So much for the offensive eruption that many expected. I guess you could say that went out of the window once the Dallas Cowboys were without their top-2 wide receivers and premier left tackle. The offense wasn’t just limited, it was downright awful. Dak Prescott couldn’t gain any traction and the offensive line couldn’t give him enough time. However albeit far and few, Prescott had his chances and couldn’t make it happen.
Meanwhile, the defense played an admirable game. They held a potent Kansas City Chiefs offense to 19 points and forced two turnovers. They were able to keep Patrick Mahomes under pressure and limited big plays down the field. After allowing some early scores, Dan Quinn’s unit settled in. Unfortunately, the offense couldn’t complement their efforts.
At 7-3, the Cowboys are now two games behind Arizona for the best record in the conference. Their division rivals seem to be picking up momentum, with the Washington Football Team and Philadelphia Eagles each winning two consecutive games. I won’t go as far as saying the Cowboys have to look over their shoulder in the NFC East, but it’s not as comfortable as it once was.
With two games in the next 11 days, the Cowboys can demonstrate if this loss was a sign of things to come or a minor blip on the radar. Let’s review a dull performance at Arrowhead Stadium and trace this murder by the numbers.
8 – QB Hits on Dak Prescott
If not for Dak Prescott’s mobility, this number would be much higher. As stated prior, the Cowboys were without Tyron Smith;, and this week they replaced Connor Williams for Connor McGovern. The results were far worse than anyone could have imagined. It all starts with Dallas being unable to stop Chris Jones. Jones is a top-tier defensive lineman in the NFL and it was on full display to the tune of 3.5 sacks.
From a viewer’s perspective, the environment of Arrowhead Stadium seemed to get to the Cowboys’ offensive line. These resulted in multiple false start penalties and a forced fumble by Dak Prescott where Terence Steele was late coming out of his stance. The Dallas Cowboys have a short week, and it remains to be seen if they’ll make any changes or get Tyron Smith back. This offensive line has got to do a lot better than they did because they’ll be seeing Cameron Jordan and Maxx Crosby in less than a 2-week span.
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5 – Dak Prescott’s yards Per Pass Attempt
Spoiler Alert: For this week’s edition of Murder by the Numbers, I’m going to center the focus on the Cowboys’ offense.
From the moment the game started things were just a bit off, especially for Dak Prescott. On the first play of the game, Prescott couldn’t connect with Michael Gallup on a long pass downfield and that would become thematic for the entire afternoon. Although there were limited opportunities and the receivers dropped a few passes, Prescott missed a few throws that were uncharacteristic.
What might be most surprising is how Prescott wasn’t his usual self when facing the blitz. According to this tweet from Pro Football Focus, Prescott is one of the most prolific passers when blitzed. But against Kansas City, he couldn’t overcome the pressure. It’s not as if Kansas City did anything that they haven’t done all season; being among the league leaders in blitz rate. After an offensive performance like this, there’s plenty of blame to go around. It all starts with the team’s leader and even he would admit this wasn’t a good outing.
3.6 – Ezekiel Elliott’s Yards Per Attempt
Highlighting this statistic isn’t to chastise Ezekiel Elliott for his performance. It’s to paint a bigger picture of the Cowboys’ struggles. Elliott and his backfield counterpart Tony Pollard, are both averaging over 4.5 yards per carry for the season.
Per ESPN, the Chiefs were among the worst in run-stop rates. With those things in mind, the Cowboys should have had more success running the ball. It became clear almost immediately that the Chiefs weren’t going to allow that to happen.
During the broadcast, Troy Aikman mentioned that the Cowboys should look to establish the running game more. That didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Trailing by more than one score against Kansas City, Dallas was struggling to run the ball throughout the game up until that point; and the Chiefs were packing the line of scrimmage.
The Cowboys couldn’t take advantage of opportunities in the passing game, but the running game was much worse. The final stats appear to look decent. One may think that 16 combined carries for 82 yards aren’t too shabby. However, except for Tony Pollard’s 31-yard run, the Cowboys ran 15 times for 51 yards for a paltry 3.4 yards per carry.
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2.3 – Dallas Cowboys Yards Per 1st Down Play in the 1st Half
The Cowboys went to halftime down by a score of 16-3. It felt like so much more with how they played offensively leading to the break. There are several reasons why, and many components to hold accountable. A shuffled offensive line that couldn’t stand up to pressure. Maybe conservative playcalling; but if I wanted to simplify it, it’s an inability to do anything on first down.
The Cowboys ran 14 plays on first down in the first half. Eight of them were passes and resulted in a total of 14 yards (1.75 yards a pass). The run plays were better but that number is skewed by that aforementioned Tony Pollard run for 31 yards. Minus that play, the Cowboys ran the ball five times on first down (in the first half) for a total of 10 yards. (2 yards per carry)
While we’re on the subject, we can also discuss the 2nd half. Dallas ran the same amount of first-down plays after the intermission. They fared a little bit better, but not by much. Their best drive of the day came late in the 3rd quarter where they had three consecutive first-down pass plays of 12, 18, and 14 yards. Simply put, the Dallas Cowboys played behind the chains and once they were faced with 3rd and long, they could never manage to stay on the field.
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