It’s pretty impressive how the landscape of a football team can dramatically change on a week-to-week basis. The Dallas Cowboys’ performance on offense through the first three games of the season had some fans already thinking about the 2019 NFL Draft. But even though the Detroit Lions are not among the NFL’s finest, the Cowboys’ second win of the season came with a huge sigh of relief by Cowboys Nation.
The offense was able to move the chains, the coaching was pretty decent and simply put, the team was able to execute. Not only that, but they did so against one of the league’s best passing defenses. Now granted, their play was far from perfect and there are still tons of aspects this team must improve to be a serious playoffs unit.
Let’s get to this week’s edition of “Takeaway Tuesday” as we discuss some of the things we learned in last Sunday’s victory over the Lions!
Dak Prescott was on fire against a top passing defense.
Yes, Dak Prescott has a lot to work on before the Cowboys decide whether or not he’s the franchise quarterback they thought he was when handing him the starting job in 2016. However, as far as his performance against the Lions is concerned, there’s not much to criticize. This was one of Prescott’s best games, completing 17 passes for 255 yards in a game in which his team ran for 186 yards.
Prescott wasn’t afraid to throw downfield (something we had seen very little of) and he did so against Darius Slay and the Lions’ passing defense, which entered week 4 as the top one in the nation. He threw some pretty good passes and made very few mistakes. That pass to Ezekiel Elliott in the final drive was an absolute dime. He also put the ball in Tavon Austin’s hands despite perfect coverage from Darius Slay, although Austin didn’t keep the ball. Also worth nothing was Prescott’s pass to Allen Hurns for a sideline catch which was really impressive. These were not the only good throws from Dak, but they show consistently on last game’s tape.
Some in Cowboys Nation won’t stop criticizing Dak, but man… that was one hell of a game from his part and he deserves a big part of the credit for this win.
Ezekiel Elliott should be used as a pass catcher.
Ezekiel Elliott hauled in a perfectly thrown 34-yard pass by Dak to end the football game. Before that a great screen play designed by Scott Linehan resulted in a 38 yard receiving touchdown for Zeke. Now, how many times have we talked about the coaches reluctance to use their top RB in the passing game just like the Rams have with Todd Gurley or the Steelers with Le’Veon Bell?
Now, I know these were only a couple of plays and we shouldn’t overreact because of them, but these were game-changing plays. The Cowboys’ offense would be more dangerous with him threatening the offense as a receiving RB as well.
Chidobe Awuzie hasn’t met expectations.
Although one of the most discussed Cowboys’ defensive backs is Jourdan Lewis and the reason he hasn’t seen any playing time, I wonder if we should also be concerned about the other sophomore, Chidobe Awuzie. Byron Jones has stolen the show at CB, basically erasing his side of the field for opposing offenses, but the same hasn’t been the case for #24.
According to Pro Football Focus, Awuzie allowed eight receptions in 11 targets for 138 yards and one touchdown. This stats don’t tell the entire story, but he certainly needs to improve or Cowboys Nation will start having flashbacks of the 2017 version of Anthony Brown.
Geoff Swaim has emerged as Cowboys’ TE1.
Tight ends have been a weakness for this 2018 Dallas Cowboys team, but one has emerged as the starter at the very uncertain position. Geoff Swaim caught three passes for 39 yards and his first career touchdown in last Sunday’s game.
Out of four weeks, Swaim has led the tight ends in Dallas with over 90% of the snaps in each game. He’s been able to stay on the field longer than any of the other guys who were also expected to earn a fair share of the TE snaps. Hopefully, Dak can develop some sort of chemistry with Swaim because this offense needs a tight end who can serve as a weapon in the passing game.
Probably 6 of awuzies allowed completions he had absolutely blanket coverage. Stafford has elite qb talent, tough to defend perfectly thrown balls imo
I was just about to say the same thing about Awuzie’s coverage… He couldn’t have covered any better on a lot of those throws… It was just incredible WR and QB play on most of them
i think 24 will bounce back, he has had some tough match ups, has done a decent job. i say it normally takes 3 yrs for a CB to get right. in year 2 he’s been solid.
i do think that 27 needs more playing time, either spelling 24 or in the slot over 30. 27 i think is much better in man coverage
swaim is definitely a legitimate TE, he was coming along great in year 1 before getting hurt, he’ll only get better. now we need to get schultz some playing time. get rid of jarwin, bring up 86
I agree with some of the other comments on here. Sure some of the balls thrown Chido’s way have been caught, but I can count at least 5 off the top of my head that he had perfect coverage and the ball was just put in a better spot. He will learn to pick up the ball better and knock down some of those but he’s been in bear perfect position which is all you can ask for.
In regards to Brown and Lewis, I think you give 27 a chance. I know he slipped up on the first Tate touchdown but at least that was a physical mistake that, if it had not happened, he would have been in perfect position to at least knock that ball away if not catch it. Brown was just caught watching the backfield on the second Tate touchdown and he hasn’t looked good at all in the slot CB position.
Swaim is the best all around we have RIGHT NOW. He dropped what should have been the game clinching touchdown on that 8 minute drive against the lions. I’d like to see Rico continue to get shots in the red zone and I hope swaim can be a little more consistent. But at this point, I’d like to see what Schultz can do instead of Jarwin taking up space on the sideline.
Additionally the were times I’ve met the receiver go because he was supposed to get safety help that turned out not to be there
There were times he let the receiver go because he was expecting safety help over the top which never appeared.
The “HC” hasn’t meet them in 8 years……so who cares……