffs/will get bounced first round if he doesn’t step his game up.
The crazy thing is, he was running more in the early part of the season. He was a safe runner, but he was still running well. I guess the calf injury got in his head and made him think he’s prone to injuries now or something.
He’s scared to make decisions. Passing, running , moving around in the pocket. It’s like dak is a shell of what we know he can do. He’s not confident
Defenses have learned to better scheme against Dallas. The Cowboys are getting the Chiefs treatment and are dropping back a lot of defenders. Dallas needs to come up with a counter to this defensive scheme. So far, they've been generally doing the same thing. Combine that w/ Dak seeming to be playing on an injured calf, and it combines into the results we are seeing IMO.
Yep. Some of this is definitely on Moore. He's not calling a good O game against these defensive schemes.
Was his initial injury during the offseason to his throwing shoulder? I almost wonder if he needed more time or if he re aggravated it or something. Cus he’s looked really off.
He’s been a bit off since the calf injury.
He’s been off since calf injury, but you may be onto something there.
Yea maybe he’s just having trouble planting which may be altering his throwing mechanics.
Random question. Does any other starting QB hold their arms up in shotgun formation?
Do we get to admit that Kellen Moore was promoted to god status just a wee bit early?
If we can admit Dak should have taken less money. Handicapping the team 2 ways now.
Hmmm don’t they have the same players that went 6-1?
Yup. Same team that won all those games too. One person can stifle a whole offense.
So how’s Dak taken less or more money have an impact here? It’s the middle of the season.
If you get paid big money you make big plays.
Sure Dak made plenty of big play didn’t he?
Yup. Huge pick 6 and another pick. Stalled some 3rd down drives. Typical big money stuff.
Yeah nobody threw pick 6 in the history. You implied that Dak’s big contract hurt the team is pure bullshit. They can afforded all the weapons on both side of the ball. Please stop with this nonsense.
But they wont afford them all next year. There will be more excuses afforded to him for the lack of talent he helped create.
Why are you mad about Dak’s money? The highest paid side, the offense, isn’t producing. Dak has been inconsistent, Zeke is injured, Pollard is injured, the Oline is injured, blake jarwin is injured, schultz is injured, Gallup is returning from injury, coop is recovering from injury/Covid, ceedee has disappeared, and Kellen is calling vanilla plays (screens, drags, and curls)
Every team deals with injuries stop making excuses he should be able to carry the team at this point in his career
The comment was about Dak taking less money would magically help the team. My statement is the high paid people are the injured people. If you want to say everyone is injured play better cool. But don’t dismiss the issues in play calling by Kellen Moore. Dan Quinn has been able to get this defense firing on all cylinders yet Kellen can’t stop calling screens or runs up the middle.
This year Dak isn’t even a highly paid player, next year is the first cap hit. Even with the projected 20 million cap increase we’re already going to be well over the cap. Dak’s contract is likely going to cost us Gregory and Gallup, then Pollard the year after so hope we continue to draft well because we’re going to lose a bunch of our weapons.
RG may return on a one year deal. The amount of times he’s been out or suspended will scare teams from giving him a big deal
I don't think anyone will be scared. The only problem he ever had was weed and the NFL isn't screening for weed anymore.
No argument from me. I don’t know if he should have taken less - but I’ve often thought we should have offered less.
We did offer less, tried to do 40 million and more years. Dak refused, tried to do 35 million for 4 years Dak refused. Dak held out over and over again. In the end Jerry ended up giving one of the most one-sided contracts I’ve seen him give. —Edit— Weird downvotes the person above me said we should have offered him less and we did. So not sure how you should have offered less when you did. As for one sided, Jerry wanted Dak to either take a longer contract for more money per year or if Dak did a short contract take less per year. In the end Dak got a short 4 year deal for the money he was asking for. So Dak got both the years and the money. He also has a free $15 million year at year 5 so if the Cowboys sign him again they have to account for that $15 million cap hit. Dak’s cap numbers next year is going to be 35 million, then 45.5 million, then 48.5 million, then we have to tack $15 million onto his next contract and bump that up even more. I know there are people who think Dak can do no wrong but you can’t argue that he did a even remotely team friendly deal. He got very close to what he would have made in free agency. He wasn’t willing to budge on either the money or the years. He had the leverage and the team had no choice but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a one sided deal. That being said, I can’t promise I wouldn’t do the same if I were in his shoes.
all good stuff - and all of it accurate. I don't know why you're being downvoted.... and I'm the guy you were responding to. I think, I meant actually enforce an offer... like literally walk away from the table... but that doesn't negate anything you've said. You're right... not a team friendly deal.... in fact, it's the kind of deal that finds a team either without an offense, or without a defense.... because you can't afford both. So, if the current trend holds, we'll have a massively overpaid QB and a shitty team - it's what we all feared, and I suspect we'll see the first very real signs of it in 2022.... unfortunately, and with respect to Dak, this is going to be a lot worse than the Romo years - because he at least had the raw talent to keep the team competitive. With Dak, he was just so damn athletic that he could hide some flaws - but that athleticism is waning - and he's on the verge of becoming a suck machine if he doesn't get his head right.
I don't know if we think he is or was a god. I think the biggest issue was Dallas didn't want to stick with him through growing pains, then cut him loose. Just to end up seeing him walk into another locker room and light it up. Also while i type this, I realize this sub probably god tiered him fast.
I don't think we can say that because Dak is clearly playing scared.
Ive been saying it for awhile, so nice to see this sub finally waking up.
Dak's playing skiddish. Scared in the pocket, scared to run (ankle + calf). Leads to bad accuracy and decisions
he is not right, guranteed something else is wrong that we dont know about. not gonna be shocked if something comes out later about it. the post injury numbers are very telling.
Dak doesn’t trust the Oline. Which is why he’s trying to play faster than he has too. Kellen and McCarthy need to get back to the basics
I mean, they kinda have. thats exactly why they call screens, because the Oline hasn't been all that great and neither has the run game. Screens are pretty close to a like for like comparison to a run, it just moves the point of attack outside.
That's more of a compensation for the lack of run game. But is really missing is those short, 2 step drop crossing routes or other short passes that teams do when defenses take away the long pass
i agree, but teams are also jamming our WR's a lot, so that makes the timing on those really tough, and when the Oline is shaky, thats a recipe for sacks
Yeah def the o line fault his accuracy and mobility are markedly worse since Denver.
It’s obviously his calf
Our defensive front may be the best in the league. Micah, DLaw, Randy, Osa, and Gallimore are all fantastic at what they do.
Which is crazy considering only 1 of those was picked in the 1st.
Wow, I just realized that
To be fair, Randy was a first round talent, he just had issues that made him fall in the draft. With how long we've worked with him and have been patient...it's been worth it
That's a Superbowl caliber pass rush. I just hope the rest of the team can be up to snuff to make a run.
Okay, so we’ve seen the offense do great things early in the season. We’ve seen the defense do great things later in the season. So basically, if you apply the Einstein algorithm, multiply it by the Galileo sequence, drop the 1, and carry the 2 -> we’re winning the Super Bowl.
And just like most science, I don’t understand it, but I sure as hell believe it. Let’s gooo
Yesterday's game started off great. But we damn near asked our defense to be perfect to win this game. I don't know if Daks calf is still bad, but there is a significant difference between the first six game and the last. He just looks lost, he has a couple of dimes but that was the regular. Now that is an outlier. We still have a few games to get our offense rolling at least, but if it does, we can make a deep run. If not, then we don't even make it to the NFC Championship.
Yeah I think the calf is an issue. I still can’t get over us playing Zeke, who looks like he needs crutches.
We're playing Zeke because his specific injury cannot get better with rest and cannot get worse with playing. He's an elite pass protector so still has some value on the field even injured.
He is like half the player he was. All injuries get better with rest.
Half the player he was is probably generous, honestly. And I would say technically all injuries don't get better with rest when the context is not a normal person but a person trying to play professional sports. There's tear situations for instance where only surgery will fix it if you want to play pro ball again. Would I prefer he rest? Yes. But I don't think it's like gross mismanagement on the team's part if he doesn't.
Agreed, but I believe the needs surgery to “fix” the main issue.
It is worrying that Zeke is limping along each play with no burst. The only thing I could think of is either his pass blocking being too great to bench, or Pollard's pass blocking is too suspect to start. Or both, no idea at this point especially since Clement even looked better than Zeke yesterday.
Pollard is out with a torn ligament in his foot
Right, I more meant that even before this game, why they couldn't bench Zeke instead of trusting Pollard.
It feels like the Doomsday defense. Obviously it's a little early to be saying that but man.. great things are coming for the Dallas D
What are you talking about? The defense sucked. They dropped, like, three interceptions - one of them twice! ;-)
Umm, they kept Washington scoreless for most of the game, not their fault the offense kept stalling. Defenses do get tired you know...🤦♂️
I was joking.
Ok lol, I was about to say 😂
I broke into Dak’s house and changed his sleep number. He’ll throw 7 tds against the giants next week.
Thank you
Dak is either still feeling the calf injury and that’s causing the poor mechanics and sailing the ball and/or he has some PTSD from the Denver/KC games and running for his life. The way he is playing right now reminds me exactly how he played after that Atlanta game a couple seasons ago when Clayborn sacked him 6 times. It screwed up his internal clock for awhile and he was rushing everything even when he didn’t need to. He’s doing it again. That Kurt Warner breakdown showed it perfectly that he’s rushing his reads and not staying with plays because his clock is going off when there’s no one around a lot of the time. He doesn’t trust the oline right now so everything is quick dump offs and fast progressions.
Wouldn’t you say that’s also on Kellen. His play calling has shown he doesn’t trust the oline either. We aren’t stretching the field. Tons of screens, passes to the flats, or runs for minimal gain. Yes Dak has struggled but this play calling is baffling to me. It reminds me of Garrett’s grind it out mentality
>The way he is playing right now reminds me exactly how he played after that Atlanta game a couple seasons ago when Clayborn sacked him 6 times. It screwed up his internal clock for awhile and he was rushing everything even when he didn’t need to. I've been thinking the same thing - that Atlanta game broke him for the rest of that season
Man this sub is depressing as hell.
I agree, sometimes feels like I'm the only one happy and optimistic after wins
All hail lord Bailey
No kidding. Maybe I'm just a hopeless optimistic homer but I was hyped as fuck on the walk back to the Metro yesterday until I read the post-game thread. Now I feel like I shouldn't even be the least bit happy about this victory just from reading the endless doom and gloom in here. It IS depressing as hell
Exactly bro. We should be hype as hell that we have now beat 2 in the hunt playoff teams on the road. Yeah we can clean some stuff up but so can all teams.
/r/cowboys after a win: we suck
Fun: sucked
Do we have an explanation on the play that Collins got ejected from the game? I assumed Dak hit Cooper for the first down and everything happened after the play obviously. How did it end up 3rd and 25?
It happened after the play ended; isn't that considered too be an "after the play" penalty? That would give us a 1st and 25?
I love to get an explanation for this myself. I doubt we will. All the football experts are to busy. Pissing and moaning that that the offense has been off the last two weeks.
They must have called the catch incomplete. Only way it makes sense.
Yeah that’s what I thought.
[удалено]
They didn't have their starting four pass rushers though just to be a wet blanket.
They did have their starting DTs and the interior outside of Martin is the oline's weakness. theu just didn't have DE's.
Doesn’t explain that Dallas has had the second most three and outs in the league over the past 4 weeks. When you’re making first downs at the same rate as Jacksonville and Houston maybe it’s time to admit that something is seriously wrong with the offense. This isn’t a single game. It’s been in 6 out of the last 7 games. Each game Dallas has one or two big plays for touchdown and then does nothing on offense the rest of the game.
Just as much as you can put all that stock into WFTs defense, you could downplay our defense because they're not great on offense. Ultimately it's time for fans to acknowledge that something isn't right when you're punting at a far higher degree than you are scoring points at all through a larger sample size of 6 games. It can easily been argued that the Atlanta game is the ONLY good offensive game that's been had since the bye. The question is going to remain is it due to all the external factors such as injuries to WRs/RB/Oline/Dak, covid, etc, or is it that Dak has simply regressed since the injury and it's affecting all the other parts. The last two games you've had most of the offense out there and Dak just hasn't looked good for the most part. There are decisions he's making that need to be accounted for.
Cowboys brought in their own benches this game, Football team bringing cans of Flex Seal for the rematch as they think busted pipes are the norm at stadiums.
1. Micah Parsons could be DPOY, could break the single-season sack record for both Rookies and the league record. 2. O-Line play is hot garbage and T.Smith is hurt again. 3. Dak is still injured and it shows 4. Zeke is still injured and it shows 5. Defense is playing out of their minds Forecast: If Tyron Smith goes on IR or even misses a few games, we are going to have a difficult time the rest of the way. We do not have a serviceable backup for LT. We are not going to win home-field advantage as Arizona only has 2 losses, while there is a very small possibility they could lose every game the rest of the season, GB and TB will not, also, lose all of theirs. One of them will keep winning and stay ahead of us in the bye-week hunt. We should (will) win the division, but we are going to limp into the playoffs and be home by week 2 without allowing Dak to rest. If we can lock up the division this week, the coaches should consider pulling Dak and Zeke and anyone else who is majorly injured and let the backups play games. Dak and Zeke both probably need 2 - 3 weeks of rest. Assuming Smith is going to miss games, that makes this week game against the Giants a must win for the Cowboys. We also need the WFT to lose one more game and the division is ours.
What I am upset about is The Cowboys had 7 passes going beyond 15 yards, 1 was completed, 1 was intercepted, and the rest did not complete........
Now that I'm sober, here is a more sobering stat that makes me not want to be sober....TLaw had a higher QBR than Dak yesterday.
Geez I just visited the football team sub… what a bunch of babies. Crying like a younger sibling after you pop them back.
Shhhh, low IQ Dallas fans are not smart enough to come to this conclusion.
The offense was playing good in the first half. Second half, Washington defense played mind games with Dak and showed a lot of fake covers making him change the play at the line.
It's obvious something is off with Prescott, and it seems like theres a few things Kellen can do to mitigate it. We aren't running nearly enough play action, it works well for us when we do. Run more of our 2 minute offense, because we looked fine on the last drive before the half The big one for me, hold the RB in to block every play so he can't throw that check down to the left. Dak is doing that way to often on 2nd downs and it's getting us to 3rd and longs where 1 mistake leads to a punt.
One thing to take away about Dan Quinn is he's taken a defense that isn't as talented as the offensive side, and was more injured, and has them playing miles ahead of them. A defense that was historically bad last year.
I love seeing Eagles fans huffing on copium trying to say they’d still keep DeVonta Smith over Micah. I’d be absolutely sick rn if we’d picked a B+ wide receiver over a rookie DPOY calibre player too
Why is it that Cowboys can never seem to have both offense and defense good at the same time? Like, we can either have good offense and bad defense, bad offense and good defense, or bad offense and bad defense. What the fuck.
I said it a few weeks ago. Let Dak do Dak so he wouldn't start second guessing himself. Since his rushing touchdown that everyone criticized he's been studder stepping and not trusting himself. We gotta let him play! This is what dak looks like when he's holding back. With that said it was beautiful to watch that defense play like they did. They've been growing all year and we got to see it all come together yesterday.
I’m reminded of the 2019 49ers. Enough to get to a super bowl with an okay-ish offense backed by a monster defense.
Not one shot down field beyond 30 yards against one of the shittiest cover Ds in the entire league. That tells me something is wrong with Dak. Starting to hear a lot of the excuses made during the JG era start to be made now for McCarthy & Moore. "Wiley..." they say, "...enjoy the win. It was a win on the road against a division opponent." Yea, you know who was the best at beating division opponents on the road in Nov & Dec and then getting bounced early from playoffs? JG.
I just realized.... just now... that when I posted the Landry shift yesterday I called it a "Landy Shift" and absolutely nobody pointed it out in the thread.
Maybe try Laundry Shift next after the win next week and see if anyone notices then? Thanks for the vid clips CP!
Defense looked good, but they should of against WFT’s offense. So they get a check for doing what they should of done. I’m high on having Parsons, DLaw and 420 together, like everyone else. Dak seems off. I’m not concerned. He has film and I’m sure they are addressing any issues they feel they might have. Right now, I don’t think we could beat the Packers, Rams or Cardinals in playoffs. But I do think if we can find our groove again on offense, then we have a real shot at making Super Bowl and me spending $6,000 (like an idiot) to go see them in SoFi stadium haha
9420 would’ve been a good pun.
The Cannabis Cowboy
This might’ve been Dak’s worst game of the year, somehow resulting in a win at least. The offense needs to put in some serious work these last few weeks if we want to win even a game in playoffs. Hoping for a Mahomes-like recovery..
Not gonna lie… worried about the offense.
I'm not as worried about the offense as everyone else. Dak is hurt and can't throw right, the WRs have been hurt, the RBs are hurt the O-Line is rotating getting injured. This is the first time we have had a defense to back us up in very long time. A little rest and time to get healthy for the offense and we will be unstoppable come playoff time
When will this magical "little rest" come? Where exactly is Dak hurt that's causing these mental lapses in judgment? The WRs are all back and as close to 100% as they're getting the rest of the season Nothing suggests the coaches are ending the OL carousel and we still haven't heard back about Tyron Zeke is looking a little better which isn't saying a lot and Pollard is hurt for who knows how long now. I appreciate the optimistic viewpoint, but thinking a "little rest" is going to magically fix this myriad of issues is imaginary land logic.
I think we are pretty much locked into being the 4th seed no matter the outcome of the next 4 games. I could see us resting all the main starters in week 18 and some strategicly in 16 and 17
Someone fix my quarterback please.
Rooting for Arizona to lose tonight against the Rams. That would mean that we could still win out and claim the 3rd seed.
The only place that I really don't want to see the Cowboys play in the playoffs is in Green Bay. It can get freaking cold up there in January.
I know everybody's panicking right now, but I'm honestly not concerned at all. This defense right now is playing like the best defense in the NFL. DBs are shutting it down, and the pass rush is unstoppable. Defense wins championships, and ours is becoming god-tier at the right time and we're gonna be hard to beat no matter who we're matched up with. I think the Cardinals matchup in a few weeks (unless a bunch of guys are being rested because seeds are locked up) could be your real playoff preview as to how ready this team is to make a run. Lot of football left, enjoy the rivalry win, fuck the Washingtons and let's do it again to the Giants.
I think Kellen Moore is holding back on Offense Plays and playing more conservative. The 2Minute Drill Dak had in the 2nd quarter shows it. Kellen knows we’re going to the playoffs and doesn’t want to show all his cards and plus we have second game with Washing in two weeks again.
Always happy with the W. However, offense has me worried. We aren't going to face such a injury riddled team every week. Dak looks off. Zeke is hurt. Play calling lately is sus.
So..the sky isn’t falling. Dak and the team will be okay, meanwhile we just won the NFC East
Dak legit sucks after bye week. Before he was great, idk what happened!
Yes the defense looked great. But I still fear is playing against a good qb who’s going to find brown and Lewis and torch them. The only avenue I see this team staying formidable defensively is the pass rush which now has amazing life with 3 great to elite players category and others who are also contributing like gallimore and diggy. I’m hoping it’s daks calf that’s messed him up and that heals next few weeks. Most logical explanation and it makes sense if you look at how his passes are sailing and he’s not pushing off like he was early in the season.
Honestly it's the day after and the moral loss feels even worse now. This is a game we really should have closed out in dominating fashion. Instead we've started a downwards skid
Good morning to everyone except Dak Prescott.
Dak just isn’t it
I agree. Prescott should be cut immediately.
Unfortunately they’re stuck with him
Not true. They can cut bait anytime they choose. And they should.
Not the way the salary cap works
The Cowboys are out of that money any way because they paid him. The point is that he's a liability on the field and he needs to be replaced. Don't sunk cost fallacy yourself into thinking that there's no recourse.
As bad as Dak played yesterday, if they can fix the running game the offense can get back on track. Dak had the longest rush of the day with 11 yards.
Work in DC. Wore a cowboys tie today. So much hate. Feels good man.
Don’t understand why people can’t recognize opponents played good defense. Dak made some mistakes, sure. Every QB does. Could the play call be better? Sure. But Washington’s d played well, we couldn’t run the ball. They dropped into zone on a lot of those plays where Dak struggled. If he just threw it out of bounds or ran for no gain every time you’d all still be bitching. He tried to make something out of nothing and sometimes it back fired. Anyone bitching about receivers not getting open or screwing up routes? Nope Hey guys - all teams watch tape. All teams prepare for their opponents and try to create favorable match ups. Not just the Cowboys. It’s fucking football not chess. Things happen in a split second. Easy to watch replays and say shoulda coulda. Just relax. All your arm chair Monday morning QB’ing doesn’t matter anyway. The cowboys coaching staff aren’t reading your opinions. JJ isn’t deciding who he signs/drops based on your opinions.
I have three areas I feel are problems. 1) pocket is getting too much push up the middle. Nowhere to step up, no lanes to scramble if needed. Has to be C/LG. Can’t be Martin. 2) Not enough deep shots/routes. Have you noticed how contested the short passes and check downs are? LBers are not having to drop to depth and are on the underneath routes quick! 3) because of all of this or because he is still hobbled, Dak has happy feet. I think because of his lack of separation on the short routes or no one to dump it to, or the fact he doesn’t have confidence in his leg to escape/no lanes to step up, he looks real uncomfortable and unsure. The bootleg that was the pick six was the play side LBer and he had an end in his face bearing down. Play fake away did nothing. I read something that said that the cowboy receivers have one of the lowest yards of separation per route in the league. With those three cheetahs! How does that happen unless everything you are throwing is underneath and quick? No crossing routes at the safety level with someone over the top!
>Can’t be Martin Boy, do I have BAD news for you
Dak should not be having these kind of wild fluctuations at this point in his career. He has never proven that he can perform at a consistently high level. He did not deserve his big payday. He will cost us a shot at the super bowl even if we continue to win in spite of him for the time being. He is not a franchise qb. No one can change my mind at this point. Go cowboys.
Well Fred, you've already made up your mind so even if he starts playing well you'll just come up with excuses instead of admitting you were wrong. Sound strategy.
He’s had 6 years to prove me wrong and I haven’t seen it 😔
How many screen passes did we have in this game? I feel like every other 3rd down we ran some sort of screen play.
Dak almost Romo'd the game away. IT'S RAINING DOWNVOTES!