The Texans highlighted their biggest weakness An overtime

Cowboys lesson learned: game is Color Rush Connor Williams Jersey , by definition, close. The Dallas Cowboys managed to end regulation tied with the Houston Texans before they lost due to a combination of failed execution and, in hindsight at least, a really bad coaching decision on fourth-and-one. But the truth is, it wasn’t really that close, as the Texans outgained and outplayed the Cowboys almost the entire game. Only some really boneheaded calls of their own plus some big defensive plays at just the right moment kept Houston from winning it pretty handily. They moved the ball up and down the field, mostly at will, while the Cowboys had the same problems with third down conversions and settling for field goals that we have seen all season. It was a hot mess of a performance by the Dallas offense, and it showed that there is a clear way to shut them down. You slow down the run game and rush Dak Prescott relentlessly. It is the biggest weakness they have, and Houston exploited it almost to perfection.Ezekiel Elliott only had 54 rushing yards in the game, which put the pressure on the passing offense. That is still not working well, especially on the road in front of a hostile crowd. It is not just one thing, either.First is that Prescott is not handling the pressure well. He tends to be inaccurate and indecisive with the ball, or misses what look like better options to throw the ball. With the Texans pass rush coming at him hard all game, the improvement of week four evaporated. The first interception off the hands of Tavon Austin came on a pass that, while possibly catchable, was clearly too high and too far in front. Had that ball been on target where Austin did not have to leap for it, not only would it not have gone over to Houston, it would have been a first down and Austin had a lot of room to use his speed and elusiveness. Too many other passes from Prescott were much the same. Though they were in the strictest sense balls that could be caught, they required the receiver to adjust way too much. It was especially frustrating to see him failing at this while Deshaun Watson was escaping similar hard rushes, but throwing accurately and making big plays.Meanwhile, the receivers certainly did not help at times. There were notable drops, at least two of which killed drives in a game where just one more score could have delivered the win for the Cowboys. The wide receivers as a group are just not having an impact. Ezekiel Elliott once more had the most catches with seven Youth Tyron Smith Jersey , but with only 4.3 yards gained on average, that did not help. Clearly the Texans were ready for the screen pass to him, blowing it up when they tried.Surprisingly, the best receiving threat for the Cowboys may now be tight end Geoff Swaim. He had 55 yards on three catches. That is still far too low a total for your top receiver, but he did have the one long play when he was used in a screen pass. That caught Houston a bit off guard, and Swaim showed again that he can run very effectively after the catch. And Rico Gathers had the third longest catch of the game to excite his fans.But all that is not enough with the wide receivers not doing much at all. And now there is a bit of dissension emerging over just who is the problem there. Allen Hurns is disputing the claims that the wide receivers are just not getting open.That certainly looks like some tension in the locker room, which is never a good thing.Things don’t stop with the quarterback and the receivers, though. The offensive line is also letting the pressure come through far too quickly. Joe Looney has done a much better job filling in for Travis Frederick than expected, but you still have to question if he and rookie Connor Williams are not making things a little too easy on the pass rush. In any case, Prescott was under fire all game. He was only sacked twice, but took six hits and evaded several other rushes with his mobility. It was exciting to see him do his own spin-move escape from J.J. Watt to find Tavon Austin for a 44-yard gain, but that was more an exception, as a moving Prescott was usually not making connections.Meanwhile, let’s throw some shade at Scott Linehan. One of Prescott’s sacks came just before the two-minute warning of the fourth quarter, and it looked like a really bad play for the situation. The pass rush had been coming hard all game, limiting the time to get a throw off, but this play involved a double fake on play-action. If it had decoyed the defense, it might have worked. But there had been no indication prior that the Texans were biting on those fakes, and by the time he was able to look downfield, all Prescott could see was that pass rush bearing down on him. It still seems too much like Linehan is determined to run plays without taking the situation into account. A slow developing pass play was the last thing the Cowboys needed or even seemed capable of doing. So that is how you thwart the Dallas offense. A good pass rush plus the ability to keep Elliott from gashing you. And that is a big problem, because in the next six games, Dallas faces Jacksonville, Washington (twice) Color Rush Allen Hurns Jersey , Tennessee, and Philadelphia - all teams that have been very solid doing just those things so far this season. That is shaping up to be a really hard stretch, and if the Cowboys don’t find some kind of solution, the season could be pretty much done for by mid-November.No sugarcoating here. Not only is this a huge vulnerability for Dallas, there is no evidence they can fix it effectively. A dynamic wide receiver is not available at the local PlayerMart, and as much as you may want to fire Linehan and Jason Garrett, that wouldn’t turn things around in mid-season. Brace yourselves. The rest of the NFL knows how to stop the Cowboys, and way too many of them are fully capable of doing it. The chorus of voices that want Scott Linehan to lose his job as offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys has remained loud. The 7-1 stretch run to secure the NFC East crown and a home field game to start the playoffs is seen, by some, as more despite him than because of him. No matter how the playoffs go for the Cowboys, many still believe the team would be better off without him.I think the process of cutting those ties may have already started.Let me be perfectly clear. This is an opinion piece. It is based on personal observation, some information and hints dropped elsewhere, and is absolutely colored by my own thoughts on the OC. But there is an interesting picture that emerged during the win over the New York Giants that has just been reinforced by some things since. Dallas used a completely different offensive plan to win the regular season finale from what we had seen in the fifteen prior games. Part of that was the absence of Ezekiel Elliott as he rested for the game against the Seattle Seahawks. Linehan bases his scheme on the run game to set everything else up while attempting to beat the opposing defense into submission. Without Elliott, the alternatives were to just try the same with Rod Smith and Darius Jackson, or do an about face and put the offense on Dak Prescott and the passing game. Given Prescott’s rather impressive performance, it certainly looks like door number two was chosen. This was the second-best total yardage of his career at 387, and just the fourth time he has exceeded 300 yards. Only the overtime win over the Philadelphia Eagles earlier this season was greater. It also was a career best in passing touchdowns with four. And his running ability was not a factor. This was all on his arm, including the spectacular fourth-and-fifteen touchdown throw to Cole Beasley that won the game.It wasn’t just the volume of his output. It was how he did it. Look at this eye-opening tweet.To me, at least, this was the most important bit of evidence that this was not the Cowboys attack we had seen to that point. All season, Prescott had avoided throwing to the middle of the field like it was lava. Let me offer the opinion that he did so because he was told to. Linehan tends to conservatism and part of that is avoiding turning the ball over. That part of the field is a place where interceptions are more likely, because defensive backs can move into it from both directions. Linebackers also live there. That complicates things for the passer, who has more he has to avoid. Indications have been that there is a certain lack of trust in Prescott’s ability to make those reads and throws Color Rush Leighton Vander Esch Jersey , so they were simply off the table. That helps protect the ball, but it gives up a significant part of the field, limiting the team’s options without the defense really doing anything to cause it.Against the Giants, it was time to pull up a chair at that part of the table and dig in. The result was a career day for Blake Jarwin, as he had by far his best performance and was acknowledged with NFC Offensive Player of the Week recognition - the first tight end from Dallas to be selected for that since the award was founded four decades ago. More subtly, that game also saw Beasley re-establish his reputation as the most clutch receiver on the team. In addition to the game-winning, one-knee-down grab, he caught all six targets for a total of 94 yards and one each key third-down and fourth-down conversion besides the TD. As mentioned, not having Elliott on the field was one reason to pivot to the passing game as the way to move the ball, but the overall situation also was important. It was, as mentioned endlessly leading up to it, a meaningless game. Dallas was locked into the fourth seed, and the decision to rest Elliott, Tyron Smith, and Zack Martin reflected this. But since it was meaningless, it was also the perfect time to experiment with something different. If the move to throwing the ball, especially into a mostly unused part of the field and to a player like Jarwin who had been less than impressive to date, did not work out, no harm was really done. But it worked. And brought another real benefit. Now the Seahawks have something very new to plan for. Will the Cowboys revert back to their Zeke-centric approach? If they do, and it works, fine. But if it falters, they have an effective adjustment ready, one they just got to work on in real game conditions against a decent passing defense. The Giants yielded 7.6 yards per attempt last season Youth Dak Prescott Jersey , just behind Seattle’s 7.5. And they gave up 24 touchdowns through the air, where the Seahawks surrendered 26. Those are close, and New York was better at intercepting the ball, with a 16 to 12 advantage over Seattle. It is hard to imagine a better time to successfully roll out something that new than the last game before the playoffs. It was both a pragmatic and daring approach. Both of those are not exactly traits that Linehan has exhibited. He has at times seemed very stubborn about doing what he is comfortable with even when it isn’t working, and has long carried a label of being too conservative. The argument about whether things like the red zone woes are due to coaching, play-calling, or execution is still valid, but it is reasonable to say at least part of the issue falls squarely on his shoulders.Oh, and the Cowboys scored touchdowns on 75% of their four trips to the red zone in New Jersey, so that was one more way things were rather different for the offense. Maybe this was just Linehan deciding he had to do something different. Perhaps he was trying to ensure he kept his job. Well, here’s a tantalizing tidbit.Even if Linehan was still calling plays (which it did appear was the case), if it was indeed Garrett’s game plan, that is a potentially huge signal. It would reflect at least a loss of confidence in the former’s ability to make that kind of adjustment. It could be the first step in moving away from Linehan. That does not make it a done deal. Linehan may get in line with a new direction. Or Garrett may just keep a bigger role in the game-planning while still relying on Linehan to call the plays during games.There is also a question about just where the impetus originated for such a move. Did Garrett do it on his own, or did someone (cough) Jerry Jones (cough) lay down a little law here? That is something that may never be known, but it might - might - be a strong hint of the direction things might be headed after the postseason does end for Dallas.Clearly, this is all circumstantial evidence. But while a successful run (meaning at least winning Saturday’s wild-card game) might extend both Garrett’s and Linehan’s tenures, it also could signal that Linehan’s star is finally fading beyond redemption. One other thing is how this all will affect Prescott’s future. He is the quarterback, and there is absolutely no indication that the team is even considering another path. But that Giants performance was a major demonstration of just what he might be capable of. Better coaching that more fully utilizes his strengths and helps cover for his weaknesses would pay major dividends for the team. It looks like he may be getting just that when the Cowboys can really use it entering the playoffs.We still have to see how that all plays out. But that handwriting may be showing up on the wall for Linehan. Custom Houston Texans Jerseys

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