Oh my, so much for thinking this game would ease my blood pressure as a Cowboys fan. This game flat out drove me nuts. Going into overtime against a winless team? Seriously?! Time to dig into the offense once again to see if I can’t pin why exactly this game was as close as it was.
Just How “Romo Friendly Were We”?
Let’s get one thing out of the way right off the bat. Romo was good. He completed his first 8 passes and then went on to finish the game 20/34 for 351 yards and 2 TDs. Romo finally got off the non-TD streak he was building, with both TD passes going to Miles Austin (more on him later). The 58.8% accuracy is quite respectable as well, especially considering he was victim to several drops on the day.
Most importantly is that Romo threw no interceptions and his fumble was caused by the most confusing play I have ever seen in my life. Never would I thought I would say that a QB was stripped by his own lineman, but that is exactly what happened. I can’t really fault Romo for that little incident.
Romo did his job quite well and not only that, he ensured that the Cowboys were able to stay in this game as well as win it. This was a comeback victory folks, and you can’t do that unless the man under center can take you there and he did.
Checking the Balance
The Cowboys ran 61 plays — 26 on the ground and 35 through the air. This gave the Cowboys a 57.3% pass call percentage this time around. Now usually when the numbers look like this, I am quite critical of the balance in play calls; however, that isn’t the case this time around. The fact of the matter was that Romo was having a good game and the running game, unlike last week, was not abandoned in the second half; in fact, it was a TD run by Choice that helped initially close the gap.
Simply put, balance in play calling is great, but at the same time, if something works, go with it! It’s the K.I.S.S. principle all over again, if the passes are working, then pass. I have no issue with going to the air as much as we did this week because of this.
As far as targets go, it was the same concept, go with what is working. Miles Austin by far lead in targets with 15. Crayton was a distant second with 8 targets. Jason Witten was the third option with 6 targets. Rounding out the day were Barber and Hurd with a pair of passes their way and Bennett with a single toss in his direction.
Again, clear imbalance, but with the success Austin was having, why not?! Romo did have a clear even spread with a second and third option on top of this as well, meaning that the Chiefs could not completely focus on Austin because if they did, they knew Crayton and Witten would find the ball in their hands as well.
Red Zone = No Score Zone
And here is the reason why the Cowboys struggled so much in this game. The Cowboys found their way into the red zone twice and came out of it with 0 TDs; furthermore, both of these were “Goal to Go” situations, meaning inside the 10 yard line. No TDs from that is a serious, serious issue.
On these situations, we had 6 plays total (plus a false start from Flozell Adams). We ran the ball only once and passed 5 times. Outside the “Goal to Go” situations, we had 3 more plays with one being a run and the other 2 being passes. So, inside the 20 we passed the ball 7 times out of 9 total plays. Now granted, we did have some dropped TD passes mixed in there, but this is the area of the field in which the running game can shine.
The reason is simple: there is a short field to cover at this point. Instead of worrying about yards and yards of area behind them, defensive backs can more easily keep the play in front. It is very hard to get burned in these situations and by extension makes passes much easier to defend.
The Red Zone offense has been awful thus far and has been a common topic of Cowboys discussion as of late. This aspect of the Cowboys game definitely needs to step up, otherwise we could be seeing wins like this one turn into losses as they have in the past this season.
Miles Ahead of Everyone
At first, I thought I was going to have to blast Miles Austin for dropping two TD passes. While this did make things a bit harder than it should have against the Chiefs, I would say he redeemed himself reeling in 10 receptions for 250 yards and 2 TDs, the longest of which was the 60 yard TD winner in OT. This game allowed Miles to now own the best single game performance of any Cowboys WR.
For an offense that has been looking for a true playmaker in the WR position, this was a very welcome surprise. Even better is that this performance came in Austin’s first ever start. Hopefully this performance means the Cowboys have now found a new weapon and won’t have to rely on only Felix Jones to be the sole homerun hitter on this team.
This could also have a positive effect when Roy Williams returns. If Austin is lined up along with Roy, defenses now can’t just focus on Roy because you’ve seen that Miles is a threat. This should hopefully allow for Roy to see more open looks than he has before this entire season as Crayton hasn’t exactly been drawing additional coverage away from Roy. And of course, you also need to account for Witten as well — that’s a lot of options a defense would now need to become very aware of.
Perhaps though, we should’ve seen this as a possibility. After all, he was the one wide open on both ill-fated Romo to Hurd throws at the end of the Denver game.
The Verdict
If it weren’t for the Red Zone woes, and some dropped TD passes, this would’ve been a superb week for the offense and likely could’ve lead to a complete blowout of the Chiefs. However, that isn’t what we got. A career day for Miles and a solid outing by Romo more or less equates to a passable performance for the offense and nothing more. We also have to keep in mind that all of this was done against the lowly Chiefs which also puts a bit of a damper on the excitement such performances could have.
Next week, the Cowboys have a BYE and will then face of against Atlanta at home. Hopefully the extra week’s work will show us the needed improvement to the offense, especially inside the Red Zone.
Similar Posts:
- Romo Friendly Offense: Week 7 vs Atlanta
- Rating the Romo Friendly Offense on Thanksgiving
- Romo Friendly Offense: Week 8 vs Seattle
- The Romo Friendly Offense – Manning Up Against New Orleans
- The “Romo Friendly” Offense – Week 3 vs Carolina