How CeeDee Lamb helps prove the Dallas Cowboys offense is utterly broken
The Dallas Cowboys offense has been wildly inconsistent through four weeks of the 2024 NFL season and the problems start in the running game.The Cowboys rank 24th in rushing success rate and 30th in yards per attempt. They're a much better 13th in EPA/play, which has a lot to do with moving the chains on […]
The Dallas Cowboys offense has been wildly inconsistent through four weeks of the 2024 NFL season and the problems start in the running game.
The Cowboys rank 24th in rushing success rate and 30th in yards per attempt. They're a much better 13th in EPA/play, which has a lot to do with moving the chains on short-yardage situations, as if we focus on early downs they go down to 24th while being 5th best on third and fourth downs, per RBSDM.com.
The biggest problem with the Cowboys running game is the fact that they're not generating explosive plays on the ground. So far, they have the least rush attempts that have gone for 10+yards with four of them.
This is where CeeDee Lamb comes in: The playmaking wide receiver has had six rushing attempts in four weeks. The Cowboys' running backs have combined for 67 attempts. The longest rush of the season for the team?
It belongs to Lamb at 12 yards.
That's a big deal and evidence that proves how utterly broken the Cowboys rushing offense really is. Consider the following the league-wide numbers:
- Rico Dowdle's longest rush is 10 yards.
- There are 61 running backs with a longer rush attempt.
- There are 46 with a long of 15+ rush yards.
- There are 31 with a long of 20+ yards.
- There are 18 with a long of 30+ yards.
And listen, explosive plays are not a "one time thing" for many of these backs. There are 42 running backs with at least two or more attempts of 10+ yards, 24 with at least five such runs, and five with at least 10 attempts.
The above is really important because in today's NFL, explosive plays are at a premium. For the Cowboys to be completely unable to generate any sort of splashes in the run game is a legit concern that turns them into a very one-dimensional offense when it comes to manufacturing big plays as they can only do that through their passing game.
The rushing offense's problems come from all fronts: The team lacks high-end RB talent, has inconsistent blocking up front and struggles to consistently get blockers to the second level, and the scheme rarely tries anything other than some sort of inside run.
Hopefully for the Cowboys, the long week allowed them to rework the offense as they'll need it for a tough upcoming stretch of three games that features the Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions and the San Francisco 49ers.
