Cowboys fans, we all got a very nice Christmas present from our ‘Boys in the form of a sweep of the Redskins, a shutout, and, most importantly, a playoff berth. While we can’t be quite sure exactly where the Cowboys will eventually settle in the post-season picture, one thing is for certain: this series has been given an extra week of life!
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.
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Wow. Great stats provided here, Ryan. Marion Barber saw more passes than Roy Williams? That's no good. Your running back who shares the load with another back should not be your #3 pass target. Not when your official #1 receiver isn't in the top 2.
Jerry Jones, for all the good he's done, has embarrassed this franchise every single week that he insists Roy Williams be handled with kid gloves and treated as a #1 receiver. He MIGHT be qualified as a #3. MIGHT. But honestly, Give me Miles, Crayton, and Ogletree to start.
$9million for a blocking wide receiver just won't do.
Agreed. And the frustrating part was that Roy started off well and got a TD with his first target and catch.
It bugs me to no end that we gave up two draft picks to have a receiver on our team that Romo decided to cut out of the offense (great decision). Roy needs to either get with it, or we need to just be rid of him.
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