Blogging The Boys
Every week, we gather to discuss the latest news about the Dallas Cowboys and seek our writer’s perspective on each headline. Welcome back to the roundtable. This week we have Sean Martin and David Howman.
Mike: Dak gets a B- this week. The structure of the offense still produced answers. There were completions available in the quick game and a few shot opportunities off play-action, and that rainbow ball for a touchdown was an absolute season highlight. But the timing wasn’t consistently sharp and a couple of key throws were just a beat late or slightly off. At the same time, the Chargers deserve credit for making life uncomfortable with late rotations and tight underneath leverage that narrowed the middle-of-field windows.
So it wasn’t simply he missed everything, and it wasn’t nothing was there either, more a mix of some makeable throws left on the field and coverage looks that kept the margins thin in the biggest moments.
Sean: No sense in not being completely honest and transparent at this point of a lost season, the only full watch of this game I could stomach was the live viewing. That is important context to understand when asking about reads, progressions, and windows, but it feels like the separation was there at times from all three of CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, and Ryan Flournoy – the latter two scoring touchdowns. It was another good but hollow game for the Cowboys offense, and that isn’t entirely their fault at all.
Howman: I give a lot of credit to Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. The first half was all Dak, all day. George Pickens, in particular, was unstoppable. But Minter made major changes in the second half that completely stymied the offense, specifically limiting Pickens. By the time Prescott and Schottenheimer figured out how to adjust, they were in such a hole that it impacted the way they ran their offense.
Sean: The Chargers mixed a lot of formations that beefed up the line of scrimmage for them, and most importantly changed the launch angle for the Cowboys pass rushers. They had no consistency going up against either tackles on an island, or through chips from multiple tight ends. Mix in the ball getting out of Hebert’s hands quickly, and more times than not to wide open targets, and pass rush is going to be hard no matter the matchup. That said, the Chargers offensive line found every way possible to maul the Cowboys at the point of attack. Making an impact like that is always going to show itself more in the second half as the game wore on, and that’s what happened especially with the defense on the field more and more. It was a bad day.
Mike: Sean...
