Thursday night proved a major wake-up call for the Dallas Cowboys’ offense, as it finally saw the dam break in a lackluster loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
As productive as the offense has been, it requires near-flawless play in order for the Cowboys to win. The extra reliance on the unit compared to its sieve of a defense is unsustainable. A top-tier NFL offense usually boasts a big-play feature. Cowboys, for the most part, lean on an offensive attack headlined by lengthy scoring drives, with Dak Prescott making one perfect decision after another.
Thursday, Prescott played his worst game of the season easily, and he didn’t receive the help to make up for that falloff. Ferguson’s untimely drops, a special teams turnover, and the defense’s inability to play complementary football early led to the abandonment of the run game. For an offense that thrives on intermediate chunk gains and staying balanced in its playcalling, the formula proved fatal.
The Cowboys carry plenty of weapons that are capable of making splash plays. However, Ceedee Lamb, George Pickens, Ryan Flournoy and gadget player KaVontae Turpin aren’t going for 50-60-yard plays at will.
In fact, Pickens only has one catch of 50-plus, and that came against the Texans. Outside of that reception, the Dallas offense has a longest run of just 22 yards. Pickens picked apart the Bucs’ zone, logging nine catches for 130 yards and one touchdown. However, Tampa’s secondary never let anyone break loose for a game-changing reception.
Flournoy’s performance (three catches for 90 yards) against the Bucs was a bright spot in the loss. He proved to be the lone, big-play threat of the night. If he can find a way to make a few more of those plays, it could relieve some of that constant pressure.
It’s been mostly about Javonte Williams grinding it out on the ground, and Prescott keeping the team on schedule through the air. The Cowboys led the league in points per drive entering Thursday but fell off the pace. Furthermore, they are second in the league in plays per drive at 7.0 and are ninth in the league in yards per play at 5.8.
This means the offense doesn’t feature much of an “easy” button. It’s relying on Prescott to diagnose defenses quickly and get the ball to the right spot at a high clip. The game-winning drive against the Texans is a perfect example of how much the unit leans too much on its QB and not enough on roster as a whole.
Similar to the Bucs’ defensive approach, the Texans played zone coverage on nearly every snap, forcing Prescott to feather in tight-window throws. Despite a rocky start to the drive, he completed hole shot after hole shot, punctuated by a beautiful, layered, 15-yard out route to Lamb. The throw went over the outstretched arm of Jalen Pitre, falling perfectly to Lamb, who was being covered over the top by all-world corner Derek Stingley Jr.
Later, Prescott hit Pickens on another perfect zone shot, dropping a 22-yard completion on a sluggo. The ball had to be perfect with half-field safety Reed Blankenship sprinting over to try and break up the play.
Finally, Prescott hit the all-important game-winner on a double skinny post concept that forced the safety to cover Jake Ferguson. Lamb ran the second post with just the corner in tow, and the Cowboys’ QB found the mismatch for the 12-yard score.
The scoring drive was 11 plays and 74 yards. It was the third 10-plus-yard scoring drive of the day. The Cowboys can certainly create chunk plays, but it’s the every-down consistency that’s so important to their success.
It took all of that just to pick up one win. The Cowboys could be headed for another middling to slightly below .500 season if this continues. A productive offense is great, but in a league as talented as the NFL, it’s going to have off nights. It needs performance from the other two units to succeed and some more explosives from its own huddle.
It’ll be interesting to see if they can break free of this mostly execution-heavy attack, but it would certainly help if the defense could make a few more stops as well. The secondary received some help with the acquisition of Joey Porter Jr., but it’ll need significantly improved play for the Cowboys to make any type of playoff run this season.
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