Decoding McCarthy - The final drive and everything before it
How the Cowboys offense found the answers at the right time against the Steelers.
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:
The Offensive Overview from Pittsburgh
The Ups and Downs of Dak Prescott’s game
Terence Steele vs TJ Watt
Tyler Guyton vs TJ Bass
Jalen Tolbert’s Breakout season continues
That Final Drive
Let’s get busy:
The Offensive Overview from Pittsburgh
As we evaluate the offense from Sunday night, it is important to distinguish the overview from the details. The Cowboys are starting to play some very good offensive football, with a season-high 445 yards of offense in Pittsburgh against a team that does not give up much on that side of the ball. In the last three games, Dallas have averaged 383 yards per game as part of an upward trend. That suggests they are not far at all from being back amongst the best offenses in the league. 383 yards would rank 6th for the season, instead of 12th where they currently reside (353).
The other side of the coin should also not be ignored, though, and that is that points are not coming as easily as yards. Usually, it is red zone efficiency, but this week, the dreaded giveaways joined in. There is simply no universe in which 445 yards should barely get you 20 points. And we all know that on this occasion, Dallas was not able to make the scoreboard reflect their offensive production. We will reference a press conference where Bill Parcells used to elaborate on his NFL theories, and the one I always remember is that he surmised that every 100 yards of offense should be worth 7 points. So, nearly 450 should be about 31 points, not 20. That is how we arrive at feeling like they played better than they scored.