FanPost

Grading the Cowboys last-second victory over the Chargers

Your Dallas Cowboys faced a stern test Sunday afternoon in sunny Los Angeles, California. Having dropped the team's season-opener against the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in excruciating fashion, they entered gleaming SoFi Stadium in a battered and chaotic state.

Between the Tampa loss and Sunday, the Cowboys' roster had experienced the following losses:

  • Starting right tackle suspended for five weeks for somethingsomethingsomething
  • Starting defensive end (and one of only two legit studs on defense) Demarcus Lawrence to a broken foot
  • Starting safety Donovan Wilson to an injured groin
  • Starting defensive end Randy Gregory to COVID protocols
  • Swing tackle Ty Nsheke to "heat illness"

That's four starters and a primary backup. In addition, the team again went on the road; this time to the west coast after traveling to the east coast last week. The team's reward was to face a Chargers team seemingly on the rise behind the stellar quarterback play of Justin Herbert.

In short, the team faced a significant challenge just to avoid an 0-2 start that would put the team in an deep early-season hole.

And they met the challenge. Again, like in Tampa, it wasn't always pretty. But the coaches made enough right decisions and the players made enough plays to secure a hard-earned road win, and NFL teams should never apologize for a win. Let's get to the grades.


Overall: B

I was all for jettisoning Jason Garrett after ten years of average to good play and zero post-season success. You knew what you would get and everything was so rigid and predictable you could practically know what would happen before it did.

Can't say that anymore. With McCarthy and this group we're just learning what they can - and cannot - do. In the "can" column we have a dynamic, unpredictable offense that seemingly produces yards at will but struggles to convert them into elite-level point totals. We also have an opportunistic defense that has a knack for taking the ball away (often at key times). And we have special teams that can thrill or infuriate, sometimes on the same play.

We also have a team that has played two good opponents with each game basically going down to the last play and the Cowboys winning one and losing one and that seems about right.

Most exciting to me, and what I'm most looking forward to, is a lot of new faces on the defensive side of the ball who've already made more plays than we might have seen in multiple seasons from the likes of Xavier Woods, Chidobie Awuzie and even Byron Jones.

Coaching: B

We can call this section the good the bad and the ugly. There's a lot on the good side. First, remember both last year and 2019 when the Cowboys seemed to fall behind by double digits every game? Yeah, through two games in 2021 the Cowboys have never trailed by more than 7 points in the first half. They've come out prepared and ready, something that seemed inexplicably elusive the last two years.

In fact, they took the opening kickoff and went 78 yards in 15 plays for an early 7-0 lead. It was the team's first opening drive touchdown since week 14 of 2019. So credit where credit's due for having the team ready to play from the opening whistle.

More importantly, we see an open-minded, thoughtful offensive approach that uses all the tools at the team's disposal. Some Cowboys' fans griped after week 1 when the Cowboys passed on 76% of offensive plays. That was the highest pass ratio in the league.

Sunday the Cowboys ran the ball on 48% of offensive snaps; the fourth heaviest run percentage in week 2. Last week I wrote the following:

Dak Prescott and the offense are going to be a handful for anyone they face. Thursday it was the wideouts doing the damage because that's where the opportunities were. But if teams take that away Dallas can go to the run game and if that doesn't work they also have two pass catching tight ends and a dynamic second running back.

The Chargers play a 2-high safety scheme, which prioritizes preventing chunk plays and challenges opposing offense to patiently dink and dunk their way down the field. The Chargers force teams to successfully manufacture 8-10-12 play drives, hoping a penalty, sack or other negative play eventually derails the operation.

Thus, we saw heavy doses of Ezekiel Elliott (16 rushes for 71 yards and a TD) and Tony Pollard (13 rushes, 109 yards and a TD). What was missing were the intermediate and deep throws to the wide receivers because the Chargers just weren't going to let that happen.

This is Kellen Moore and Mike McCarthy "taking what the defense gives". If Tampa, with their dominant front 7, refuse to let you run the ball, then take advantage by throwing to the wideouts. If Los Angeles, with 2 high safeties, refuse to let your employ your downfield passing game then take advantage by gashing them with the run game.

This is such a refreshing change from the Jason Garrett-preached mantra of "we do what we do". Cowboys coaches adapting to opponents and taking advantage of their weaknesses is an entirely new thing and I'm here for it.

For more change look to the other side of the ball. On this play the Cowboys show man-to-man coverage before dropping into zone coverage.

The disguise fooled Herbert; he thought he had the fleet-footed and elusive Austin Ekelan isolated on a defender and instead the pass to the flat was easily defended to snuff the 3rd down attempt. Again, this is completely new to Dallas fans. The Garrett/Marinelli regime had zero interest in disguising what they were doing. They repeatedly lined up in the same formations and ran the same defenses.

That's fine if you have better athletes but this team doesn't and didn't under Garrett. Look, disguises only work so much and aren't a replacement for good players. But when your defense is stressed you should use every club in the bag. McCarthy/Quinn showing they are willing to employ such tactics is a very good development.

That's the good. In the bad we have our ever-aggressive special teams coach yet again having his aggressiveness blow up in the team's face. This time it was an all-out punt block attempt when the Chargers lined up for their only punt of the game.

In typical Cowboys' special team's fashion they failed to block the punt but did manage to get called for roughing the kicker. You can argue the call was weak because it looked like the rushing defender got tossed into the punter. But that doesn't matter to me.

Blocking a punt is a rare thing (though apparently not as rare as being called for roughing the kicker). This seemed a reckless decision that was not warranted. Outside of turnovers the Cowboys defense struggled mightily to get off the field. So when they finally managed to force a Chargers' punt the last thing you should do is create a situation that allows them to keep the ball. Had it been 4th-and-3 it's more defensible, but it was 4th-and-20.

Special teams coach Jim Fassell is known to be creative and aggressive. I applauded his hiring because I loved watching his Rams special teams. But, by my count, Fassell has tried to go aggressive four times with the Cowboys and failed every time:

  • Failed fake punt pass vs Atlanta
  • Failed fake punt vs Washington
  • Failed fake punt vs Washington
  • Failed punt block vs Los Angeles Chargers

In my opinion two of those attempts were foolish due to the situation. And to be fair to Fassell all of those plays had chances to work but the players simply didn't execute. Beyond that, special teams continue to rack up penalties. Last year these units frequently had problems getting the right number of people on the field. Sunday, it was a holding penalty on Jabrill Cox prior to the final drive that moved the ball from the Cowboys' 35 back to their own 12.

I hope Fassell continues to be aggressive and creative. But I'd also like some basic competency. There's no need to try a fake punt from your own 30 when you need 15 yards for a 1st down and there's no need to call an all out punt block when the opponent faces 4th-and-20.

And the ugly. The Cowboys won Sunday and it's roses and champagne everywhere. But the reality is the win depended upon a 56-yard kick that could - and probably should - have been shorter. Dallas faced a 2nd-and-6 from the Chargers 41 with 33 seconds left and one timeout remaining. From here, the comedy of errors is exasperating.

  1. First, a running play was called. Tony Romo rightly pointed out this isn't the smart call. A running play, especially an interior running play, almost certainly results in a running clock (as opposed to an incomplete pass which stops the clock). And that's what happened after Tony Pollard gained 3 yards to set up a 3rd-and-3 from the Chargers 38 with 28 seconds remaining, a running clock and a timeout.
  2. Shockingly, the Cowboys did not already have a play called. If you're going to run the ball on the previous play you MUST have a second play ready to run as soon as the previous play ends. This is 2-minute drill 101 stuff and the Cowboys looked as if they were unaware of the concept.
  3. Tony Pollard appeared confused, heading towards the sideline, thinking he needed to get off the field.
  4. All of this would be bad if you had no timeouts. But Dallas did have a timeout and neither McCarthy, Kellen Moore or Dak Prescott utilized it. You did see Moore signaling for one but it was much too late; the damage had been done.

Now, I'd be sympathetic to McCarthy and crew if they had a valid explanation. One possible one might go like this: If we either call a time-out, or rush a 3rd down play, and the play is unsuccessful you're still left with a 56-yard field goal attempt. But, if you miss the field goal attempt, you then turn the ball over to the Chargers with maybe 20 seconds on the clock and the ball near mid-field. That would truly be a disaster.

And if McCarthy or anyone on the Cowboys explained it that way I'd say okay, there's logic to the thought process. But no one has explained it that way. And you can tell by the actions of everyone on the field they weren't thinking that, they were just confused and unprepared.

I'm of the opinion you do not settle for a 56-yard FG attempt when you have 28 seconds and a timeout at your disposal and an offense that has moved the ball at an elite level every game of the McCarthy-Dak era. You have an opportunity to run anywhere from 1 to 4 more plays and you somehow don't run any?

And instead settle for a 56-yard field goal? Fifty-five yard+ field goals are converted at significantly less than 50% in the NFL. Now, Cowboys' kicker Greg Zuerlein is (by far) the best at such kicks, converting at a 56% clip with 18 makes. Still, that's a 44% failure rate. Basically the braintrust, through lack of preparation, confusion and uncertainty turned the situation into a coinflip.

Had Zuerlein missed the kick and the Cowboys lost that game I promise every sports talk show, every news account, every analytical discussion of this game would have centered on the Cowboys' botching this end-game sequence. The venom would have been potent and justified. We shouldn't excuse the coaching staff (and Dak) for their ineptness because the kicker bailed them out.

Quarterback: B

Dak Prescott's final numbers were ho-hum for him. After throwing for 400+ yards in four of his last five starts (and losing three of those four) Prescott had solid numbers:

  • 23-of-27
  • 237 yards
  • 0 TDs
  • 1 INT
  • 87.8 rating

However, 48 of those yards came on this well-designed, well-executed play at the end of the first half that came this close to reaching the end zone. (By the way, that's your starting quarterback trailing Zeke on the play and the prospect of Dak gathering a final lateral to complete a miracle play almost makes my head explode.) So outside of that play Prescott netted 189 yards on 26 attempts.

Otherwise Dak was pretty much Dak. Understanding the Chargers weren't going to allow deep shots he employed the running backs and tight ends (11 targets). CeeDee Lamb was targeted nine times and caught 8 of the balls for 81 yards. But 38 came on the end-of-half play, meaning Lamb's other 8 targets netted only 43 yards (barely 5 yards per attempt).

In addition, Dak air-mailed this pass which resulted in an early game interception. This came right after a super Trevon Diggs interception and is the opposite of the "complimentary football" McCarthy likes to preach.

Running Back: A

Sunday, in Tony Pollard's 34th game as a Cowboys player, Dallas finally utilized him properly. Every game up until Sunday Pollard has either:

  • been used sparingly, with few carries or touches
  • been used in advantageous situations when the Cowboys had large leads

Never previously has Pollard been an integral part of the offense from the opening whistle and throughout a competitive game. Sunday he was given that opportunity and shined. Not only did Pollard find the end-zone on the team's opening touchdown drive, he also showed off his speed on this well-blocked play.

Pollard's final numbers were terrifically efficient (140 yards and a touchdown on 16 touches). More importantly, he consistently made plays. I'm hoping this is a sign the coaching staff is finally going to utilize a two-running back approach and stop insisting on using Ezekiel Elliott as a one-man unit.

Speaking of Zeke he did what he does: he ran hard and tough and protected his quarterback and found the end zone from short yardage.

Zeke, a bruising, straight-ahead runner who now lacks quickness or any swerve, looks like a much better contributor when with teamed with Pollard than as a guy getting 20-25 touches every game. The two could prove to be a devastating combo.

Wide Receiver: B-

A week after being targeted 41 times for 303 yards and 4 touchdown the wide receiver group saw very little action. Again, this was largely driven by the Chargers 2-high safety scheme. The numbers tell the story:

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So the volume numbers declining is expected. Still, you'd like for the efficiency numbers to be better. And remember, the yardage number is inflated by the end-of-half play. With little opportunities downfield Cooper, Lamb and Wilson were largely left to manufacture yards after the catch on shallow routes.

More often than not there wasn't much there. In fact, it was Cedric Wilson who flashed the best open field abilities on this impressive play.

The difference between weeks one and two in terms of opportunities and production are stark:

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Again, this isn't a bad thing. It illustrates a coaching staff able and willing to adapt and that's something we should all applaud.

Tight End: B

It's now relatively clear what this team has in Dalton Schultz and Blake Jarwin. Both are capable route runners, have relatively sure hands and can add some yards after catch. They aren't dominant pass-catching tight ends but they're definitely capable. I'd give Schutz the edge because he just seems to have a knack for slithering for those extra yards after getting his hands on the ball.

But both are below average when it comes to blocking. And really, this is why Schultz and Jarwin are headed towards lucrative but undecorated careers and Jason Witten is headed to the Hall of Fame. Witten, in his prime, was better at getting open but was also much better as a blocker. We've seen multiple times this year already where Schultz and Jarwin have struggled in that area.

Sunday was pretty typical for the two. Six targets with five catches worth 55 yards. Neither had a hugely impactful play, either positive or negative.

On the year, the passing numbers tell an encouraging story:

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Fourteen catches on 15 targets at 8 yards a clip is pretty damn good. Across an entire season this would translate to 960 yards on 120 attempts. Only Travis Kelce and Darren Waller had more yards among tight ends in 2020. What's been lacking is the impact play. But if these two keep catching everything thrown their way good things will happen.

Offensive Line: B+

Going into Sunday's game many fans and analysts expressed concern about 2nd year offensive tackle Terence Steel facing off against all world edge rusher Joey Bosa. With good reason. Steele struggled mightily last year after being unfairly thrown to the wolves after injuries decimated the Cowboys' tackles.

But Steele held up quite well. No, it wasn't a dominant performance but he prevented Bosa from wrecking the Cowboys' scheme or making a game-changing play. And that's a huge win considering the situation.

Overall the Cowboys' offensive line played well, consistently opening lanes for Elliott and Pollard. Only a couple sacks blemished the scorecard, with this drive-ending sack of Prescott proving particularly costly.

Defensive Line: B-

When both of your starting edge rushers are out, this was always going to be a struggle. Add the fact the rest of the defensive line is a motley crew of unproven youngsters and discarded, low-rent veterans and this had the potential to be a disaster.

It wasn't a disaster. But it also wasn't great. This play where Herbert converts 3rd-and-15 illustrates how he often had all day to make plays. The only player who really flashed was rookie Micah Parsons. Asked to step in and play a position he hasn't played since high school Parsons was electric, constantly beating his man to get pressure on Herbert. He also recorded one of the team's two sack on this mammoth play to force a Chargers' field goal in the red zone.

Notably this group, for the second week in a row, stymied the opponent's run game. In two games the Dallas defense has surrendered 147 rushing yards. Teams seemingly had that number by halftime last year, so that's a dramatic improvement. Rookie Osa Odigizuwa seemed particularly disruptive in this area and looks like an interior contributor.

Frankly, it's fairly impressive this group has been able to at least be adequate considering all the absences:

  • Demarcus Lawrence
  • Randy Gregory
  • Trysten Hill
  • Chauncey Gholston

That's four names, including the team's best lineman, a second starter and two expected contributors missing. This easily could have been a disaster. And yet the group, overall, is playing light years ahead of the pathetic performance we saw in 2020.

Linebacker: B-

Quite a few people have noted that Jaylon Smith, with an increased snap count due to Micah Parsons move to defensive end, looked better than what we've become accustomed to. And that's true, he did look better. But that's because Smith's bar is so low that anything other than "pathetic" is an improvement.

Smith did make a few plays and helped contain the dangerous Austin Ekelar. But, as we've seen so often the past couple years, Smith routinely got caught in the wash and found himself backpedaling 6-7-8 yards downfield. Yes, it was better than we've seen but it's still not good enough.

Leighton Vander Esch has a significantly better performance. He was credited with one of the team's two sacks. He also drew a holding penalty that negated one Chargers' touchdown. LVE finished with 7 tackles, a sack, 2 tackles for loss and a hit on the quarterback. That's on 17 fewer snaps than Smith saw. Why the coaches have Smith higher in the linebacker pecking order than the former first round pick is hard to understand.

Secondary: B+

Through two weeks this group has largely been feast or famine. They seem to yoyo back and forth between allowing opposing quarterbacks to rack up big passing numbers or making big plays to take the ball away or thwart a drive. That's a huge improvement from what we've seen for most of the past decade (when we witnessed only the first part of that equation).

On the one hand Justin Herbert completed 31 passes for 338 yards. Receivers were able to find empty spaces at times and the Chargers gained at least 43 yards on six of their seven drives, including drives of 97, 74, 69 and 67.

But this group again flashed playmaking skills that have been woefully absent from the Cowboys' secondary for years. On the Chargers' first drive Trevon Diggs made this outstanding interception. It was Diggs' second interception in as many games in 2021 and his 5th in 13 career starts. (Just by comparison, Byron Jones has four interceptions in 89 career starts). Diggs would add six tackles and a pass defensed as well.

Lots of analysts like to poopoo using interceptions to grade cornerbacks and there's a lot of logic to that. But interceptions aren't meaningless and Diggs has quickly shown he has a knack for it. Also for the second game in a row Damontae Kazee generated a late-game, end zone turnover that ended an opponent's drive at a critical juncture.

But perhaps the best game from this group came from Jayron Kearse. Pushed into a starting role due to Donovan Wilson's absence Kearse made plays all over the field. First, he was robbed of a fantastic interception on this play.This is such a great play; the sticky coverage, the ball awareness, the athleticism to tip and then catch the ball. The pass interference call should never have been made. Kearse would add a defensed pass, a quarterback hurry and a tackle for loss.

The Cowboys brass has forever refused to invest any type of draft or salary cap resources in the safety position. And it's been a source of angst among fans and pundits for just as long. Well, whether through dumb luck or divine providence the combination of a late round draft pick (Wilson) and three barrell-scraping free agent signings (Kazee, Kearse and Maliek Hooker) the Cowboys have apparently stumbled into a competent group.

Finally, through two weeks the secondary has 4 interceptions, 9 passes defensed, 2 QB hurries, 2 tackles for loss a fumble forced and a fumble recovered. I doubt they'll end up with 32 picks on the year but the it's safe to say the Cowboys' newfound penchant for taking the ball away is largely due to the playmaking skills on the back end.

Special Teams: B-

Greg Zuerlein calmly knocked this 56-yarder through the uprights from 56 yards away to win on the game's final play. That can make up for a lot of sins on special teams. As noted above, Zuerlein is unusually capable of making such kicks so kudos to the front office (and probably special teams coach John Fassell) for having such a player on the roster for just such a situation. Zuerlein's ho-hum conversion of such a kick was indeed impressive, especially coming off a disastrous week 1 performance in Tampa Bay.

Beyond that, however, the special teams struggled. For seemingly the nth year in a row the return game seems anemic. If Tony Pollard is able to return a kick off past the 20 it feels like a monumental accomplishment. Punt returns don't far any better.

On the plus side the coverage units didn't allow any big returns, as they had against Tampa. But we did have two more blunders. First, the punt return unit was called for roughing the punter on a 4th-and-20 near midfield. The punt return unit was also called for a penalty on the Chargers final punt of the game. This forced the Cowboys to start the eventual game-winning drive from their own 13-yard line.

Cowboys' special teams units are on pace for 32 penalties, which is bad. Zuerlein's kick made up for a lot of bad but this group still has a long way to go.

Summary:

Prior to the season I think most rational fans looking at the Cowboys' schedule would have been happy with a 1-1 record after starting with two road games against the Super Bowl champs and an ascendant Chargers' team. So the record is about what was expected. But how we got here should be very encouraging to fans in my opinion.

The offense has been everything we hoped for. It's dynamic and represents a serious threat to any defense. It's also been missing key pieces with Zack Martin, La'el Collins and Michael Gallup all missing time. Often in the past a missing starter or two doomed this unit.

On the defensive side the hope was this unit could become leage-average. And that's right about where they are. Impressively, the turnover binge that started last year against crummy opposing quarterbacks has continued against better competition. That's the good news. The bad news is relying on turnovers to make up for an inability to otherwise get off the field is an iffy proposition.

But, this group has also had it's fair share of injuries and will be getting names like Demarcus Lawrence, Randy Gregory and Trysten Hill back. It's a young group and has the potential to improve and get better. And best of all Micah Parsons looks like a demon back there. He alone makes the Cowboys' defense better than what we've seen for years.

The schedule looks a bit easier with home games against the Eagles, Panthers and Giants. If Dallas can string together solid performances at home this has the making of a season to remember.


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