Much hand-wringing is currently taking place over the failures of the Dallas Cowboys passing offense in their season-opening defeat at the paws of the Carolina Panthers, and rightfully so. The passing stats were anemic, and neither the quarterback nor the offensive coordinator were prepared for the iron price.

Unlike Game of Thrones, however, blood-spilled removal from the drama isn’t on the table for the Cowboys’ OC Scott Linehan, nor for quarterback Dak Prescott. Therefore we are all left to figure out exactly what the script was to try and find reasons for failure.

Failure to Use Options At Their Disposal

Dallas has three physical advantages built into their offense over nearly every opposing defense, but they rarely look to utilize them. First is using running back Ezekiel Elliott out of the backfield. As teams focus on the run, using Elliott as a passing-game weapon is almost assured success due to the mismatches he will receive. Dallas ran one passing play to Elliott in the first half. Prescott’s throw was errant.

Prescott has the necessary athleticism to burn defenses on read options and designed QB runs out of passing looks. They didn’t run any.

Finally, the quickness and speed embodied in Cole Beasley and Tavon Austin can be unguardable in certain formations designed to get yards after the catch. They each had just one first half target.

The lack of professionalism cannot be understated.

Dallas ran 22 plays for just 60 net yards in the first half. Prescott went 6-for-10 and for just 46 yards. 4.6 yards per attempt would’ve ranked 1.1 yards below the worst passing team in 2017’s average, the Baltimore Ravens. 7.7 yards per completion would’ve also ranked No. 32 by over one yard.

The three veterans Dallas’ added to the mix in the offseason, Allen Hurns, Austin and Deonte Thompson – supposed replacements for target magnet Dez Bryant – combined for one official target and no receptions in the first two quarters.

In an effort to dissect where the fault truly lies, we charted every pass of the first half. With Carolina leading 10-0 at halftime, the game was effectively decided in the first two stanzas.

What we found was disturbing. Either through fault of game-plan design, lack of confidence in the OL, or likely both, Dallas rarely tried to stretch the field. This isn’t just fandom speaking, the staff and front office made it a point of emphasis in their quotes to the press to extend the passing game.

Dallas attempted just two passes in the entire first half that traveled more than 10 yards down the field. They tried just one pass longer than 20 yards. Both attempts failed due to an egregious lack of accuracy by Prescott.

Charting Dakuracy

We’ll use Pro Football Focus’ accuracy classifications. There are three tiers of accuracy for a quarterback. The first tier are passes that the receiver doesn’t have to do any extra work outside of running his route to receive the ball. Accurate+ is the finest precision, the pass is right between the numbers, perfect placement to maximize run after the catch opportunities. Being on Frame is a great pass, where the receiver doesn’t have to extend to haul it in.

The second tier allows for completions even when the throws aren’t perfectly placed. There is some opportunity for YAC, but generally these are areas where the receiver is only going to gain the air yards from the throw and not much more. This isn’t always a bad thing as sometimes coverage dictates the ball be placed in these areas in order to avoid a defender. Some times. These designations are High, Front, Back and Low.

The third tier is for egregious placements. They get wide receivers and gophers killed, or often end up being intercepted. Overthrow, Underthrow, In Front and Behind.

Here’s a look at each of the 15 first-half passing attempts, the scenarios of each play, the personnel grouping and alignment used, where Prescott’s reads took him, how well he executed his throws and the end result of each pass.

Cowboys Week 1: First Half Passing Log Pass No. Dwn/Dstnc L.O.S. Grp/Frmtn Trgt Dpth Placement Result 1 2nd & 10 DAL 25 21 -2WR LEFT <0 yards Accurate+ Screen to Austin, gain of 9 (nullified penalty) 2 1st & 10 DAL 10 13 play action N/A N/A throw away 3 2nd & 10 DAL 10 S-11 play action 0-10 Accurate+ Slant to slot Beasley, gain of 11 4 1st & 10 DAL 21 S-11 Trips Left 0-10 Frame Slant to Gallup (Y) incomplete, defensive holding 5 2nd & 9 DAL 27 12 Stacked rt, 2TE lt 0-10 Accurate+ Swaim blocks then releases, gain of 12 6 2nd & 3 DAL 42 13 play action 0-10 Behind pass to Elliott left flat incomplete, holding T. Smith 7 3rd & 12 DAL 37 S-11 Trips Left <0 yards High Fake jet sweep, screen to Beasley 8 yds 8 1st & 10 DAL 14 21 I-formation N/A N/A Sacked for 7 yard loss 9 3rd & 10 DAL 14 S-21 TE in slot <0 Overthrow screen to Smith incomplete 10 2nd & 9 DAL 26 S-11 N/A N/A Sacked for 2 yard loss 11 3rd & 11 DAL 24 S-12 10-20 Underthrow incomplete deep right to Hurns’ feet 12 1st & 10 DAL 17 S-11 Empty Set 0-10 Low dig route by Gallup (X), complete for 9 13 2nd & 1 DAL 26 S-11 0-10 Frame quick in and out by Swaim for 7 14 2nd & 7 DAL 36 S-12 <0 yards Back fake toss, throw to Swaim cutting behind line, no gain 15 3rd & 7 DAL 26 S-02 20+ Underthrow Prescott steps up, deep left to Jarwin incomplete

Six Brief Observations from Charting

The Cowboys didn’t attempt a single pass from within Panthers territory in the first half. Not one.

Dallas lined up in shotgun 10 of 15 passes, but only threw deep twice.That’s it, and both woefully underthrown.

Prior to the first sack, Prescott completed 5 of 6 throws. After, only two of 6 throws where were the ball was intended. We spoke in the offseason about how Prescott was seeing ghosts after the Atlanta Falcons game and it appeared to be the case in the season opener, at least through the first half. As soon as left tackle Tyron Smith had to hold in order to keep Prescott clean, his accuracy started to take a nose dive.

The Cowboys actually went 5-wide with Elliott off the field and felt that Blake Jarwin and Geoff Swaim were better options than Tavon Austin and another of their six wide receivers. This happened on their most manageable third-down situation of the half, 3rd and 7.

Rookie Michael Gallup only had two first-half targets, but both were successful plays. One drew a defensive holding call, the other was a nine-yard completion.

The Cowboys schemed their first passing play to Tavon Austin. It likely wouldn’t have been a successful play (over 60% of yards-to-go on a second down) without the Smith block-in-the-back, but they never once looked in his direction again.

Conclusion

Fans should certainly hesitate to extrapolate a season’s worth of narratives from one half of data. Football is a game inherently made up of small sample sizes, but this is far too small to reach any conclusions. Circumstances must be considered, despite the similarities to several bad games in the second half of 2017. Dallas did not work on much of anything in preseason games. They were on the road Sunday afternoon against a quality defense. If this trend continues for the next few weeks, then there will be plenty of time to sharpen machetes and put staff and players on the chopping block, but as damning as Sunday’s evidence is, that time has not arrived just yet.

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