Decoding McCarthy - Solid Start To 2024
The Offense certainly did not come close to a perfect game, but against that defense in that setting – you will take it every time.
Tuesdays – since about 2008 – have been my day to evaluate the offense in this space. We have called it “Decoding” over those years and then the name behind the decoding is the man with the play-sheet calling the plays and hopefully putting them in an order to attack that week’s opponent. This is where the football nerd in me gets to figure out the tactical and strategic plot-lines of the game and get a feel for how well it worked out for that side of the ball. For those of you new here, two things: 1) ask questions of anything you don’t quite understand and 2) be aware that we do defense on Wednesdays.
Here we go. Our objectives today:
Evaluate the offense in general and then closer looks at:
The return of Ezekiel Elliott.
The rookie OL playing in a very tough spot.
The QB a few hours after he signs the biggest deal ever.
Look at some All-22 film and see what we can see.
OVERALL OFFENSIVE EVALUATION
We start with the drive chart from the Game Book, which gives us a fine overview of the 14 drives from Sunday. We see six scoring drives—but three with very short fields—and then two drives at the end of each half that we should barely count (although the one before halftime almost turned into a ridiculous 66- or 71-yard field goal that we really wanted to see).
What we saw in the first half was excellent for stretches, with Dak Prescott throwing the ball well and the offense looking like it was well-designed, with plenty of ideas against a very good Cleveland defense. The Film Study will feature the 5th drive, and let me tell you, I thought it was incredible in design and execution.
I also loved the early mind-melding of Dak and CeeDee Lamb. With each passing year, they remind me—and I assume Mike McCarthy—of Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams. They literally know what each other is going to do, and that is the dream for any offense: having your QB1 and one of the best receivers in the league working together on that level. Tony Romo only had that with Jason Witten, and you wonder how limitless it might be with someone as dynamic as Lamb.
To be fair, the offense had two very nice drives all day long, and you never want to say 2-14 is acceptable because, of course, it is not. But there are games where you have to make decisions on the fly based on how the game is going, and as I said yesterday, the objective by halftime switched to not risking anything dumb with rookie linemen and just getting out of Dodge with a three-score lead. I will always support a head coach who decides to eliminate any risk of a huge halftime lead being given back due to hubris or stupidity. So, above all else, play to win the game.
But that certainly doesn’t mean we want bad offense for the entire 2nd half. We would prefer a lovely ground-and-pound with dominance being exerted and trying to make your opponent quit. We have seen that plenty in the rookie year of Zeke when teams were driven into the turf by a relentless and merciless running game. But just nine running plays in the 2nd half for 26 yards was definitely not that. So, we don’t want to act like it was the main story, but we could have used a little more of a knockout posture from the offense in the 2nd half, and I also don’t want to fully ignore it.
So overall, we don’t love these numbers below, but we also realize that if we have to choose between a great offensive day or an easy win in Cleveland, that choice is not difficult.
It was a clean game. The Cowboys put up 26 points offensively, and got the job done. Now, in the future, you usually won’t get away with 28% on 3rd downs and just 265 yards and 15 first downs. None of those numbers were very good and we shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking they are. At the same time, when you are up 27-3, I would probably do the exact same thing.
Let’s move on.