Decoding McCarthy, Wk 13 - Fireworks Continue

The Cowboys offense continues its surge and sprints into December with confidence.

Dallas and their offensive build in 2023 have done a wonderful job growing this season. We have tried to make sure that the readers of this space were aware of the developments incrementally, but perhaps it would be best if we could show you with results.

After another 41-point performance where the offense produced points on eight of their nine actual drives on Thursday – the one exception being the CeeDee Lamb fourth-down drop – the end product from this offense has worked its way up the statistical ladder with impressive ease.

Here is our “big 10 (the first two columns are the same stat for offensive point scored) metrics” for the full season of 2023 to date:

Now, here is where we need to have a divide. So, this is that same chart for Weeks 1-5. We know these as “until they left San Francisco”, but could also be termed with getting your offensive line back or deciding that everything should go through CeeDee Lamb or letting Dak cook.

Weeks 1-5:

And since Week 6:

Pretty impressive, right? Obviously, three stats are flat or slightly backwards. Rushing per game, 3rd downs (the stat has dropped but the league rank has gone up), and sacks. I believe they are all products of the design that we keep hammering here every week in this series.

They have reduced the designed runs to make sure they are leaning into what their primary objective is. The third downs are still excellent by every measure. The sack percentage has become mostly trying to walk the fine line of giving receivers more time to uncover and occasionally Dak will allow it to go a little too long and get caught. He took four on Thursday, but those were the first sacks he has had since Philadelphia in Week 9. To go a month between sacks is plenty impressive.