Cowboys’ game plan in Washington deviated from previous weeks
At Dallas News, I broke down the Cowboys’ play-calling over the final two weeks of the season.
Those three aspects of Garrett’s play-calling—deep passes, play-action looks, and first-down throws—were being underutilized early in the season. The stats showed the Cowboys could benefit from increasing the rate of each; Romo’s 116.9 passer rating on play-action passes ranks him fourth in the NFL, for example, and he’s historically been extremely efficient on deep passes. Although teams throw the ball on just around 47 percent of first-down plays, most could optimize offensive efficiency by passing the ball much more often on early downs.
For some reason, however, Garrett abandoned the game plans that were so successful for Dallas over their November/early-December run. Check out the rates of deep throws, play-action looks, and first-down passes during the Cowboys’ mid-season run as compared to the team’s last two games—losses to the Saints and Redskins.
Deep Passes (20-Plus Yards)
- Weeks 10-15: 4.4 per game
- Weeks 16-17: 4.0 per game
Play-action Passes
- Weeks 10-15: 4.4 per game
- Weeks 16-17: 3.0 per game
First-Down Passing Rate (Through Three Quarters)
- Weeks 10-15: 62.9 percent
- Weeks 16-17: 47.2 percent
Check it out at DMN.
Related posts:
- Running the Numbers: Offensive Game Plan for Cowboys My latest Running the Numbers piece is an offensive game...
- Top 4 Offensive Players for Cowboys Through Two Weeks I’ve broken down the film of the Cowboys’ first two...
- Cowboys vs Redskins: Offensive Game Plan for Dallas I just published an offensive game plan for the Cowboys...
- Defensive Game Plan for Cowboys vs Eagles Yesterday, I posted an offensive game plan for the Cowboys...
- Deep Passing Game Almost Non-Existent for Cowboys Through six games, Tony Romo has attempted only 20 deep...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.