Post by prossman on Sept 16, 2016 22:57:20 GMT -7
Cowboys – Looking Good Losin’
Posted on September 14, 2016 by Connor Livesay 7 Comments
After a tough one point loss to the New York Giants last Sunday the Cowboys are back at practice preparing for a road game in Washington. Sunday was the first real game that counted for the Cowboys and unfortunately it did not end the way they had planned. But not everything about this game was negative. In fact a a lot of the game went in the Cowboys favor, but in the end the game ended in a 20-19 win for the Giants.
To start off I thought both big name rookies showed a lot in their first starts in the NFL. Dak Prescott finished the game 25/45 for 227 yards no touchdowns and no interceptions. The play calling to start the game was fantastic. Play action, running game was doing it’s job, and receivers were making big plays. Early on this Dallas offense was moving the football with ease against a stout Giants defense. Prescott was having no problem connecting with Cole Beasley and Jason Witten on short to intermediate routes but struggled finding Dez, Williams, and Butler down the field. Both Beasley and Dez dropped touchdowns passes that would have certainly changed the outcome of the game. Overall Prescott’s debut was solid. He did enough to win the game for the Cowboys but the play calling and lack of production from the other receivers not named Cole or Jason were critical failures.
For the other rookie it wasn’t as easy. Ezekiel Elliot finished the game with 20 carries for 51 yards and a touchdown. On the touchdown run Zeke used his great vision and balance to find the hole, hit the hole and find the end-zone. Outside of that run the running game was tough for Elliott. The Giants showed up to AT&T Stadium and planned to play the run. Almost every play when Zeke was in the backfield there was seven or eight and sometimes even nine New York Giants defenders in the box playing the run. That was mainly due to the lack of downfield passing. The offensive line struggled badly against this new defensive line for the Giants in the run game. La’el Collins had a rough day against Damon Harrison. Doug Free also had a tough day against Jason Pierre-Paul. This game showed how much James Hanna is missed. Witten did not have a great game blocking and Swaim and Escobar are non-factors in the blocking scheme. Look for Zeke and this offensive line to bounce back this weekend against a more favorable match up in Washington.
I’ve been one of the few people out of everyone in Cowboys Nation that has felt good about this defense. Some people may blame this loss on the defense but I disagree completely. The defense again held Odell Beckham Jr. to an average outing. ODB finished the game with 4 receptions for 73 yards and no touchdowns. Eli Manning did find three other targets to hit in the end zone. Eli’s stat line was 19/28 for 207 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 interception. All three of the touchdowns where in the red-zone and all three passes were fit into tight windows.
Larry Donnell caught one of those touchdown down the seam with Anthony Hitchens in coverage. Hitchens was in a bad position as soon as the play developed but was not lost by any means. The second touchdown was to Sterling Sheppard on a fade route. Rookie Anthony Brown was in great coverage on Sheppard and actually had his hand in between the Giants wide receivers arms and had a shot to break up the pass but J.J. Wilcox ran into Brown (instead of Sheppard) destroying the shot. The third and final touchdown for the Giants was to Victor Cruz. That was probably the easiest score for the Giants as Cruz just ran a simple slant route near the goal line late in the fourth quarter.
Personally I have no complaints about the way the secondary played. Claiborne had a great game, Carr had an interception on the opening drive of the second half, and Byron Jones made a couple of big plays to stall Giants drives. Orlando Scandrick still seems to be working his way back but did not have a terrible game, Scandrick had a sack and a forced fumble on his stat sheet to finish the game.
And now we get to address the defensive line. Was it great? No. Was it terrible? No. I thought the Cowboys defensive line did a good job on pressuring a quarterback who gets the ball out so fast that pressuring him is very hard to do. Benson Mayowa had multiple efforts that resulted in Eli rushing his throws resulting in incompletions. Mayowa also had a sack in Sundays game. Terrell McClain had a great game and you can see how big of a factor he can be when healthy. Outside of those two guys Maliek Collins had a couple of nice rushes and showed his potential. Cedric Thornton and David Irving provided some quality snaps in limited playing time as well. Tyrone Crawford probably had the worst game out of all the defensive lineman and that’s an issue. For this defense to work Crawford must pick it up and fast.
In the end I believe this coaching staff has to look in the mirror and take just as much credit for this loss as the players did. The players moved the ball and made plays on defense but it seemed like the Cowboys simply got out coached in the red-zone. The Cowboys did a great job of converting on third downs, containing Beckham, and giving their team the best chance to win and if they would have made a couple more plays or maybe just maybe got out of bounds once or twice (sigh) the game would have ended a different way. The Cowboys visit another division rival this Sunday in the Redskins and must find a way to pull this one out. Starting the season 0-2 with two division loses would be a huge disadvantage for the Cowboys and making it very hard for the Cowboys to climb out of a hole that could be rather deep if the Giants can beat the Saints or the Eagles beat the Saints.