O-Line Woes Continue On The Road
The Cowboys once again came up with a dud of a performance on the road this season.
Sunday afternoon in Buffalo is just one of a what has become a trend for Dallas – can’t beat good teams on the road. Honestly, they can’t beat some bad teams on the road either, but I guess Arizona might just be an anomaly this season.
But more concerning is the way this Cowboys team plays on the road against a good football team.
They have played seven road games and have lost four of them, three of which were blowouts.
But this last one in Buffalo is the most concerning.
The Cowboys offensive line got abused. They committed multiple penalties, allowed multiple quarterback pressures, seven quarterback hits and three sacks. They also lost a ton of experience when right guard Zack Martin went down with a game-ending quad injury in the first quarter. He was replaced by undrafted rookie T.J. Bass.
It was a tough damn day in upstate New York for the hogs.
And that sucks, because when the offensive line struggles, the whole offense struggles.
The pressure the Bills were able to get threw off the timing of the Cowboys passing game, and more importantly affected the eyes of quarterback Dak Prescott.
It was one read at the snap of the ball for Prescott before the pressure caused his eyes to drop in search of either his checkdown or his escape route.
Because the Cowboys offensive line could not hold off the Bills front seven, their corners were able to sit on the routes run by the Dallas’ receivers. They knocked away nine of Prescott’s 13 misses, including two sure interceptions that were dropped before Christian Benford finally got an easy interception on an overthrow by Prescott in the fourth quarter.
Before the interception, Prescott was sacked three times. The first came when Leonard Floyd beat Terence Steele as Dak escaped the grasp of Ed Oliver, who beat left guard Tyler Smith, in the first quarter.
The second sack came in the third quarter when the Bills brought a linebacker blitz on the left side and the trio of defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, defensive end Greg Rousseau and linebacker Terrel Bernard caved in the whole right side of the Cowboys offensive line – right guard T.J. Bass, Steele and tight end Luke Schoonmaker, and smothered Prescott before he could escape.
The third and final sack was a work of art, confusing one of the best young left guards in the game and future hall of fame left tackle. On the snap, outside linebacker Leonard Floyd shot through the gap between left guard Tyler Smith and left tackle Tyron Smith, while Phillips, who was lined up outside of the tackle, stunted inside and beat Tyron Smith up the middle of the pocket as Prescott stepped up to avoid outside pressure. He was a sitting duck for just Phillips second solo sack of the season.
This game mirrored what happened in San Francisco (4 sacks, one personal foul penalty on the offensive line) and in Arizona (2 sacks, 5 penalties).
When the offensive line struggles to slow down an aggressive defensive front, then the offensive has not been able to generate the kind of production they need to be successful. It’s that simple.
Listen, good teams lose. Even Super Bowl contenders lose, at home and on the road.
What good teams and Super Bowl contenders don’t do is get blowout out. And certainly not multiple times in a season
The Cowboys path to their first Super Bowl in nearly 28 full seasons will again likely start on the road, and, in all likelihood, down in Tampa Bay for a second-straight season.
If this team can’t fix their road woes, and more importantly their offensive line problems away from AT&T Stadium, then this year’s playoff run might not be much longer than a trip to south Florida.