Decoding McCarthy, Wk 8 - Feed The Studs

The Cowboys offensive evolution is beginning to emerge before Philadelphia.

We think something good is starting to happen for the Cowboys offensive attack. For the first time all season, we are starting to get an idea of what they are capable of.

I am reminded about a conversation I had with Jason Garrett. I asked him about a play-calling internal tug-of-war which is waged every season with every team. It centers around idealism vs pragmatism. Now, in the truest senses of the words, this conversation might get me out of my depths quickly.

But, here at Decoding, the conversation is basically this:

Idealism represents who we would like to be. This means, in a perfect world, my offense will look like this. I have these guys and we run these plays and we beat you this way. I bet this is what teams discuss in the offseason when everyone is hypothetically healthy and confident.

Pragmatism’s approach to offense is not that at all. Pragmatism’s offense is a reasonable conclusion after getting humiliated in San Francisco and returning home to admit that “Guys, this isn’t working. We need to make some changes here quick.”

Garrett had some insight that made me look for this every year and maybe I need to go back and get his exact thoughts for a future piece. But, it centered around knowing when your best intentions aren’t going to net be your best results. And stubbornness to prove you are right is not better than winning football games and getting your offense in the best concepts so you can be the best version of yourself. That cliche gets thrown around a lot in our world, but in football, it probably means that even if you do want to be a ground and pound team that bullies teams in the streets, maybe you don’t have the offensive line you thought you did. Maybe, your best road to winning is by simply telling your capable QB to throw the ball more to your two most capable weapons and seeing how far that can take you.

If the Cowboys left San Francisco with any big ideas, I think that was it. They had a frustrated offense that literally had no success. Their best player was upset about not being used more and your QB was trying to be a square peg in a round hole.