Welp.

Everything that could go wrong seemingly went wrong for the Dallas Cowboys in their 24-22 loss to the New York Jets. The injuries piled up, the offense looked sluggish and the defense made the Jets offense look competent.

The Cowboys controlled the ball with their ground game (32:03 time of possession), but the Jets’ offense was much more efficient, gaining 7.1 yards per play while the Cowboys accumulated just 5.3.

The Jets did a great job of taking Dallas’ pass rush out of the game with quick passes, well-timed screens and play-action. The Cowboys, once again, struggled in the tackling department and the secondary got thoroughly taken to school by New York’s receiving core.

Right now, the only thing going the Cowboys way is the fact that the rest of the NFC East failed to take advantage of Dallas’ struggles. Washington picked up its first win, but the Giants and Eagles were blown out by their respective opponents.

With that being said, it’s time to take a look at a few things gleaned from the Cowboys loss in New York.

Slow starts from the offense are becoming a HUGE problem for the Cowboys

Coming into Sunday, the Cowboys ranked 19th in the NFL in first-half points per game (9.6). Even worse, in the last three games, the Cowboys have been outscored 47-9 in the first half, putting themselves in holes that they were incapable of climbing out of.

Against the Jets, the Cowboys were outscored 21-6, as the offense couldn’t get out of its own way while the defense made Sam Darnold look like Peyton Manning.

The defense’s slow starts are certainly worrisome, but let’s focus on the offense’s ineptitude in the first half, in particular.

While a lot of this falls on poor execution, such as drops, penalties and missed blocks, the offensive coaching staff deserves their fair share of the blame as well.

The coaching staff didn’t adequately prepare the offense for the myriad of blitzes the Jets threw their way. Even more frustrating was the fact that Dallas didn’t attempt to scheme up separation against New York’s man-heavy defense when blitzing. Take Dallas’ first third-down attempt of the game as an example:

On this play, the Cowboys are in a 3x1 formation, using 11 personnel (one RB, one TE, three WRs), with Jason Witten isolated as the lone receiver to the short side of the field, three receivers to the wide side of the field, and Ezekiel Elliott aligned in the backfield to Dak Prescott’s left.

The Cowboys run a variation of the ‘Hank’ concept to the short side of the field where Witten and Austin, who comes across the middle of the field, run curl/sit routes just past the sticks while Elliott runs a swing route to the flats. To the wide side of the field, Gallup is tasked with a pivot route while Amari Cooper runs a double move.

This is a common play-call to defeat multiple coverages, as the “Hank” concept is effective versus most zone coverages while the pivot route and double move are usually effective against man coverage.

This seems like a wise call at first; however, when you take in Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams’ propensity to blitz and play man coverage behind it on third down, the play-call becomes much more questionable.

The problem with this play-call is the side of the field that ‘man-beater’ routes to the wide side of the field were slow-developing, which gave the Jets’ blitz time to affect Prescott’s throw to Amari Cooper.

When you know a team is likely to blitz and play man coverage behind it on third down, it would seemingly be a better idea to run more quick-hitting ‘man-beater’ concepts such as mesh, rubs, bunch formations or stack releases. They could have even used motion to create and take advantage of a defensive back’s movement.

Making matters worse, the Cowboys opted to have Amari Cooper run a double-move one play after he was noticeably hobbling and slow getting up after being tackled. Cooper had little explosiveness and, therefore, had no ability to get the cornerback to bite on the double move. He never returned to the game after that.

The staff in the booth has to identify Cooper’s injury and then notify Kellen Moore and Jason Garrett for them to make the necessary adjustments, whether that’s calling a different play or giving another receiver the double-move responsibility.

Coming into a game without their top-two offensive tackles, the coaching staff was certainly put in a bind, but they didn’t do enough to protect their backup tackles while taking advantage of the Jets’ blitzes.

You have to admire the team’s resiliency to continue to fight back in the second half no matter the deficit, but the Cowboys have to figure out a way to be as effective in the first half, as they are in the second half.

For the third straight game, the Cowboys offense was not only outexecuted but out-schemed as well, which is a bad sign for an offensive-minded head coach who is in the last year of his contract.

Dak Prescott isn’t the problem with the Cowboys offense, but he’s not the solution either

Overall, it was a gutsy performance from Dak Prescott in a game where he had to overcome numerous obstacles. He was without both of his starting tackles, constantly hurried and took some massive hits (NYJ registered eight QB hits). Still, with all this against him, he finished 28 of 40 for 277 yards and a 73.5 QBR, which keeps him atop the QBR leaderboard this season, on top of three carries for 11 yards and a touchdown.

Moreover, his box score was deflated by a bevy of drops from his receivers, particularly Michael Gallup, who failed to step up in the void created by Amari Cooper’s absence.

Prescott played particularly well in the fourth quarter, where he went 11 of 15 for 94 yards to go with a rushing touchdown, as he helped Dallas nearly manufacture a comeback in the fourth quarter.

Having said that, it’s becoming clear that Prescott isn’t the kind of quarterback who elevates the play of the talent around him. When the offensive line is fully healthy and Prescott has the full gambit of his receiving core at his disposal, Prescott is an outstanding QB who is capable of MVP-caliber stretches throughout a season.

However, when Prescott is playing without a full deck, as he was against New York, he struggles to elevate the play of the offense.

While Prescott is generally accurate, his ball placement often leaves a lot to be desired. Prescott typically throws catchable passes but fails to consistently hit receivers in stride and often places the ball in a way that allows the defender to make a play on the pass, which is why Prescott deserves a little bit of blame for all the drops plaguing the Cowboys offense. Here’s an example:

On this play, the Cowboys actually have a nice play dialed up to beat New York’s blitz – something, as mentioned above, that didn’t happen nearly often enough in the first half – as Blake Jarwin and Tavon Austin are running a rub-route combination, where Austin runs a slant route to pick the slot defender (Jamal Adams; No. 33) who’s tasked with covering Jarwin’s flat route.

Austin does a great job of forcing Adams to go over the top - which creates, what should be, an easy pass-and-catch between Jarwin and Prescott for the first down. If Prescott places this pass on Jarwin’s outside shoulder, the ball is completed at the sticks for a first down. However, Prescott places the ball on Jarwin’s inside shoulder, which allows Adams to attack the ball, jarring it to cause the incompletion.

Should Jarwin have still caught it? Probably, but Prescott needs to make his receivers’ jobs easier, not harder, at the catch point.

The Cowboys certainly not doing their best to optimize Prescott’s play, but Prescott also isn’t elevating his supporting cast when some of the primary contributors are out of the game, which is fine. There’s only about a handful of QBs who can be productive regardless of their supporting cast - Prescott just isn’t in that tier right now, and he may never be.

The Cowboys should consider starting Jourdan Lewis opposite Byron Jones at CB

With Byron Jones and Anthony Brown hampered by injuries against the Jets, Jourdan Lewis finally got an opportunity for some extended playing time in the second half and impressed.

The highlight of Jourdan Lewis’ day was his interception off an errant throw by Sam Darnold. Even though Lewis’ coverage didn’t cause the interception, he deserves credit for actually holding on to the interception, as we have seen the Dallas defensive backs drop plenty of, what should have been, easy interceptions this season.

Lewis wasn’t perfect, as he did get beat by Robby Anderson for an 18-yard gain in the fourth quarter, but he’s a reliable tackler, effective in run support (above clip) and one of the only defenders who’s proven capable of taking advantage of the turnover opportunities presented to them.

SAM DARNOLD TO ROBBY ANDERSON



JETS ARE BACK pic.twitter.com/zIYSNSvbH0 — NFLonCBS (@NFLonCBS) October 13, 2019

While Jones played pretty well for the most part, when healthy, against New York, Chidobe Awuzie struggled against the Jets’ weapons. Most notably, he bit on Anderson’s double move, creating an easy 92-yard catch and run for the Jets receiver, which he admitted was his fault.

Awuzie continues to struggle at the catch point and has had a problem with penalties this season. Awuzie’s defensive pass interference against New York was his fourth penalty of the season (third accepted), which is tied for the most in the secondary with Anthony Brown, who also struggled before leaving the game with an injury.

Without knowing the extent of Jones and Browns’ injuries, there’s a chance Lewis is pushed into the starting lineup anyways. However, if Brown and Jones don’t miss time, Lewis still deserves to be the starting cornerback opposite Jones, replacing Awuzie in the starting lineup.

Lewis isn’t perfect and will give up big plays occasionally but, at least, he can offset those negative plays by taking advantage of a turnover opportunity or making a play on the ball at the catch point every once in a while. Brown and Awuzie haven’t one that this season.

It’s time that Kris Richard and Rod Marinelli eschew their favoritism toward taller/longer cornerbacks and play the most effective players regardless of size, and it’s hard to argue that Lewis hasn’t been one of Dallas’ two most effective cornerbacks this season (with Byron Jones being the other).

Enjoy this post? More film studies:

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Twitter: @JohnOwning