Decoding McCarthy - Getting into that bag

The Cowboys deployed a tiny personnel grouping that we didn't see coming.

Cowboys fans have been curious. Very curious about what sort of offensive scheme changes we will see with the transition from Kellen Moore to Mike McCarthy.

Why did they change the architect of this offense when the team ranked so highly in so many categories for many years? Was it broken? Or did they just let the next offensive genius go to Los Angeles because they made another mistake?

In this space, each Tuesday, we evaluate the offense from a tactical and scheme perspective. This is an offensive overview that will take you through the statistical scorecard of that week’s game and then show you specific clips of the All-22 to show you what they are doing tactically. Some weeks its great, other weeks it is to show concerns, and most weeks it is a little bit of both because football is an imperfect game. You just are trying to beat the team across from you.

Game No. 2 of the new regime finally started to un-peel the onion. We know that most of the significant offensive pieces did not play at in the preseason and the Giants season-opening game was one where the game was over before it started. Therefore the wisdom in digging deep into the bag of tricks was preserved for another day.

But, this test would be legitimate because you were playing a defense that is to be feared. They have many elite pieces and very few holes. They are stout and have been built in the image of Robert Saleh who is credited with the build that the San Francisco 49ers use to this day. In some ways, this is a dress rehearsal for Week 5 in Santa Clara with the Cowboys old nemesis. That showdown game will have to wait because while pursuing the 49ers and Eagles may be the ultimate goal for this team, to overlook any opponents along the way can render those matchups meaningless in the chase for playoff seeding if you aren’t careful.

We would be looking for some answers in this Week 2 for the offense. I think we were given many.

Let’s take a look and show you some film: