As I did with last week’s game, I will break down each of the three “Romo Friendly” keys for victory and see how well (or how badly) the ‘Boys did in achieving each. Hopefully this analysis will allow us to see the reasons why the Cowboys were beat so soundly.

Key #1: Balance

As with last week, I said the Cowboys needed to remain balanced and stay within a 55-60% pass play rate. Against the Vikings, the Cowboys ran 66 plays and only ran the ball 25 times. That leaves us with a total result of 62.1% pass for the game. Now, while this pass rate is clearly above the bounds I set for this key, keep in mind that the Cowboys entered desperation mode in the fourth quarter and went very pass heavy in order to try and make it a game.

The thing to take home here is that Garrett did not abandon the run completely as he has done in previous losses. I was actually rather pleasantly surprised to see Garrett stick to the run while opening the second half. Typically, this would be a situation in which Garrett knee-jerks and uses the passing game as a clutch to play catch up. This time around that did not happen and the rushing game put together a respectable 92 yards on the ground against one of the best rushing defenses in the league.

You can’t completely place a blame on Garrett for passing just a little bit more than this key required. Garrett put together a decent, balanced gameplan, but it just didn’t work and the Vikings stopped it in it’s tracks.

Key #2: Tony Romo

For this key, Romo needed to try to reach for the 300 yard plateau and ensure he turned the ball over no more than once. To say that this key resulted in failure was an understatement.

Romo finished the day 22/35 (62.9%) for 198 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT, 3 fumbles with 2 of those being lost. The critical key of protecting the ball game back to bite the Cowboys hard as they fell to 0-5 when Romo turns the ball over more than once. On top of that, Romo feel just over 100 yards short of the 300 mark.

However, it is tough to completely blame everything on Romo based on just these numbers. Despite the turnovers, it is hard to claim he was inaccurate and not trying to take care of the ball and his 62.9% completion rate attests to that. The two lost fumbles came on the result of sacks on Romo: one was flat out ripped from his arms as he went down on a sack, and the other was the result of a clean blindside shot Romo never saw coming. On top of that, Romo was sacked four more times beyond that, resulting in a total of 6 sacks given up on the day for Dallas.

Romo was running for dear life the entire game. Even his lone INT came as a result of trying to get away from the pocket collapsing around him. It didn’t seem to matter what the Cowboys called, whether it was a max protect scheme or short dump routes, Romo simply did not get the time he needed. He couldn’t take any real shots downfield and was restricted to passes 20 yards and shorter–if he could even get those off.

Make no mistake, Romo must shoulder at least part of the blame for not taking care of the ball, but I don’t think even Peyton Manning could’ve won behind our line. Either way, following key #2 was a complete and utter failure.

Key #3: Red Zone

For this key, I said the Cowboys needed to make the most of their red zone chances. I also added on that for this tough road game, they’d have to get a TD in their first red zone trip and they must get it early to take the crowd out of the game.

That flat out never happened; in fact, the Cowboys only had a single trip into the red zone. To make matters worse, that trip resulted in a “goal to go” situation in which the Cowboys failed to convert. As far as the timing of the trip, it came at the beginning of the second quarter, but more importantly, it happened while the score was only 7-0. The Cowboys had a chance to shake off everything that had happened to that point, and tie the game on a superb 82 yard drive and silence the crowd.

Instead, Felix Jones was stuffed up the middle, Romo was sacked and then Romo was under severe pressure and forced to throw the ball away. The Cowboys left points on the board and had to settle for a field goal. As I had warned before, you can’t do that against good teams because they will cash in. The Vikings did just that and immediately scored a TD on the next drive. Instead of the worst case scenario being 14-7, a single possession game, the Cowboys were then faced with a two-score deficit of 14-3.

The Vikings never looked back after that. Key #3 was also a monumental failure.

The Verdict

As the title says, the offense completely ran into a wall. Of the three keys, you can only make an argument that one was achieved, the other two (Romo and the red zone) resulted in a complete disaster that reflected the outcome of the game. Simply put, the Vikings defense (especially their pass rush) flat out beat the Cowboys. There isn’t a whole lot that you can do as an offense when you lose the battle in the trenches and the opposing defensive line seems to be in the backfield every play.

The Cowboys have had a good run, but all good things must eventually come to an end. This time around, the end came in Minnesota and there really wasn’t much the Cowboys good to about it.

Tip your hat to Minnesota because they simply overwhelmed the ‘Boys.

However, stories of future Trojan sanctions and Kiffykins’ special “recruiting methods” will have to wait for another time and be written on in another place. It’s time to get back to work, break down the Cowboys offense and see what lead to our team’s first postseason victory in 13 long years.

Throughout the regular season, my goal was to analyze just exactly what the “Romo Friendly” offense means. Last week was the culmination of all of that research, allowing me to isolate the most important aspects of the Cowboys offense and come up with the three “Romo Friendly” keys to victory. This week, we will take a look at each key and see how well the Cowboys did in achieving each one. Based on this analysis, I will judge the validity of these three keys and see if they need to be changed for this Sunday’s matchup against the Vikings.

Key #1: Play Calling Balance

For this key, I said the Cowboys offense needed to stay within the lower end of what I determined was the “sweet spot” of pass plays being called: 55-60%. While the Cowboys have found success staying around the lower 60-percentile of pass plays in a game, I felt the rushing attack needed to be featured more prominently than usual based on the success the Cowboy have had against the Eagles on the ground and also the fact a solid running game would keep the quick strike offense off the field.

In round three against the Eagles, the Cowboys ran a total of 72 plays with 35 being runs and 37 coming through the air. This means we had an incredibly low rate of 51% pass for the entire game, which was even lower than I was expecting. However, digging a little bit deeper into the game, I realized the Cowboys did most of their damage in the first half of this game and understandably went very ground heavy in the second half.

So to get a better idea of Garret’s initial game plan, I did some additional analysis. I took a look at all the drives before the two minute warning. I choose this point for two reasons. First, the Cowboys were able to put up a sizable 24-7 lead at that point. Second, running a drive in the two minute drill means nothing but passing as a necessity (and in that drive the Cowboys were indeed 100% pass) and fails to give a good picture of the gameplan Garret had. With this in mind, the Cowboys ran 40 plays in that period of time with 16 rushes and 24 pass plays being called. This leads to a total of 60% pass plays being run in the first half pre-two minute drill, falling quite perfectly into the upper bound that I had set in my “Romo Friendly” key.

Garret came into the game with the perfect game plan. Key #1 was definitely achieved.

Key #2: Tony Romo

Last week, I found out that Tony Romo had two big statistical figures pop out. First was that he was 7-1 when he passes for over 300 yards, but more importantly Romo was 0-3 whenever he turned the ball over more than once in a game. With that in mind, for this key it was absolutely critical that Romo not turn the ball over more than once, and that getting over 300 yards would likely be a clincher in this game.

The result: Romo went 23/35 (65.7) for 244 yards and 2 TDs. More importantly, Romo did not turn over the ball at all. While Romo had a sub-300 yard game, as with the play balance, this should be taken in better context as the Cowboys clearly went more conservative in the second half. Romo’s numbers definitely reflect this as Romo threw the ball 27 times in the first half for 203 of his 244 yards. It’s quite hard to grab those 97 yards in the second half when you only throw the ball 8 more times.

The point here is that while Romo didn’t hit the 300 yard mark, it could be argued that if the Cowboys didn’t call of the dogs, he could’ve easily hit that mark. However, no matter which way you slice it, Romo didn’t turn the ball over at all and that was easily the bigger part of this key in my eyes. Needless to say, key #2 was also very much achieved.

Key #3: Red Zone

For this key, I didn’t really give exact numbers; however, I didn’t want to see the repeated woeful red zone efforts that had plagued much of the Cowboys season, especially against the Eagles. The mantra for this key was more or less to not leave a ton of points on the field.

This time around, the Cowboys were converted 3 of their 6 red zone visits into TDs. All three TDs came in “goal to go” situations, in which the Cowboys finished 3/4. Even more encouraging is the fact that the Cowboys were able to get points in all “goal to go” situations as the only failure resulted in a field goal. The other two red zone failures, however, did not result in points and penalties were to blame. While one of these failures came in the fourth quarter when it didn’t matter, the first failure came on the first drive for Dallas. Instead of getting points to start the game, the Cowboys were forced to punt.

Thankfully, that did not come back to haunt the Cowboys; however, it remains a very big point of concern going forward. Getting points on the board early is always a great boost and, when on the road, can silence a crowd.

For the most part, key #3 was a success.

The Verdict

The Cowboys hit perfectly on the first two “Romo Friendly” keys and did a very good job in following the third key. It is no surprised to me that the Cowboys were not able to win, but win easily against the Eagles because of this. Based on this success, I feel it is safe to say that these three “Romo Friendly” keys will again need to be followed when the Cowboys travel up north to Minnesota.

The only addendum that I wish to add is to the third key of scoring while in the red zone. Considering the Cowboys are going to be in quite the hostile environment, the first time they sniff the red zone they must score a touchdown. Preferably, this will happen on the first couple Cowboy possessions to take the crowd out of the game fast. The Cowboys simply cannot afford to leave the door open for Brett Favre and company by failing to put 7 points on the board. This will only feed a hostile crowd and it would also have the potential to make the Cowboys dig their way out of a hole they shouldn’t have been in to start.

So, to refresh, the three “Romo Friendly” keys to become NFC Title game bound:

1) Balance: Gameplan must be within the bounds of 55-60% pass.
2) Romo: Critical that he does not turn the ball over more than once and must shoot for the 300 yard plateau.
3) Red Zone: Must score points when in the red zone and it’s critical that the Cowboys turn their first red zone visit into a TD

While I will go through my usual breakdown of last week’s game, I will also take a look forward to Saturday’s final showdown against the Eagles. We now have two games of offensive data against the Eagles to take a look at as well as an entire season’s worth of information. Armed with this information, I will give you my “Romo Friendly” keys to a Cowboys victory.

There’s a lot to run through this week, so let’s get started.

Just How “Romo Friendly” Were We?

Tony Romo ended the season unlike any other in his career. Instead of limping to the finish line, Romo went 24/34 (70.6%) for 311 yards, 2 TDs, and 1 INT. Romo once again went over the 300 yard plateau and save for one unfortunate red zone INT, had a very solid performance.

This game allowed Romo to put a cleat to the throat of the “December swoon” gorilla that has been clutched to his back these past few seasons. In the final five games of the season, Romo went 131/191 (68.6%), for 1,550 yards, 9 TDs, and only 2 INTs, leading to a QB rating of 104.4. These five games have lead to Romo’s best month by far. The only stat in which he feel short of any month was INTs, as he threw only 1 in October (however, he played 2 less games in that month).

Even more surprising was that Romo was able to do this while being sacked 9 times in the past five games, which was only second to his November sack numbers of 14. This is significant because it completely blows my theory of “Romo is awful when he is sacked a lot” out of the water as November and December/January were easily his best stretches of football.

Simply put, Romo has figured it out despite the performance of his line or the month the calendar reads.

Checking the Balance

The Cowboys ran 68 plays this past Sunday against the Eagles; however, 3 of those were Romo taking a knee to kill the clock, so we will exclude those this week. With that in mind, Jason Garrett dialed up 29 runs and 36 passes, resulting in a pass play being called 55.4% of the time. Once again, we called a very balanced game and stayed within the sweet spot of upper-50 to mid-60% passing that seems to have been working so well for us. There are absolutely no complaints from me in this department.

In the targets department though, we seem to have a repeat of a very shocking development that started last week with everyone’s favorite stone-handed receiver. However, that wasn’t the only trend that continued. Romo top targets were once again Miles Austin and Jason Witten whom saw 9 and 7 throws go their way respectively. Patrick Crayton stepped up as Romo’s third option having 6 targets on the day (and he made the most of them, leading the Cowboys in receiving yards on the day with 99 on just 4 catches). Marion Barber followed with 4 balls coming his way. Fellow RB, Felix Jones, was the fifth option with 3 targets. John Phillips was next in liine with 2 targets. Rounding out the day was the trio of Kevin Ogletree, Martellus Bennett, and Roy E. Williams with a single pass being thrown each of their ways.

That’s right, Romo once again completely cut Roy Williams out of the offense. After that single pass, the camera had a telling replay of Romo’s face. His expression spoke volumes, and looked to say “well, here we go again, I gave you a shot and you completely screwed it up, no more for you.” Save for pump fakes going Roy’s direction, Romo didn’t even bother thinking about throwing the ball his way and Roy saw as many passes come his way as a TE and a WR that are quite low on the depth chart.

Sure wish we had those draft picks back…

Anyways, Romo did his job spreading the ball and making life miserable for the Eagles secondary. He threw the ball to nine different targets and seven of them recorded receptions (only Bennett and Williams failed to record a reception). You can’t ask for much more than that.

The Verdict

This NFC East Championship effort was exactly the kind of offensive effort I look for from the Cowboys. Romo had yet another solid game and our rushing game helped to compliment it as Barber and Jones each had 91 yards to their credit. The Cowboys made great use of all of their offensive weapons and kept the Eagles defense off balance all game long.

Not only was the Eagle’s defense off balance, but they were also constantly on the field. While that is of course a testament to superb defensive play, you don’t hold the ball for over 40 minutes in a game without some great game planning and play calling. And when you face an offense that can strike quick like the Eagles, the more they are off the field, the better.

“Romo Friendly” Keys to Victory

So now that we have taken a look at how the Cowboys were able to emerge victorious, how can the Cowboys ensure a three game sweep over the Eagles to get their first playoff win in 13 years?

First, let’s take a look on how the season ended up for us as far as balance goes. Overall, the Cowboys ran 1020 plays on the season with 436 on the ground and 584 called passes. This equates to a 57.2% rate of pass plays being called on the season. There is no doubt that we do lean to the pass to find our success, which has been one of the main reasons I have been saying for quite a while now that our “sweet spot” is somewhere between mid-50 to low-60% pass being called.

But does that number really have merit? Let’s consider our losses this season. In the five games the Cowboys have lost, the Cowboys ran 326 plays, with 118 being runs and 208 being called passes, leading to a total of 63.8% pass being called in the losses. While that does seem to be close to the “sweet spot” I initially claimed we had to hit, we need to consider that one of those losses did see a decent balance in play calling. That game was against the Giants in week 2 in which we were a perfect 50% split. If you remember though, turnovers were our doom in that game (although, I did later say <http://www.dallasprosports.com/the-romo-friendly-offense-week-2/> that with our success on the ground, I wondered why we bothered even passing). So without that loss in the equation, our passing rate then gets bumped up to 66.8%, which is definitely far too high and clearly outside the “sweet spot” boundary.

However, while this is all well and good, what of the games against the Eagles? What did those two wins look like?

We’ve seen that Dallas had a rather balanced attack this past week; however, in week 9 at Philly, Dallas actually leaned quite heavily on Romo with a final pass rate of 62.3%, which, as I noted <http://www.dallasprosports.com/romo-friendly-offense-week-9-vs-philadelphia/> , was one of the biggest leans on Romo that actually lead to a Cowboys victory. However, that passing rate still falls within the upper end of the “sweet spot” I feel we need to stay within.

The lesson from our losses should be loud and clear: we must remain balanced. Garrett deciding to go pass happy will spell our doom. Even though we can pass more than 60% and still find success, if you will remember the week 9 effort against the Eagles was quite a hard fought battle and did not come nearly as easily this last victory did. So with that being said, for the Cowboys to find success, I want to see a passing rate between 55-60%. As blitz happy as the Eagles will be, we will need to protect Romo and a great way to do that (as well as counter blitzes) will be to ensure we run the ball.

The other key to the game should be fairly obvious to everyone: Romo needs to play well. In both wins against the Eagles, Romo threw for over 300 yards and only turned the ball over once in each game; in fact, everyone should be pulling for yet another 300+ yard performance from him. Romo is 7-1 when he throws for over 300 yards and 4-4 when he goes sub 300. Romo also must ensure he protects the ball. Romo has only three games in which he has turned the ball over more than once; however, he is 0-3 in those efforts.

The final key to the game is the red zone. While, the Cowboys have been successful against the Eagles despite red zone woes, I definitely feel like this must change. In the two games against the Eagles, the ‘Boys have been 3/7 in the red zone and 1/3 in goal to go situations. While those subpar statistics have yet to spell our doom against Philly thus far, we are in the playoffs and red zone failures can easily lead to disaster. The Cowboys simply cannot leave points on the board in any fashion, and the difference between a red zone FG and TD is huge, especially considering our kicker woes all season.

To summarize, the “Romo Friendly” Keys to the Game:

1) Balance: Pass rate must fall within a sweet spot of 55-60%
2) Romo: 300+ could be a clincher; however, more than one Romo turnover will likely spell doom
3) Red Zone: Cowboys need to convert more red zone opportunities and not leave easy points on the board.

All kidding aside, while a 17-0 score looks very nice, it was quite misleading. After the game was over, I couldn’t help but feel like the offense played an awful game and the Cowboys were fortunate to cash in on an amazing defensive effort.

Was the cynical December Cowboys fan creeping up in me or do the numbers actually back up my initial reaction? It’s time to break down the offense once again to find out.

Just How “Romo Friendly” Were We?

Romo once again put up another solid performance going 25/38 (65.8%) for 286 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT. The interception marked Romo’s first turnover for the entire month of December, and, unfortunately for Romo, it came at the hands of Roy Williams.

Well, rather, off the hands of Roy Williams.

However, Romo has benefited quite well from several lucky breaks and dropped INTs these past few weeks. The luck was bound to even itself back out in some way eventually.

Despite the bad break though, Romo still put together a very solid performance. He came close to another 300 yard performance, found the endzone, completed well over half his passes, and took care of the ball for the most part. This game brings Romo’s December numbers to 107/157 (68.2%) for 1,239 yards, 7 TDs, 1 INT, and a 104.0 QB rating. With one game to go, Romo is now just 42 yards and 1 TD short of his November numbers. His INT, completion rate, and QB rating for this month are still tops for any month.

Romo was most definitely not the issue this game, nor has he been for this entire month.

Checking the Balance

The Cowboys ran 69 plays with 30 of them being rushes. Considering one of those rushes was a Romo kneel down though, we are looking at 68 plays, 29 rushes, and 39 passes (Romo was sacked once). This resulted in a play calling spread of 57.3% pass on the evening, which is right around the 57.1% pass mark that we had pre-December, and squarely within the “sweet spot” of mid-50% to low-60% pass that our offense seems to thrive in.

This was a very balanced game when all was said and done. No blame can be placed here either.

As far as receiving targets go, Miles Austin once again proved to be Romo’s choice as the number one receiver with 10 passes coming his way. To no surprise, Jason Witten was right behind with 7 targets. This time though, the third option was not Roy Williams, but rather Marion Barber who saw 5 passes come his way. Roy Williams and Felix Jones both followed behind Barber with 4 targets each. Crayton was thrown to 3 times. Bennett saw 2 balls come his way in his return to the active roster. And rounding out the day was the trio of Choice, Ogletree and Hurd whom each saw a pass come their way.

Of these 10 receivers though, only six of them actually recorded receptions. Perhaps most disturbing was that our supposed “number one” receiver in Roy Williams only caught one pass that was thrown his way. As Romo’s numbers showed, he definitely was not having accuracy issues throughout the night.

These receiving issues are the first red flag to a much larger issue that plagued the Cowboys in crucial situations throughout the game.

The Verdict

Execution in crucial situations is where the Cowboys failed Saturday night.

This time around though, it wasn’t in the usual place that we have seen it before: the red zone. The Cowboys were 2/3 in that area and were 2/2 in goal to go situations. The failed attempt still resulted in points and the Cowboys were definitely more concerned about bleeding the clock in that last trip inside the Washington 20.

However, the last play of that drive ended the way quite a couple of important Cowboy drives did Saturday night: on a short yardage situation.

For some reason, it seemed that the Cowboys had a complete mental block on 3rd/4th and short. The Cowboys had seven plays in which they faced 3rd or 4th down and less than two yards to go. The only time they successfully converted these attempts were on two pass plays; however, if the Cowboys ran the ball, they failed on each of their five attempts and were unable to convert for a first down. Just to reiterate, the Cowboys were 2/7 on these short yardage conversion attempts — simply awful.

The reason I am harping so much on these five plays is because they were the cause of ending three drives. While the final failure did not matter as much (Cowboys were well in control, running out the clock, and still got points), the other two failed attempt killed drives at crucial points in the game, and not only that, they caused turnovers.

As the second half started, the Cowboys gained excellent field position at their own 41 and looked to drive down the field to stomp on the neck of the reeling Redskins. However, instead, Marion Barber had two failed runs up the gut for no gain and the Redskins got new life. The very next time the Cowboys got the ball back, they found themselves pinned deep in their own territory, fought their way back and were once again threatening to score. Two failed Barber runs up the gut later, the Cowboys turned the ball over once again.

You simply cannot expect to continue winning games if you simply hand the ball back to the other team because you can’t get a single yard on the ground.

Adding on to this, you have your “top” receiver dropping balls (Roy only had one reception all game, thankfully he made it count), one of which turned into an INT. It is crunch time, and you can’t have a receiver out there on the field that drops balls when he is wide open and then smiles about it. It is no surprise Romo decided to cut Roy Williams out of the offense completely in the second half due to his sad effort.

To top it all off, you have a very disturbing lack of football smarts shown at the end of the first half by both Marion Barber and Miles Austin. Both players failed at even making an attempt to run out of bounds at the conclusion at the half. When there is less than a minute to go and you have no timeouts, if you get the ball, you need to make a move to the sideline at all costs. Instead, both men cut towards the middle of the field, causing the Cowboys to walk off at halftime without any points.

It may seem like I am nitpicking at a few isolated incidents, but those kind of plays can decide ball games. If those fourth downs are converted and either Barber or Austin makes it out of bounds, we are looking at around 6-9 points conservatively, and 14-28 on the upper end. That is simply far too many points to leave on the field in any game. There is no reason the Cowboys should not have been able to double their score and completely blow out Washington.

If the Cowboys expect to win the NFC East and to have any form of postseason success, they must execute in these crucial situations far better than they did this past Saturday night. Remember, this franchise was a Romo botched hold and a Crayton dropped pass away from getting the gigantic playoff winless streak gorilla of their backs, and continuing to make mistakes like these will end up costing them against the better teams in the NFL.

Romo has zoned in like he never has before and even the offensive balance seems to be in tune. It is time for the rest of the team to step up and follow suit.

This game was completely unlike any other we’ve seen all season. The Cowboys not only scored on their first drive for the first time this season, but also their second drive as well as their opening drive of the second half. Make no mistake about it, the offense put on one of their most dominate performances all season.

So what was different this time around and what has been missing the past couple of weeks? It’s time to break this offensive performance down and find out why.

December has become “Romo Friendly”?

Tony Romo had quite the performance Saturday night. He went 22/34 (64.7%) for 312 yards, 1 TD, 0 turnovers of any kind, and 4 rushes for 21 yards (one was a kneel to ice the game). This game was the seventh time that Romo went over the 300 pasing yard plateau and despite a couple more errant passes that should have been picks, he still remains INT free for the entire month of December. In fact, Romo has not turned the ball over in four consecutive games.

If that isn’t surprising enough for a QB that has a reputation of folding in December, check out this years monthly statistical breakdown:

September (3 games)

51/89 (57.3%), 735 yards, 4 TD, 3 INT, 85.2 QB rating

October (3 games)

66/105 (62.9%), 917 yards, 5 TD, 1 INT, 102.8 QB rating

November (5 games)

99/165 (60.0%), 1,281 yards, 8 TD, 3 INT, 93.0 QB rating

December (3 games)

82/119 (68.9%), 953 yards, 6 TD, 0 INT, 109.7 QB rating

That’s right, Tony Romo has completely inverted this season and become Mr. December statistically with a slow start in September. Romo only trails his November passing yardage by 328 yards and 2 TDs, and he has also played in two less games than that month.

As I’ve said, Romo has caught a few lucky breaks on passes that should’ve been picked off, but there is simply no doubt that Romo has not been the sole cause of the Cowboys’ recent ills.

Checking the Balance

It appears that Jason Garrett has either looked up the definition of “balanced play calling” or has put up his copy of Madden ’10. This time around the Cowboys ran 73 plays and 36 of those were rushing plays and 37 pass, giving us a shocking 50.6% pass for the game. If we wish to be completely optimistic and ignore the 3 sacks the Cowboys gave up, that leaves us with 36 runs and 34 passes for the game, allowing us to be be 51.4% rush on the day. On the flipside, if we were to look completely pessimistic at the situation, we can move the 3 of the Romo rushes into the passing category (as the other rush was a kneel), and we are left with 36 rushes and 40 passes — 54.7% pass on the day.

No matter how you twist the numbers, there is simply no doubt that Dallas had one of the most balanced attacks that we have seen all season long. This lead to 457 total yards on the day, with 145 of them being on the ground. Garrett also seemed to be quite satisfied with a 4.0 yards/carry average from his rushing game for once as well, which helped the Cowboys chew the clock and hold the ball for 36:26 — nearly 13 minutes more than the Saints had the ball (that’s nearly a whole quarter folks).

This game brought our play calling balance for December down to 59.2% pass for the month thus far. We are still slightly above the 57.1% pass mark of the remainder of the season; however, we are finally leveling off back into the realm of realistic (non-Madden style) play calling.

The offensive line had their worst performance of the month by giving up 3 sacks, bringing the month’s total to 6. We are now starting to creep closer to some of the numbers that raised red flags for me in previous Decembers; however, it doesn’t seem to be crippling Romo all too much.

As far as targeting receivers, Romo once again spread the ball around the field quite well; however, this time he definitely zeroed in on a couple of targets. Austin was by far Romo’s favorite target of the day, having 13 passes flung his way (of which he turned into an amazing 7 receptions for 139 yards and a TD). Witten followed behind with 8 targets from Romo. Then we have a step drop as Williams and Phillips each saw three passes come their way (quick note: Roy only caught one of those passes, Phillips caught all three). Ogletree and Felix Jones had two targets a piece and rounding out the day was Hurd, Barber, and Crayton who each saw a single pass come their way.

That’s a total of 9 receivers targeted and all 9 recorded at least one reception. You can’t really claimed Romo was too tunnel-visioned in this game, seeing as he clearly found quite a bit of success throwing to Austin all night long. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — Romo really didn’t have to look very hard to find the open targets in this game.

The Verdict

Clearly having much more offensive balance helped the Cowboys a lot in this game, but more telling is the fact that the Cowboys were flat out executing better as a whole and this was very prevalent in the red zone. While you may be wondering why I’m so excited about a 2/4 performance, that really isn’t the whole story. The Cowboys were 2/2 in “Goal to Goal” situations, and both of those TDs came on Barber finally looking like Barber as he pounded his way into the end zone. The two red zone “failures” came on an unfortunately facemask penalty by Flozell Adams and the Cowboys were bleeding the clock on their last red zone drive that resulted in a missed Folk FG. Taking away that last clock chewing drive, you are then left with a 2/3 day in the red zone.

Unlike previous weeks, when the Cowboys had the endzone dead in their sights, they got in. Add on to that, Garrett seemed to finally remember what a play action pass looked like and it resulted in a wide open Miles Austin scoring the games first TD.

A solid game by Romo, combined with balanced play calling that kept the Saints defense off balance all game long and superb execution in the red zone results in the game Cowboys fans have been looking for all season. When Roy Williams said that they just had to pack their bags and show up, he meant it. The ‘Boys meant business this game and played like it.

This game needs to be a offensive blueprint for the rest of the season. This was the game plan that took down an undefeated team and made them look flat out silly. If the Cowboys are hoping to end their late season and postseason woes, this performance needs to be repeated.

The cure for the December swoon has finally been found in New Orleans. Let’s see if the Cowboys will continue to take their medicine next week in our nation’s capital.

Sunday’s game is easily the most confusing and frustrating game that I have broken down all season. Throughout the year, it has been fairly easy to point out the offensive shortcomings that have caused this team to fail in their losses. However, as we all will soon see in this week’s breakdown, the story is not so clear at all. The theories, axioms, and recipes for success that I have hung my hat on all season have been shaken to the core.

Taking a Step Back

Before we move on to the game though, I think it is prudent to take a look at where we came from. This is of course, the time of the dreaded December swoon. As I stated in my first article in this series, I had a theory that one of the main issues our offense faced was increased reliance on the passing game. While that unbalanced play scheme was part of my theory, as I detailed in my blog, another part of the theory was that sacks also continued to increase as the year went on.

As far as balance goes this season, before this game, the Cowboys ran 672 plays. 288 of these have been runs and 384 have been passes, leaving us with 57.1% pass calls being called. Compare this to last season in which we ran 57.7% pass, and 2007 (our best season in the Romo era, and best December: 2-2) which saw 55.9% pass. It would seem that thus far, we were trending slightly back towards more balance in our play calling.

As far as sacks go, this season we saw 3 sacks in September, 8 in October, and 14 in November. Not a good trend to say the least. Compare this to 2008 in which we saw 2 sacks in September, 4 in October, and 1 in November. December that season? A horrific 12 sacks. In the successful 2007 campaign, the sacks were recorded 6, 5, 5, and 8 respectively.

Checking the Balance

So with all that in mind, how did the first outing in December fair against those previous numbers?

Answer: Not good at all.

The Cowboys ran 80 plays against the Giants, and only 23 were runs, leading to 71.25% pass for the entire game. Yes, we completely abandoned the run yet again. It wasn’t like we had much success running the ball though, considering we only had 45 rushing yards for the entire game, resulting in just under 2 yards/carry. Considering the Cowboys were also playing catchup for most of the second half, the gross imbalance isn’t all too surprising.

The defensive game plan for the Giants was clear: make Romo beat you and stuff the run.

This game bumped up our current balance in play calling to 58.6% this season, which thus far is the highest of the Romo/Garrett era. Again, another disturbing pattern if this continues throughout the month.

As far as sacks go, the line gave up two in the entire game. Nothing too alarming as of yet, as that pace would put us at eight sacks for December. While that number isn’t great, it would actually be an improvement from November and equal the number of December sacks in the 2007 season.

In the targets department, Romo spread the ball out to nine different receivers and eight of them recorded a reception. Jason Witten by and far led the day with 16. Miles Austin and Roy E. Williams were close behind with 12 and 10 respectively. A large drop-off then occurs as Marion Barber followed with 5 targets. Felix Jones was next with 4 targets. Martellus Bennett had 3 passes thrown his way. Patrick Crayton saw two targets on the day, and finally, Tashard Choice and John Phillips rounded out the day with a single target each.

Romo did a fine job in this department once again. Three clear top targets and forcing the Giants to cover everybody.

So Wait…Where We “Romo Friendly”

Shockingly, yes, we were very “Romo Friendly”. Usually in games such as these, Romo doesn’t preform all too well; however, this time around Romo went 41/55 (74.5%) for 392 yards and 3 TDs. Romo also had zero turnovers on the day. To say the least, Romo had a fantasy football owner’s dream in this game.

Romo’s 14 incompletions weren’t too awful either. The only real fault you can pin on him in this game was missing a very wide open Roy Williams towards the end of the game. However, keep in mind, completing that pass would have only tied the game at that time.

The fact of the matter is that Romo flat out did not lose this game for the Cowboys and it is absolutely impossible to place blame on a guy that threw for nearly 400 yards and 3 TDs.

So Uh…Something HAD to Have Gone Wrong…Right?

I really tried to find something here. However, save for the Marion Barber fumble that ended up turning into a New York TD, there isn’t anything at all. Every stat reads as if it was a Cowboys blowout.

The Cowboys had the ball for 38:50, nearly doubling up the Giants T.O.P of 21:10. The Cowboys had 27 first downs to the Giants 15. 3rd down conversions weren’t the problem either as the Cowboys went 9/17 (52%). Even the Red Zone wasn’t too big of an issue as the Cowboys were 2/3 in that department. You can’t even blame this on penalties as the entire team only had 5 penalties for just 30 yards.

You can try to blame the running game, but the passing game more than made up for it. The Cowboys were flat out offensively dominate and there are no two ways about it.

The Verdict?!

I’d love to blame Garrett for awful play calling, but he followed the K.I.S.S. principle and went with what was working, and make no mistake about it Romo was definitely on. Romo more than made up for the lack of a running attack, and did pretty much everything he could to get the ‘Boys the victory.

So if the offensive is absolved, what in the world happened?

The fact of the matter is that the Cowboys feel victim to the Giants because of the following reasons: a costly Barber turnover cost them a TD, the defense gave up huge plays, special teams gave up a punt return for a TD, and yes, becoming a one dimensional team didn’t exactly help matters out, even if Romo was on.

When you give up 7 points on a turnover, 7 on a special teams blunder, and 7 more on a defensive brain fart, it becomes quite hard for any team to come back. That’s 21 points in the hole already (and since we are keeping score, Romo got 21 points himself through his play) and that is simply crippling.

The Cowboys were forced to go pass-happy and the Giants were ready for it. Romo had a great game, but he did so by only taking what the defense gave him and didn’t force plays down field that were well covered. It is impossible to score at a rapid pace when a defense does that to you. The Giants ensured that Romo would be the one that beat them, but furthermore, they ensured that the only way Romo could even have a chance at beating them was through passes underneath.

That’s an equation for absolute disaster and is the reason the Cowboys feel this past Sunday. The offensive performance was actually a bright side to the game if you take an in-depth look at it (despite the running game short comings); however, it was greatly dwarfed by other mistakes throughout the game.

Just How “Romo Friendly” Were We?

Romo had a fantastic game going 18/29 for 309 yards for 2 TDs, no turnovers and one rush to his credit for a yard loss. There was just simply no doubt about it, Romo was on and clicking this week on the offense. He was able to get over the 300 yard mark by completing less than 20 passes which is just incredible. Romo also made the needed decisions to not turn the ball over, save for one comedic play in which Oakland failed to get an INT by colliding into each other.

All in all though, you simply cannot complain about Romo’s performance in this game.

Checking the Balance

The Cowboys ran a total of 56 plays with 25 of those being rushes, resulting in a pass play being called 55.3% of the time. We seem to have returned to the sweet-spot of majority pass, but not overloading on it. We’ve seen the best performances by the offense reside around 55-60% or so and this game follows that norm. The running game was also allowed to be an essential part of this game as it torched the Raiders for 195 yards, resulting in 7.8 yards/carry.

Once again, no complaints in this area.

In the targeting department, we have a shorter list than usual as only six players saw the ball thrown there way. Miles Austin lead all receivers on the day with 11 targets. Jason Witten followed with 8. Roy Williams was the third option with 4 targets. Running Backs, Marion Barber and Felix Jones, were right behind with 3 and 2 targets respectively. Finally, Patrick Crayton rounded out the day with a single pass thrown his way.

So not a whole lot of impressive spreading of the ball around as we’ve seen in previous weeks in which eight to ten receivers would see the ball come their way. However, I still can’t complain about this spread, especially when five of the six players thrown to were able to record receptions.

Again, well done.

Numbers Don’t Lie

I need to channel Chad Ochocinco for this section title.

If you had any doubt that the Cowboys were completely dominate on the offensive side on the ball, plenty of stats can be tossed in your direction to ensure all doubt is erased. Besides Romo’s 300 yard game, the Cowboys also had two receivers over 100 yards on the day: Miles and Witten. Our three-headed monster at running back all had 60+ yard efforts. We gained 8.8 yards/play throughout the entire game (just think about that number for a bit). We were 2/2 in “goal to go” situations and only had one Red Zone chance shot in the foot due to a horrible penalty (however, we still got a FG).

There is just no other way to slice it, the offense was flat-out impressive.

The Verdict

The verdict for this game is simple, everyone had a solid hand in making this game an absolute field day for the offense. The play calling was well balanced, Romo had a great game, the running attack plowed through at full force, and the receiving corps had a very solid effort.

Simply put, you can’t ask for much more than that.

This was a great way to end the month; however, every Cowboys fan knows what is looming: December. Not only is this the usual time of the year that everything seems to fail, but this stretch of games is going to be the toughest without a season without a doubt. With games at the Giants, against the Eagles, and at New Orleans, this offense is going to be put to a true test.

It’s time to see who is up for it and if Romo can get that December Swoon monkey (that has turned into a gorilla) off his back.