Cowboys Enter Bye With Challenges
The Cowboys exited the pre-bye week portion of the schedule at 4-2 after last night’s 20-17 win over the Chargers in southern California.
They are probably pretty happy at the Star this morning, but there is a lot of work ahead as they take the week off before facing the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, Oct. 29, at noon inside AT&T Stadium.
Let’s take a quick rip through the bad here today, before we get to the good tomorrow.
With 13 days until they play again, the Cowboys have five real challenges before them – penalties, the play of the offensive line, the passing game, the early game running attack and the team’s health. All need to be addressed.
—> First, the need to clean up the penalties – both pre-snap and during the play. In last night’s win, they were penalized 11 times for 85 yards, and it could have been much worse. They had several penalties – defensive offsides, defensive holding and offensive holding, that were not accepted by the Chargers. This has been a recurring theme through the first six games of the season. The Cowboys lead the league in penalties with 46 accepted – 20 of which are pre-snap, 10 declined and two that were offsetting. In their 904 snaps this season, the Cowboys are averaging a penalty every 19.5 plays. That is worst in the NFL, as no other team is under the 21-play mark. There is work to be done here.
—> The offensive line has some real work to do if this team is going to get better. They played together as a complete unit for just the second time this season against the Chargers, but struggled to protect Dak Prescott, who was sacked five times. Since reuniting as a unit against the 49ers, the O-line has been called for 17 penalties, given up 15 sacks and led the running game to just 3.94 yards a carry. Left tackle Tyron Smith looks slow; left guard Tyler Smith has been called for seven penalties; center Tyler Biadasz is good at snapping, but the rest of his game is a struggle; right guard Zack Martin still looks slowed from his early-season ankle injury; and right tackle Terence Steele looks a step slow while still recovering from his ACL surgery late last season. There is a lot of money invested in this group, so it is time to start performing like it. They have 13 days to get some things cleaned up and get healthy.
—> The passing attack has been a struggle at times this season, with Prescott having a tough time finding open receivers. CeeDee Lamb, who now has 34 yards on 475 catches this season, made his frustrations known during and after the loss to San Francisco that he wants the ball. If the Cowboys are going to win consistently, then he is right, they need to get Lamb the ball more than they have. They did that early and often against the Chargers, where he racked up seven catches on seven targets for 117 yards. But for long-term success, the Cowboys are going to need someone other than Lamb to start making big plays. Brandin Cooks made a couple last night, but the teams nominated No. 2 receiver Michael Gallup has been more than inconsistent. He has 204 yards receiving, but just 18 catches on 32 targets. Cooks, who has 10, is the only other player on the team with double digit difference between targets and catches. The Cowboys lack a playmaker at tight end, which also puts more pressure on the wide outs. It is a quandary that looks like it is going to have to fix itself in-house.
The Cowboys must find a way to establish the run early in the game, which they really done just twice this season.
—> The running attack has gained 299 yards on 73 carries in the first half this season, which is 4.09 per carry. Only twice – in the loss to Arizona and the win over the Chargers, did the Cowboys rush for more than 4.0 yards per carry in the opening 30 minutes of the game. The Cowboys RB1 got 45 of those carries for 144 yards and just a 3.2 yards per carry average. The only games he bested his average per carry came in the loss to Arizona, where he had nine carries for 50 yards, and in the win over New England, where he had seven carries for 26 yards in the first half. If the Cowboys want to find long-term success, they will have to get the ground attack, and especially Pollard, going early.
—> Finally, the Cowboys have got to get healthy. I know they are not going to Trevon Diggs back this season, and Leighton Vander Esch and C.J. Goodwin are out for the foreseeable future, but the guys left in the lineup must stay on the field. Everyone has nagging injuries this time of year, but it’s imperative that Dallas uses this bye week to get some of those guys back to 100-percent. The list of players that are playing hurt is too long to mention, but here are a few key guys that must get healthy for the Cowboys make it to the postseason – right guard Zack Martin (ankle), safety Donovan Wilson (ankle), running back Tony Pollard (shoulder), safety Malik Hooker (shoulder), defensive tackle Neville Gallimore (knee), center Tyler Biadasz (ankle) and linebacker/safety Markquese Bell (shoulder). That’s a lot of guys the Cowboys count on heavily to make an impact for this team. If any one of them miss a significant amount of time over the final 11 weeks of the season, the team will be in real trouble.
The bye week, while it seems early at Week 7, probably could not have come at a better time for this team. No time to sit around and enjoy the vacation, there is a lot to be done before the Cowboys take on the Rams in Week 9.
Tomorrow, we look what’s going right for the team. So, make sure you come back through!