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Cowboys At The Bye
Spagnola: Cowboys Running On Empty
IRVING, Texas - Tony Romo needs help.
No, stop it. Not the help you're thinking.
He needs help on offense. Yes, I know, the quarterback is the most important guy on the offense - on the team. You can fudge on defense with schemes to cover, oh, maybe a weak corner, giving him help. You can cover an outside linebacker. Tight end, as long as he can block. Don't have a great running back, well, play-calling and an offensive line can mask that deficiency.
But the quarterback, either you have one or you don't, right? And all we need to do is look back from 2001 until the young Romo took over seven games into the 2006 season. Then things began to click. Then the Cowboys began to score, once the quarterback got out of his own way and made plays. Big plays.
But even going back as far as last year, the Cowboys' ability to score touchdowns has come down to this: Either the quarterback throws a touchdown pass or the Cowboys rarely, if ever, get into the end zone. That's a lot of pressure on the dude, or dudes if you want to factor in Jon Kitna, too.
Oh, so you think I'm going easy on Romo? Well, let me explain.
After four games, with the Cowboys heading into this weekend's bye at 2-2 - two come-from-behind wins and two come-from-ahead losses - the Cowboys have scored a grand total of nine touchdowns. Nine, barely more than two a game - 2.25 to be exact. Heck, even the Bears with Jay Cutler pulling the strings have 10. Green Bay leads the NFL with 19, more than twice the Cowboys' total.
But of those nine Cowboys touchdowns, eight have come by air and only one - let me repeat that - one has come by ground. One measly rushing touchdown in four games, which factors out over a 16-game season to just four if they don't start finding their groove. The franchise low for a single season is six rushing touchdowns. That's happened three times. The first two were somewhat excusable: Ended up being the first two seasons in franchise history. The Cowboys went 0-11-1, of course, in 1960, and then 4-9-1 in 1961. The third and last time the Cowboys matched the franchise-low of six rushing touchdowns in a season was 1997. Uh, that was 6-10, buddy, the last year for Barry Switzer as head coach, Ernie Zampese as offensive coordinator and the late Joe Brodsky as running backs coach once Chan Gailey took over in 1998.
Jason Garrett does not make excuses for his team, nor his players. But he subtly made a reference to the burden on his quarterback's shoulders the other day that flew right over most everyone's heads when he said of Romo during a barrage of questions, "He'll continue to get better as we get better as a team."
You starting to understand what I'm talking about? And this is not just this season, this inability to run the ball into the end zone. The Cowboys last year ran for just 10 touchdowns, not even one a game. And I figured out that in the 51-year history of the Cowboys, only nine times did they finish a season with no more than 10 rushing touchdowns.
And guess what? They finished eight of those seasons with a losing record, including last year's 6-10, and the ninth was a 7-7 mark in 1965. Never a winning record. Coincidence? I think not.
Why, 6-10 is the best record the Cowboys have managed the six times they could rush for no more than 10 touchdowns during a 16-game season. The worst two? That would be 3-13 in 1988 with 10 rushing touchdowns, and 1-15 in 1989 with seven rushing touchdowns.
Quarterbacks do need help. Even Romo, because so far, and even last year when it was Romo and Kitna, if they weren't throwing the ball into the end zone, the Cowboys rarely were getting there. Look at the numbers: 29 passing touchdowns and nearly more returns for scores (seven) than the 10 rushing touchdowns.
So here we go again, new season but similar four-game trend. Right now, only one team has fewer rushing touchdowns than the Cowboys. That would be the 1-3 Kansas City Chiefs. Hmmm. Of the five other teams with just one rushing touchdown, only Tennessee has a winning record (3-1). The Cowboys are the only team of the bunch with a .500 record. The rest, losing records, and that would include 0-4 Indianapolis and 0-4 St. Louis.
Now I'm guessing you've barely been able to contain yourself while I've mounted my well-thought-out thesis here, and I can hear your thoughts from this far away: Well, blabber mouth, if you don't try to run you're aren't going to run the ball into the end zone. Am I right?
The Cowboys have run the ball 101 times in four games, an average of right at 25 a game. The league average is 27 runs a game and three rushing touchdowns.
But here is the rub. On those 101 runs, the Cowboys average just 3.4 yards a carry, and it's only that high because of averaging 4.2 this past Sunday. Prior to the Lions game the average was 3.2.
How does that 3.4 stack up? Well, only four teams trail the Cowboys' average per carry. As bad, the Cowboys are far below the league average of 4.2 a carry.
So if you are attempting to run the ball and not getting anywhere fast - and let's see, on the second possession of the 34-30 loss to Detroit, the Cowboys ran the ball on three of four plays from the Detroit 10, the last on fourth-and-goal from the one, and finished at the one with no points, ending up losing by four, as we well know - why would you continue to run the ball?
Oh, and that one rushing touchdown the Cowboys do have? Came from one yard out. Hey, there is nothing wrong with running one in from like, maybe 10 yards out, or 16. How 'bout 20? Lots of teams do that. Last year the longest run from scrimmage was Miles Austin's 60-yard end around. Next, Felix Jones' 34-yarder. Next, uh, that 29-yard touchdown jaunt by Kitna, of all people.
Pretty sure Tony Dorsett's club-record 99-yard touchdown run is pretty safe for the time being.
But go ahead if you must, blame it all on Romo.
Or blame Garrett because he calls too many pass plays. Bet he learned at Princeton it's not wise to bang your head against a wall if the wall is not moving.
And please ... please ... can we stop this offensive imbalance between run and pass every time the Cowboys lose? Didn't hear any complaints when the Cowboys threw the ball 43 times and ran just 22 in the victory over San Francisco. Not a peep after 38 passes and 28 runs in the victory over Washington. What? Where were ya? But lose and throw the ball 47 times vs. 27 runs, and you'd think the guy committed treason.
This is 2011, not 1971.
Think anyone in Green Bay is worried over the Packers throwing the ball 142 times and only running 105 times in four games since they won 'em all? Or Detroit's 162 passes to 101 runs? Thought we got that all squared away on that the night of Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium.
To me there were two concerns when this season began. One, how quickly would the defense adapt to Rob Ryan's new system? And that adaption seems to be coming along just fine heading into the bye. Then two, how quickly would an offensive line with three new starters, totaling all of one NFL start to their credit, and another having started just one full season, develop some cohesion? That, well, needless to say, is still a work in progress.
But as a friend who covered the Cowboys starting back in 1962 until finally retiring about five years ago told me this week, "Finally, I like what I see. Someone is doing some good coaching out there."
Imagine that, someone not dogging the 2-2 Cowboys, and thoroughly understanding the heavy burden on Romo's shoulders. Because as you can see already, again, if he's not throwing touchdown passes, the Cowboys are rarely scoring touchdowns. There's only so many times you can kick six field goals to win a game.
The Cowboys need to give the guy a hand - stop being so Romo-dependent - or settle for the hand that's dealt them. Because unlike poker, they don't allow you to discard bad plays in football.
Spagnola: Cowboys Running On Empty
IRVING, Texas - Tony Romo needs help.
No, stop it. Not the help you're thinking.
He needs help on offense. Yes, I know, the quarterback is the most important guy on the offense - on the team. You can fudge on defense with schemes to cover, oh, maybe a weak corner, giving him help. You can cover an outside linebacker. Tight end, as long as he can block. Don't have a great running back, well, play-calling and an offensive line can mask that deficiency.
But the quarterback, either you have one or you don't, right? And all we need to do is look back from 2001 until the young Romo took over seven games into the 2006 season. Then things began to click. Then the Cowboys began to score, once the quarterback got out of his own way and made plays. Big plays.
But even going back as far as last year, the Cowboys' ability to score touchdowns has come down to this: Either the quarterback throws a touchdown pass or the Cowboys rarely, if ever, get into the end zone. That's a lot of pressure on the dude, or dudes if you want to factor in Jon Kitna, too.
Oh, so you think I'm going easy on Romo? Well, let me explain.
After four games, with the Cowboys heading into this weekend's bye at 2-2 - two come-from-behind wins and two come-from-ahead losses - the Cowboys have scored a grand total of nine touchdowns. Nine, barely more than two a game - 2.25 to be exact. Heck, even the Bears with Jay Cutler pulling the strings have 10. Green Bay leads the NFL with 19, more than twice the Cowboys' total.
But of those nine Cowboys touchdowns, eight have come by air and only one - let me repeat that - one has come by ground. One measly rushing touchdown in four games, which factors out over a 16-game season to just four if they don't start finding their groove. The franchise low for a single season is six rushing touchdowns. That's happened three times. The first two were somewhat excusable: Ended up being the first two seasons in franchise history. The Cowboys went 0-11-1, of course, in 1960, and then 4-9-1 in 1961. The third and last time the Cowboys matched the franchise-low of six rushing touchdowns in a season was 1997. Uh, that was 6-10, buddy, the last year for Barry Switzer as head coach, Ernie Zampese as offensive coordinator and the late Joe Brodsky as running backs coach once Chan Gailey took over in 1998.
Jason Garrett does not make excuses for his team, nor his players. But he subtly made a reference to the burden on his quarterback's shoulders the other day that flew right over most everyone's heads when he said of Romo during a barrage of questions, "He'll continue to get better as we get better as a team."
You starting to understand what I'm talking about? And this is not just this season, this inability to run the ball into the end zone. The Cowboys last year ran for just 10 touchdowns, not even one a game. And I figured out that in the 51-year history of the Cowboys, only nine times did they finish a season with no more than 10 rushing touchdowns.
And guess what? They finished eight of those seasons with a losing record, including last year's 6-10, and the ninth was a 7-7 mark in 1965. Never a winning record. Coincidence? I think not.
Why, 6-10 is the best record the Cowboys have managed the six times they could rush for no more than 10 touchdowns during a 16-game season. The worst two? That would be 3-13 in 1988 with 10 rushing touchdowns, and 1-15 in 1989 with seven rushing touchdowns.
Quarterbacks do need help. Even Romo, because so far, and even last year when it was Romo and Kitna, if they weren't throwing the ball into the end zone, the Cowboys rarely were getting there. Look at the numbers: 29 passing touchdowns and nearly more returns for scores (seven) than the 10 rushing touchdowns.
So here we go again, new season but similar four-game trend. Right now, only one team has fewer rushing touchdowns than the Cowboys. That would be the 1-3 Kansas City Chiefs. Hmmm. Of the five other teams with just one rushing touchdown, only Tennessee has a winning record (3-1). The Cowboys are the only team of the bunch with a .500 record. The rest, losing records, and that would include 0-4 Indianapolis and 0-4 St. Louis.
Now I'm guessing you've barely been able to contain yourself while I've mounted my well-thought-out thesis here, and I can hear your thoughts from this far away: Well, blabber mouth, if you don't try to run you're aren't going to run the ball into the end zone. Am I right?
The Cowboys have run the ball 101 times in four games, an average of right at 25 a game. The league average is 27 runs a game and three rushing touchdowns.
But here is the rub. On those 101 runs, the Cowboys average just 3.4 yards a carry, and it's only that high because of averaging 4.2 this past Sunday. Prior to the Lions game the average was 3.2.
How does that 3.4 stack up? Well, only four teams trail the Cowboys' average per carry. As bad, the Cowboys are far below the league average of 4.2 a carry.
So if you are attempting to run the ball and not getting anywhere fast - and let's see, on the second possession of the 34-30 loss to Detroit, the Cowboys ran the ball on three of four plays from the Detroit 10, the last on fourth-and-goal from the one, and finished at the one with no points, ending up losing by four, as we well know - why would you continue to run the ball?
Oh, and that one rushing touchdown the Cowboys do have? Came from one yard out. Hey, there is nothing wrong with running one in from like, maybe 10 yards out, or 16. How 'bout 20? Lots of teams do that. Last year the longest run from scrimmage was Miles Austin's 60-yard end around. Next, Felix Jones' 34-yarder. Next, uh, that 29-yard touchdown jaunt by Kitna, of all people.
Pretty sure Tony Dorsett's club-record 99-yard touchdown run is pretty safe for the time being.
But go ahead if you must, blame it all on Romo.
Or blame Garrett because he calls too many pass plays. Bet he learned at Princeton it's not wise to bang your head against a wall if the wall is not moving.
And please ... please ... can we stop this offensive imbalance between run and pass every time the Cowboys lose? Didn't hear any complaints when the Cowboys threw the ball 43 times and ran just 22 in the victory over San Francisco. Not a peep after 38 passes and 28 runs in the victory over Washington. What? Where were ya? But lose and throw the ball 47 times vs. 27 runs, and you'd think the guy committed treason.
This is 2011, not 1971.
Think anyone in Green Bay is worried over the Packers throwing the ball 142 times and only running 105 times in four games since they won 'em all? Or Detroit's 162 passes to 101 runs? Thought we got that all squared away on that the night of Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium.
To me there were two concerns when this season began. One, how quickly would the defense adapt to Rob Ryan's new system? And that adaption seems to be coming along just fine heading into the bye. Then two, how quickly would an offensive line with three new starters, totaling all of one NFL start to their credit, and another having started just one full season, develop some cohesion? That, well, needless to say, is still a work in progress.
But as a friend who covered the Cowboys starting back in 1962 until finally retiring about five years ago told me this week, "Finally, I like what I see. Someone is doing some good coaching out there."
Imagine that, someone not dogging the 2-2 Cowboys, and thoroughly understanding the heavy burden on Romo's shoulders. Because as you can see already, again, if he's not throwing touchdown passes, the Cowboys are rarely scoring touchdowns. There's only so many times you can kick six field goals to win a game.
The Cowboys need to give the guy a hand - stop being so Romo-dependent - or settle for the hand that's dealt them. Because unlike poker, they don't allow you to discard bad plays in football.