The Dallas Cowboys need to see improvement from their offense or their season will soon be lost. Here is how it’s fixed in five easy steps

Only two NFL teams scored less points than the Dallas Cowboys did last week. Dak Prescott and company offered us a lesson in futility as they only managed to put eight points on the board against the Carolina Panthers. The good news is these issues are largely correctable.

Note: Firing Jason Garrett and/or Scott Linehan are not options here on Friday morning so it’s pointless to even discuss it. Instead let’s focus on what is reasonable and somewhat realistic:

1. Spread out

Play-calling was suspect as a whole, but such is always the case when offenses fail to score. Therefore harping on it incessantly is nothing more than pilling on and about as insightful as a horoscope. Instead we should focus on the overall strategy of the offense and how we can mix things up to find success.

In the first half, the Dallas Cowboys not so surprisingly focused on pounding the ball. They loaded players into the middle and took the Panthers head-on. As we know, the Cowboys were overmatched in this scenario and completely shut down.

In the second half, Dallas spread out, thus spreading out the Carolina defense. The Cowboys found mild success in this way both in the running and in the passing game.

2. Change Personnel

Along the same lines as above, a personnel change seems to be in order. The Dallas Cowboys leaned on arguably their weakest unit when they repeatedly fielded plural tight ends. TE1, Geoff Swaim, is arguably the 10th most effective offense skill player on the team. Yet his 58 total snaps were more than any single receiver on the team and only one less than the top Cowboys weapon, Ezekiel Elliott (59 snaps). That’s nothing short of absurd.

Furthermore, TE2, Blake Jarwin logged 22 snaps. That’s over twice as many snaps that Tavon Austin received (10). This is an excellent illustration of the Dallas coaching staff forcing players to fit the philosophy rather than making the philosophy fit the players.

Considering how much better the offense performed when spread out, and how much more dangerous the team is with Cole Beasley and Tavon Austin on the field over Swaim and Jarwin, it’s probably time to shift from 12 personnel to 10 personnel.