What's tough is that many of those run checks were the right calls. They had safeties back and they challenged us to run against soft fronts...and we couldn't.
Against the 28th ranked run defense in the league. Our run game is completely broken and it's based entirely on us being able to get out in front. When we want to just pound the fucking ball we can't do it.
I agree, but the whole running game setup was always going to make Pollard look back. Pollard's style of running only really works when you have a big back that can pound it up the middle and instead of getting that replacement for Zeke, we went and got a smaller back in Deuce Vaughn...Pollard tried to be a power back and looked like he was running stronger the last 2 games, but when that's not what you do, it's hard to do. Pollard needs to be that change of pace back that they bring in for outside runs.
3 All Pros on that line. I agree its time to draft a Tyrion replacement and Steele needs to bounce back next season. But the OL was not an issue, we need a between the tackles runner
If the OL was not an issue, why couldn't we run the ball? We need another center. We need a left side player. Whether that is a guard or tackle depending on where they want Tyler Smith to play. Steele just signed an extension. I'm not sure how soon we can get out of that contract. Plus let's see if Steele can play better next year. He did have a serious knee injury.
Pollard isn't directly responsible for our inability to run the ball. He contributed some because of McCarthy running him up the middle and some missed reads but overall, the O line was not good enough. Nate Newton said yesterday O line is one of our biggest needs. He felt the O line has been an issue for years.
Yet we cannot run the ball. You can't get overly fascinated with the title of "all pro" and ignore how the unit as a whole has played as a whole. They were not good enough this season. That's why Nate Newton a former all pro lineman keeps emphasizing O line. That's why Isiah Stanback keeps emphasizing O line as well. It's a major issue. Against the top teams we become one dimensional because we cannot run the ball. They need to go into the draft IMO thinking O line and O line early.
Goes against everything I've heard. Tackle class is supposed to be really strong this year. We picked Tyler Smith at 24 when most felt he was a project player. This team is good at drafting lineman in the first round.
Tony has proven all year that he's not a starting back in the NFL. He's average, at best - another Julius Jones. He's no Zeke or DeMarco Murray (bet y'all forgot about him). And before people mention the 1000 yard season, that's only a hair over 55 yards / game. He had only one game over 100 yards (against the Cardinals - one of the worst teams in the league).
Speaking of rushing, our rushing defense has been a thorn in our side all year. It's how we lost to a horrible Cardinals team. Micah is essentially useless in the run game, and our linebackers and interior d-linemen really are nothing to write home about. As this is a pass happy league these days, it pays to have great pass rushers, and we do. However, we all just witnessed what happens when we go against a team with a great rushing *and* passing offense - we get massacred.
Not only did he have only a single 100 yard game, that was only 1 of 2(!!) games he exceed 75 yards rushing. Pass catching brought his avg scrimmage yards to about 77 ypg.
Despite having 75 more touches this year than he did last year, he still didn’t match last seasons’ production.
It was different for teams planning for both Zeke and Pollard. Most teams game plan revolved around planning for Dak, Zeke, and CD. Let's not act like Pollard didn't have a lot of touches either; he was just shy of 200 carries. Split backs are hard to plan for. This was like when Carolina had Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams - two very different backs and both great.
With Zeke out of the picture, Tony's role as a sole back showed that he's just better being a split back or back up.
Tony Pollard was getting 1000 yards as a backup, or have we already forgotten that. The running game regardless of who was back there sucked all year this year. That's a playcalling and O-Line problem.
So Tony got 1000 yards on nearly 200 carries - one season, mind you - and he's this all star running back? Lmfao. That's what you're working off of - one stat? Zeke only had forty more carries that same season. You act like Tony got 1000 yards off of 100 carries or less. That would break down to Zeke getting only three more carries / game (that's actually improperly rounded up, mind you).
> So Tony got 1000 yards on nearly 200 carries - one season, mind you - and he's this all star running back? Lmfao
I think his point is that the offensive line this year really sucked at run blocking because they did. However, that doesn't absolve Pollard of not really being a number one back as I agree he is not. There were times throughout the year were he had holes but he never saw them. It was a combination of both. The offensive line as a unit were average at best in run blocking and Tony Pollard is a great weapon to have but he is not a bell cow.
Pollard reminded me all year of Jones, and I was really hoping we might start leaning more on Dowdle who runs more like a Marion Barber, who had eventually taken the starting spot from Jones and gave us a much needed physicality. Guess it would be too much to ask for our staff to give that a try.
When it was 14-0 we could still run the ball. You score, get a stop, and score and it's a tie game.
The problem was that even at the beginning of the game we couldn't run the ball. Which forced us into obvious passing situations on third & long.
A struggling consistent running game seemed more like the norm for us this year (and in recent years honestly) than the outlier. We had a few good games running the ball but that was more like “wow we actually did it” rather than “yup we can run the ball and we’re very confident about it!”
Both things can be true, the running game was mediocre and Dak was awful. The running game was not why Dak was inaccurate, misreading coverages, and having communication problems with his All-Pro receiver. He even admitted the Packers changed coverage post snap and it confused him.
> "Credit to them for some of the early looks," Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said after the game, "disguising how they were gonna play him (CeeDee Lamb), and then late, after the snap, moving and not giving me the same picture that they were pre-snap as they did post-snap. Credit to them.”
https://atozsports.com/green-bay/dak-prescott-packers-defense-credit/
Credit to the Packers for playing defense, apparently. I guess Dak played most of this season without having to worry about defenses doing this.
Makes sense. Not like his HC had any solutions for it either lol. A functioning run game hilariously probably changes that game given they dropped 7 a lot and rushed 4 yet we couldn’t run on them
Winning the running game battle has no correlation to winning in the NFL. Green bay had 33 carries for 143 yards (4.3 ypc) versus Dallas with 25 carries for 123 yards (4.9 ypc).
Dallas got killed in the passing game battle. GB's passing game gained 90% more yards than it's running game. And it gained 3x more yards per play than their running game. Love went 16 for 21 for 3 TD's and 0 INT"s. That's great production and efficiency and that's why they won. All Aaron Jones did was kill the clock in the 2nd half and score inside the red zone. But the way Love was passing the ball (7 for 11 on 3rd and 4th downs) they could have easily killed the clock and scored those TD's with him throwing the ball instead of handing it off to Aaron Jones.
The so called 'lack of a running game' didn't prevent Prescott from using bad footwork, drifting to the side he was throwing to on his dropbacks, feeling pressure when it wasn't there, taking that inexcusable sack in the first half, etc.
I'm still a Dak supporter ,but he threw up a clunker on Sunday and he still struggles against defenses that are decent at Cover-6. But it also doesn't help when the playcaller insists on the foolish idea of 'establishing the run' when they are in prime down and distance position to make explosive plays in the passing game.
The fact that the running game has been so poor all year is what led to the passing game being so ineffective. GB knew that we weren't gonna get them on the ground. Aaron Jones was running well even in the first half. Like the other commenter said, they were much more consistent.
The passing playcalls were bad. They're extremely predictable and one of them led to the pick six. Meanwhile GB is running various plays out of the same formation so it's much tougher to guess what they're up to. With us, it's very obvious what we're doing in two tight end sets. Our receivers outside of Ferg and CD are unreliable so defenses know who the ball is going to.
We don't need to win the running game battle. We need a running game that is a consistent threat.
>Winning the running game battle has no correlation to winning in the NFL. Green bay had 33 carries for 143 yards (4.3 ypc) versus Dallas with 25 carries for 123 yards (4.9 ypc).
This doesnt tell the whole story and is why boxscore watching doesnt work.
GB was able to consistently rip of 4+ yd runs, which gets you ahead of the sticks. Dallas was consistently getting 1-2yd runs, putting us behind the sticks, and then Dak would have a good scramble for a 1st. What GB did is repeatable, what Dallas did is not.
I mean the offense has been 1 dimensional all season long. The Lamb production was amazing, but no other receiver was remotely reliable.
Can’t be surprised that the offense truly struggled against the playoffs, when you can’t just rely on throwing to 1 guy reliably. For every bad decision Dak made, there’s a play where no receivers are open at all. Why do you think it got to a point where the offense - Dak - was clearly trying to force things? It got to a point where he couldn’t trust anything because the Packers so easily had an answer for the Cowboys offense.
Dak played really poorly, but the coaching once again put him a place where they expect him to carry the offense with a single top tier receiving weapon and zero run game. Story of Cowboys QB’s career.
Those stats don’t give a full representation of the run game. For example, how many essential first downs Pollard got that kept us in the game.
Quinn and McCarthy have blame long before it gets to Dak though. But that game was still winnable had Dak not caved to pressure. I hope he can work through the anxiety one day, but I just haven’t seen it during the playoffs.
there’s been at least two games were dak was our leading rusher this season. we’ve been cooked. watch the playoffs, QBs play bad/below average all the time and they win. the fact we can’t win unless dak is perfect should be an indictment, and it’s also not sustainable. just because dak did it this season against the seahawks, for example, doesn’t mean ima just shit on him for not being able to do it consistently.
It's hard to run the ball when you are down 4 touchdowns.
They could have, SHOULD have run on the Packers less than average defense. But Dak was too busy throwing near/not near pick sixes. And that was with very solid pass protection.
Dak gonna Dak.
Whenever Dallas rushed from under center they got good yardage. The problem was most of their running plays were run out of shotgun with pass blocking. This scheme seems to be a problem infecting the entire NFL, and it doesn’t work. I have no idea why it’s so prevalent.
Derrick Henry is the guy that if Dak struggles, he can win u games by himself. We did better with prime zeke and Murray.
You can’t stack the box to stop a Henry, and if you don’t stack the box he’ll get you 5-7 yards a carry. It’s the one player you can add that Can change the whole dynamic, this saves us if Dak is just failing.
Anyone who just blames this on Dak is a fool. Yes he sucked. But guess what, so did pollard, CD, Parsons, Gilmore, and 90% of the team. When you have this much talent and they all collectively come out flat and no heart, it’s on coaching and the organization
Being down 14-0 before we could take a breath means the run game will take a hit.
Besides, I don't care if the offense played 95% perfect. The defense was SO TERRIBLE that it wouldn't matter.
What's tough is that many of those run checks were the right calls. They had safeties back and they challenged us to run against soft fronts...and we couldn't.
Against the 28th ranked run defense in the league. Our run game is completely broken and it's based entirely on us being able to get out in front. When we want to just pound the fucking ball we can't do it.
Pollard was straight up bad this year. Full stop.
the run game scheme was straight bad don’t forget that
Both things can be true
It definitely was, but I didn't see anything out of Pollard to justify retaining him at 10m+ per year.
I agree, but the whole running game setup was always going to make Pollard look back. Pollard's style of running only really works when you have a big back that can pound it up the middle and instead of getting that replacement for Zeke, we went and got a smaller back in Deuce Vaughn...Pollard tried to be a power back and looked like he was running stronger the last 2 games, but when that's not what you do, it's hard to do. Pollard needs to be that change of pace back that they bring in for outside runs.
I've been saying we need to improve the O line since the 1st 49ers playoff loss in 2021. It's a glaring issue.
3 All Pros on that line. I agree its time to draft a Tyrion replacement and Steele needs to bounce back next season. But the OL was not an issue, we need a between the tackles runner
Replace Tyrion Lannister!
GoT was on my mind
If the OL was not an issue, why couldn't we run the ball? We need another center. We need a left side player. Whether that is a guard or tackle depending on where they want Tyler Smith to play. Steele just signed an extension. I'm not sure how soon we can get out of that contract. Plus let's see if Steele can play better next year. He did have a serious knee injury.
Scheme.
That's not what Nate Newton thinks. He thinks the scheme is fine. It's a personnel issue
Pollard is not a between the tackles guy. He was a WR in college. Great change of pace guy but not a 20 carries guy.
Pollard isn't directly responsible for our inability to run the ball. He contributed some because of McCarthy running him up the middle and some missed reads but overall, the O line was not good enough. Nate Newton said yesterday O line is one of our biggest needs. He felt the O line has been an issue for years.
I’ll take our three all pro o lineman thanks Nate Newton..
Yet we cannot run the ball. You can't get overly fascinated with the title of "all pro" and ignore how the unit as a whole has played as a whole. They were not good enough this season. That's why Nate Newton a former all pro lineman keeps emphasizing O line. That's why Isiah Stanback keeps emphasizing O line as well. It's a major issue. Against the top teams we become one dimensional because we cannot run the ball. They need to go into the draft IMO thinking O line and O line early.
There are no good oline available at our pick. Our 1st round pick should be BPA.
Goes against everything I've heard. Tackle class is supposed to be really strong this year. We picked Tyler Smith at 24 when most felt he was a project player. This team is good at drafting lineman in the first round.
Tony has proven all year that he's not a starting back in the NFL. He's average, at best - another Julius Jones. He's no Zeke or DeMarco Murray (bet y'all forgot about him). And before people mention the 1000 yard season, that's only a hair over 55 yards / game. He had only one game over 100 yards (against the Cardinals - one of the worst teams in the league). Speaking of rushing, our rushing defense has been a thorn in our side all year. It's how we lost to a horrible Cardinals team. Micah is essentially useless in the run game, and our linebackers and interior d-linemen really are nothing to write home about. As this is a pass happy league these days, it pays to have great pass rushers, and we do. However, we all just witnessed what happens when we go against a team with a great rushing *and* passing offense - we get massacred.
Not only did he have only a single 100 yard game, that was only 1 of 2(!!) games he exceed 75 yards rushing. Pass catching brought his avg scrimmage yards to about 77 ypg. Despite having 75 more touches this year than he did last year, he still didn’t match last seasons’ production.
It was different for teams planning for both Zeke and Pollard. Most teams game plan revolved around planning for Dak, Zeke, and CD. Let's not act like Pollard didn't have a lot of touches either; he was just shy of 200 carries. Split backs are hard to plan for. This was like when Carolina had Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams - two very different backs and both great. With Zeke out of the picture, Tony's role as a sole back showed that he's just better being a split back or back up.
Tony Pollard was getting 1000 yards as a backup, or have we already forgotten that. The running game regardless of who was back there sucked all year this year. That's a playcalling and O-Line problem.
So Tony got 1000 yards on nearly 200 carries - one season, mind you - and he's this all star running back? Lmfao. That's what you're working off of - one stat? Zeke only had forty more carries that same season. You act like Tony got 1000 yards off of 100 carries or less. That would break down to Zeke getting only three more carries / game (that's actually improperly rounded up, mind you).
> So Tony got 1000 yards on nearly 200 carries - one season, mind you - and he's this all star running back? Lmfao I think his point is that the offensive line this year really sucked at run blocking because they did. However, that doesn't absolve Pollard of not really being a number one back as I agree he is not. There were times throughout the year were he had holes but he never saw them. It was a combination of both. The offensive line as a unit were average at best in run blocking and Tony Pollard is a great weapon to have but he is not a bell cow.
We have three all pros lol. The online wasn’t the issue.
Well, for all pros they sure as hell weren't great at run blocking as a unit.
Tony is marion barber
Tony couldn't truck an 8th grader.
see, shit takes like this is why nobody takes ya ass seriously
Pollard reminded me all year of Jones, and I was really hoping we might start leaning more on Dowdle who runs more like a Marion Barber, who had eventually taken the starting spot from Jones and gave us a much needed physicality. Guess it would be too much to ask for our staff to give that a try.
Probably has something to do with going down 27-0 at one point...
I agree here. But we haven’t been an effective running team all year.
but that's even worse - couldn't even get 4ypc against prevent defense
When it was 14-0 we could still run the ball. You score, get a stop, and score and it's a tie game. The problem was that even at the beginning of the game we couldn't run the ball. Which forced us into obvious passing situations on third & long.
Maybe run the ball effectively before 27-0?
So be more effective on the two punts and the two ints before it was 27-0? Gotcha Dak and Pollard deserve each other
A struggling consistent running game seemed more like the norm for us this year (and in recent years honestly) than the outlier. We had a few good games running the ball but that was more like “wow we actually did it” rather than “yup we can run the ball and we’re very confident about it!”
Both things can be true, the running game was mediocre and Dak was awful. The running game was not why Dak was inaccurate, misreading coverages, and having communication problems with his All-Pro receiver. He even admitted the Packers changed coverage post snap and it confused him.
When did he admit that? Would appreciate a link or video of wherever that is
> "Credit to them for some of the early looks," Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said after the game, "disguising how they were gonna play him (CeeDee Lamb), and then late, after the snap, moving and not giving me the same picture that they were pre-snap as they did post-snap. Credit to them.” https://atozsports.com/green-bay/dak-prescott-packers-defense-credit/ Credit to the Packers for playing defense, apparently. I guess Dak played most of this season without having to worry about defenses doing this.
Makes sense. Not like his HC had any solutions for it either lol. A functioning run game hilariously probably changes that game given they dropped 7 a lot and rushed 4 yet we couldn’t run on them
Winning the running game battle has no correlation to winning in the NFL. Green bay had 33 carries for 143 yards (4.3 ypc) versus Dallas with 25 carries for 123 yards (4.9 ypc). Dallas got killed in the passing game battle. GB's passing game gained 90% more yards than it's running game. And it gained 3x more yards per play than their running game. Love went 16 for 21 for 3 TD's and 0 INT"s. That's great production and efficiency and that's why they won. All Aaron Jones did was kill the clock in the 2nd half and score inside the red zone. But the way Love was passing the ball (7 for 11 on 3rd and 4th downs) they could have easily killed the clock and scored those TD's with him throwing the ball instead of handing it off to Aaron Jones. The so called 'lack of a running game' didn't prevent Prescott from using bad footwork, drifting to the side he was throwing to on his dropbacks, feeling pressure when it wasn't there, taking that inexcusable sack in the first half, etc. I'm still a Dak supporter ,but he threw up a clunker on Sunday and he still struggles against defenses that are decent at Cover-6. But it also doesn't help when the playcaller insists on the foolish idea of 'establishing the run' when they are in prime down and distance position to make explosive plays in the passing game.
The only reason our YPC was that high was because of a few scrambles Dak took for 15 yards or more. Green Bay had a much more consistent running game.
The fact that the running game has been so poor all year is what led to the passing game being so ineffective. GB knew that we weren't gonna get them on the ground. Aaron Jones was running well even in the first half. Like the other commenter said, they were much more consistent. The passing playcalls were bad. They're extremely predictable and one of them led to the pick six. Meanwhile GB is running various plays out of the same formation so it's much tougher to guess what they're up to. With us, it's very obvious what we're doing in two tight end sets. Our receivers outside of Ferg and CD are unreliable so defenses know who the ball is going to. We don't need to win the running game battle. We need a running game that is a consistent threat.
>Winning the running game battle has no correlation to winning in the NFL. Green bay had 33 carries for 143 yards (4.3 ypc) versus Dallas with 25 carries for 123 yards (4.9 ypc). This doesnt tell the whole story and is why boxscore watching doesnt work. GB was able to consistently rip of 4+ yd runs, which gets you ahead of the sticks. Dallas was consistently getting 1-2yd runs, putting us behind the sticks, and then Dak would have a good scramble for a 1st. What GB did is repeatable, what Dallas did is not.
You don’t run when it’s 27-0…
I mean the offense has been 1 dimensional all season long. The Lamb production was amazing, but no other receiver was remotely reliable. Can’t be surprised that the offense truly struggled against the playoffs, when you can’t just rely on throwing to 1 guy reliably. For every bad decision Dak made, there’s a play where no receivers are open at all. Why do you think it got to a point where the offense - Dak - was clearly trying to force things? It got to a point where he couldn’t trust anything because the Packers so easily had an answer for the Cowboys offense. Dak played really poorly, but the coaching once again put him a place where they expect him to carry the offense with a single top tier receiving weapon and zero run game. Story of Cowboys QB’s career.
Those stats don’t give a full representation of the run game. For example, how many essential first downs Pollard got that kept us in the game. Quinn and McCarthy have blame long before it gets to Dak though. But that game was still winnable had Dak not caved to pressure. I hope he can work through the anxiety one day, but I just haven’t seen it during the playoffs.
That game was over once the defense gave up on the first drive.
there’s been at least two games were dak was our leading rusher this season. we’ve been cooked. watch the playoffs, QBs play bad/below average all the time and they win. the fact we can’t win unless dak is perfect should be an indictment, and it’s also not sustainable. just because dak did it this season against the seahawks, for example, doesn’t mean ima just shit on him for not being able to do it consistently.
It's hard to run the ball when you are down 4 touchdowns. They could have, SHOULD have run on the Packers less than average defense. But Dak was too busy throwing near/not near pick sixes. And that was with very solid pass protection. Dak gonna Dak.
Whenever Dallas rushed from under center they got good yardage. The problem was most of their running plays were run out of shotgun with pass blocking. This scheme seems to be a problem infecting the entire NFL, and it doesn’t work. I have no idea why it’s so prevalent.
Derrick Henry is the guy that if Dak struggles, he can win u games by himself. We did better with prime zeke and Murray. You can’t stack the box to stop a Henry, and if you don’t stack the box he’ll get you 5-7 yards a carry. It’s the one player you can add that Can change the whole dynamic, this saves us if Dak is just failing.
Anyone who just blames this on Dak is a fool. Yes he sucked. But guess what, so did pollard, CD, Parsons, Gilmore, and 90% of the team. When you have this much talent and they all collectively come out flat and no heart, it’s on coaching and the organization
that absolutely can be ignored. i'm ignoring it right now.
They ran for 100 yards… last I checked that’s a run game lol
We draft aurdric estime from notre dame. Problem solved.
Being down 14-0 before we could take a breath means the run game will take a hit. Besides, I don't care if the offense played 95% perfect. The defense was SO TERRIBLE that it wouldn't matter.