There’s no question the Dallas Cowboys passing game failed as a whole on Sunday in their season opener. But, as usual, everyone is looking to assign the blame to someone in particular.
Was it the offensive line? The receivers? The coaching? The quarterback? In reality, it was a little bit of everyone. The stars on the team did not perform to their ability, and the role players looked bad at times.
The Cowboys vaunted offensive line surrendered six sacks, and Dak Prescott appeared to be under duress all afternoon. Of course, this doesn’t all fall on the offensive line, though. Prescott could not find open receivers down field often, even when they were there to be found.
So, once the All-22 came out on NFL Gamepass, I decided to take a look and see who’s “fault” each of the six sacks was. Of the six (one of which looked more like failed quarterback draw) I placed three “on” the offensive line/pass protection and two “on” Dak Prescott.
Let’s examine a few of these sacks in greater detail.
The first time the Panthers got to Prescott looked way too easy. Backed up in their own territory the Cowboys came out in the I-formation with a tight end inline on the right side. Prior to the snap Carolina shifts their weakside linebacker over the left tackle, creating a two-over-one situation on the backside.
This should have been a red-alert for a blitz, and should’ve been communicated across the line of scrimmage. Instead, with veteran center Travis Frederick out, there seemed to be communication issues.
Tyron Smith steps down to take care of his inside gap, allowing the blitzing weakside backer to run free. On paper, this should be Ezekiel Elliott’s man, but that is a damn-near impossible block for him to make coming across the formation.
Still, it is his responsibility, and he fails to pick up that block. This sack falls “on” the pass protection, but it really has to do more with poor pre-snap communication.
Later on in the game we see one of the sacks which really falls on Dak Prescott. The Cowboys come out in trips to the near side, and Ezekiel Elliott and a tight end stacked to the right. Carolina once again shows two-over-one, this time over the right tackle.
This screams blitz, and Elliott is able to step up and take the blitzer head on this time. The interior is where this pass protection breaks down, as left guard Connor Williams gets flat-out beat by the 3 technique.
Despite being beat relatively quickly, there’s no excuse for Prescott to take a sack here. He has his tight end flashing open quickly in the middle of the field, and has the option to tuck it and run with green grass in front of him if he doesn’t want to try to fit it between zones as well.
Prescott has to process the coverage and blitz quicker here to avoid the negative play. He also has to run more often, but that’s another point for another post.
This third sack falls mostly on the offensive line, and once again can be attributed to poor communication on the interior. Carolina brings a bit of a modified cross-dog blitz, with the 2i technique defensive tackle occupying both Williams and Looney, allowing for the blitzing linebacker to run free through the b-gap.
Joe Looney and Connor Williams have to communicate this better. Williams completely turns his hips and shoulders rather than staying square, and is unable to slide off the 2i to the linebacker. Looney should take the down lineman over, allowing Williams to slide off.
This has more to do with lack of familiarity than anything else, and is actually somewhat encouraging. This should get better as the season goes on.
These final two clips are the same play, just from different angles. I wanted to highlight how sometimes, you just get beat, and I don’t think you can really blame any one person alone.
From the end-zone angle you can clearly see Connor Williams get beat by the 3 technique once again, and on first view it appears the sack is his fault. But when you really look at the whole play progression, you see that both the play design and Dak Prescott are also to blame.
Carolina is in two-deep coverage attempting to avoid the big play. Dallas is already down multiple possessions and with time running out, they know they can just sit back and play this type of off-coverage.
Dallas is looking to push the ball vertically down the seams, but both deep safeties are able to sit on the hash and just wait for the receivers to reach them on their route. You could argue that Prescott should have hit the hitch route on the far side, but it doesn’t appear to be on his radar.
Overall, Carolina just won on this play. Sometimes that happens, those guys get paid to play too.
If there’s a conclusion to be drawn, it’s that just about everyone was bad at Sunday. If Dak Prescott, the offensive line, Ezekiel Elliott, the receivers, and the coaches are all this bad going forward, it’s going to be a long season.
But, as you can see, simply getting some familiarity with one another and communicating better should help this offense develop throughout the season.
