Areas the Dallas Cowboys Need to Refine During the Bye Week
Fans are never excited about the bye week, despite knowing how necessary it is. It's even harder for the Dallas Cowboys who are 5-1 and have put themselves among the best teams in the league. Momentum is part of the game. What's good about the bye week is how it gives the team plenty of […]
Fans are never excited about the bye week, despite knowing how necessary it is. It's even harder for the Dallas Cowboys who are 5-1 and have put themselves among the best teams in the league. Momentum is part of the game.
What's good about the bye week is how it gives the team plenty of rest, allows hurt players to get back up to speed and explore where the team needs to improve going forward.
It's all smiles in the DFW so far. But even though things are going well, they can always improve.
Super Bowl aspirations around this team are real, and how they respond after the bye week will be telling. Not only will there be players returning from absence like La'el Collins, but it gives players like Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper a chance to heal up. Health is always a big factor is how seasons go.
There's plenty of time for all of these things to be addressed, but they can't be ignored.
Allowing Deep Passes
I might be beating a dead horse with this one but the Cowboys haven't done a job defending deep passes. Regardless of who's played quarterback, Dallas has been taken advantage of down the field.
It's shocking to see this Dallas Cowboys defense give up so many deep passes. The defense has allowed 27 20+ yard plays and 5 40+ yard plays, both rank among the worst in the NFL.
The secondary is making plenty of splash plays and the overall play has been night and day from 2020. Despite that, this is still way too many big plays given up. This needs to be taken care of before the postseason. Otherwise, offenses will start to abuse the defense down the field.
Red Zone Offense
Despite the Dallas Cowboys playing offense with fire, they're defense is getting torched. You would expect an offense with as much skill have no problem scoring inside the 20 yard line. Just the opposite.
The team has had to settle for field goals or worse, turn the ball over. They rank 25th in the league in touchdown percentage in the red zone. Through 7 games, that's only 56% of possessions ending up with a score. This ranks in the same breath as the Giants and Jets.
Splash plays are always fun and never going to be turned away, but just like defense can't rely on interceptions forever, the offense can't rely on big plays. They need to be able to score inside 20 yards. Even if the refs don't see them cross the goal line… again.
Penalties
We can sit here and talk all day about the questionable and missed calls by the officials in the New England game. That doesn't excuse the fact that they are one of the most penalized teams in the league.
The Cowboys have the 2nd most penalties (47) and 5th most penalty yards (391) in the league through 6 games. For perspective, they only had 96 penalty and 849 penalty yards in 16 games last season.
Penalties are an inevitable part of the game but it speaks to the discipline of the team. Dallas has been fortunate that there hasn't been a game decided by a penalty yet, but must nip this in the bud before it gets more out of hand.
Get Returning Players Back to Speed
As stated previously, there are going to be plenty of players who will return during this time. La'el Collins has already re-joined the team following his suspension. The next part is getting him and players returning from injury ready to go.
DeMarcus Lawrence and Michael Gallup each have only played in one game, while Neville Gallimore and Kelvin Joseph got hurt in the preseason. It seems like forever since any of them have been on the playing field.
Some are going to be ready sooner than others, but this week there will be some who'll be ready to go after the bye.
This is also a good time for Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper to heal. Cooper has clearly played through injury and Prescott suffered a calf strain on the game-winning touchdown pass. Time to heal can only do this team good.
Consider the Trade Market
There have been wild ideas of trading players like La'el Collins, Michael Gallup or DeMarcus Lawrence as the team has thrived despite their absences. An insane idea.
There's no doubt that the Dallas Cowboys have plenty of players who would draw plenty of interest and garner draft picks. But why would you deplete your own depth for draft picks next when you have a chance to win it all this this yea?
What Dallas should be doing is examining where the team is weakest and lacking depth. Center, nose tackle and corner back are the first that come to mind.
Maybe not necessarily for starters (barring injury) but these are areas of importance where they either lack quality depth or the depth they do have is compromised by injuries.
November 2nd, 3 pm ct is when the trade deadline is, but this needs to be the week where the front office needs to be on their phones.
