Did The Cowboys FINALLY Fix Their Biggest Problem?

Did The Cowboys FINALLY Fix Their Biggest Problem?

[Music] Coming up on today’s show, I’m taking a look at one of the Cowboys biggest problems, specifically on offense, and if they’ve been able to fix said problem. I think they’ve at least tried to do it this off season. Before we dive into this, if you want a very similar, even the same like topic, just the defensive version of it, show it by sharing today’s video. We will always do what the people want. Views are how we determine that. So, if you want another one of these types of videos, show it by sharing today’s uh show. I think it’s really good. So, I’d appreciate if you if you shared it as well. Before we get into this, obviously, there are multiple problems. It’s never just one thing. And I think you can argue the biggest issue is probably ownership. I can’t fix that. We can’t fix that. So, we’ll skip over it. But this is something I have complained about in years past. And that is the run game. And not just against like the overall run game, how they did their efficiency, but the thing we all complain about. Yeah, they won 10 games that year. They won 12 games. They lost in the playoffs. Again, I want to dial this in as to the big games when teams dare them to run the football. When they try to take away CD Lamb, how does the Cowboys run game look? And my big takeaway going through all this, doing all the data crunching, it’s not good. It’s really bad. So, in we’ll focus on the Mike McCarthy era, 23 games in loss with a healthy Dak Prescott. So, it’s McCarthy, healthy Dak. I think that’s a pretty good sized example. In losses, Cowboys average about 21 carries per game, 87 yards, a half touchdown per game. They’re averaging just 4.07 yards per carry. They had eight games total where they averaged over four yards. The median, the middle was there was odd number. So 3.47, 3.67. So about half the time you’re getting three and a half yards per carry, half the time you’re not. That’s bad. But that’s a loss. the the game script might be against you. So, let’s go on the good teams, right? How do you look against teams that are above 500 or playoff teams? And then we’ll dial in just playoff here. 26 carries per game. So, they do try to run it more. They obviously get more yards per game, but the yards per carry is essentially flat. Only 12 games total with at least four yards per carry. And the median yards per game is again 3.75. to put that number in perspective where it would have ranked among all teams in 2024. And I’ll do some tie breakers and like if it’s close I’ll give give the higher number where it’s like rounding differences I can’t figure out. It does include playoff games by the way. 17 carries per game, 21st in yards per game, 24th in average per carry. So they’re they’re a bottom 10 run game. Like that’s what that number tells us. And in the playoffs it’s not really all that different. 26 carries per game. They did have a touchdown per game. This doesn’t include Dak rushing too to be fair. 4.13 yards per carry. Less than half you get to four yards per carry. The median’s 3.67. To me, this indicates a very clear trend that in the big games, the big moments, the best teams, the games we want them to win. Dallas Cowboys struggle to run the ball and teams are daring them to run the football, especially this past season. And even in 2023, that’s been a more notable trend as the offensive line has declined and didn’t have prime Zeke anymore. We’ll get into that in a little bit. But the Cowboys teams want them to run the ball. They’ve given them favorable looks and they can’t do it. So, we’ll go again more in depth in how they’re going to try to fix this, but do you think the run game has been a problem? A for you agree, D for you disagree. When I say the Cowboys are being dared to run the ball, I’m looking at the box numbers. Stacked boxes, light boxes, and then neutral boxes fall in between in this category. Uh stacked boxes, the Cowboys face the 24th mo most and 23rd most in 2024 and 2023. They face light boxes at the third highest rates in 2024. And they’ve been pretty highly ranked in neutral boxes as well. And if you’re the the old rules of football were neutral box equals run. Cowboys got away little bit because they haven’t been very good. Look at the run game switch. These are all per uh nextgen stats. By the way, the Cowboys averaged 4.6 yards per carry against the light box in 2024. That was 26th. They were 29th in a neutral boxes in in in in 2024. They were actually better than most in stacked boxes. Kind of a flip from 2023. But even light boxes, neutral boxes, they’ve been not a top 10 unit. I think opposing teams picked up on this and they went, you know what, there’s not a huge difference with with a stacked box versus not a stacked box with this Cowboys ground game. That was especially true against the smart good teams and defenses, which are the teams you typically play in the preseason. Like, it’s one thing to to run all over a a Browns team that wins three games. It’s more challenge when you get the Philadelphia Eagles, right? A lot more to come, including how the cowboys are trying to fix this. But today’s show is made possible by Chubbies. Summer is here, and that means it’s time to let let the dogs out. By dogs, we mean your legs. As long as you’re not skipping leg day. When the sun goes down, you’re heading from beach to dinner. Wherever it is, the classic line swim trunks, the original stretch shorts, and of course, the performance polo are perfect for you. The shorts come in long, short, and way short. The performance polo works for the golf course, the dinner, night out, maybe just even work if you’re like me, for example. They keep you cool and comfortable. And the Lion Swim trunks are perfect if you’re in the beach or at the beach or in the pool. So, you’re sitting up for cannonballs, cocktails, casual Friday, the golf course. Chubbies has you covered for a limited time. You’re getting 20% off your order with code chat at chubbyshorts.com/hat. That’s code [email protected]/hat. Support our show. Let them know we sent you. Link will be in the comments section and the description of today’s show. One of the things that head coach Brian Shottimer claims to want to do more and be more efficient with is running the football. That the Cowboys have brought in Shottenheimer whose dad of course was a was a Marty Ball guy. He has said changing and making the ground game better is a key factor. Listen to what he had to say at the NFL combine this year. Whether or not you guys did Yeah. Um, you know, I think offensively you try to build it, you know, based on what your guys do well. You know, I got in trouble for letting Russ cook a little bit u back in Seattle. Uh, but uh some people got the joke, some people didn’t. Um, but no, I mean, again, at the end of the day, you have to you have to be able to run the football. You know, I think we’ve made a commitment that we want to be great on both sides of the line of scrimmage. That’s a huge part of it. Uh the way I say it is when teams know that you’re going to run the ball, you have to be able to run the ball and conversely stop the run. Um but again, depending on how the roster is built and how it’s constructed, we want to, you know, be able to feature our guys and what they do well and we want to be multiple. Um now, what Shenheimer said does not mean it’s going to be run pass because I hate run pass with a passion. At least I hope it doesn’t mean it ends up being run pass. Otherwise, we’ve got a whole different conversation to have. I hope slash think it means we’re going to fix some of the run game failures, some of the issues that, as I laid out, the Cowboys have had up front. They’ve had issues being able to run the football. We’ll break down where the Cowboys are trying to address this. But first, do you think the Cowboys ground game will be better this year? Y for yes, N for no. To discuss this, what impacts the run game? And this is not in any particular order. It’s it’s kind of like you’re creating a cocktail and you want to figure out what percentages of what go in. A competent passing offense is a must. Again, we can kind of look at what didn’t work with the Giants and Saquon Barkley. They didn’t have a good passing offense. Saquon was held back. I do think the Cowboys have that in place. You have to have a good offensive line. Cowboys along with them at Smith was incredible. Your offensive line has to be good. It’s hard to get efficient, effective, explosive ground games going if you’re getting hit in the back field consistently or you’re getting hit early at the line of scrimmage. And as we will get into, that has been a core problem for the Cowboys ground game as well. The offensive line has to be a huge part of this. You’ve got three first round picks, a top 75 pick, and a highly paid right tackle, highly paid right tackle who’s supposed to be at his best in in the ground game. This unit has to play well. But if they’re not put in a good position to play well from a schematic coaching perspective, how much does that really matter? And I think we’ve seen that over the years in Dallas. Look at the numbers last five years. These are the yards per carry per NextGen stats. Again, this is the McCarthy era. Before contact verse after contact, Cowboys were more likely to be a bottom four, bottom five, before contact ground game offense than they were a league average. They they they actually have done pretty decently after contact. They’ve been bad before contact. That tells me, did hasn’t your offensive line or your schematic issues been a factor? Like if you’re consistently near the bottom or bottom half of yards before contact, but you’re consistently above average and after contact, doesn’t that point to the offensive line in the scheme? Or both? I think the Cowboys are clearly trying to change things here. They invested a first round pick in Tyler Booker, and several of their coaching hires point to this as well. We’ll get to that, but we’ve got Cowboys videos for you each and every single day. Hit that sub button right now. YouTube.comcowboystv. Clayton Adams, before taking the Cowboys offensive coordinator job, had served as the Cardinals offensive line coach. And I think that the Cowboys are very much committed to doing what Adams was doing in Arizona. Look at their run game concepts. This is from John Owning over at PFF. They ran inside zone 20% of the time. Man, which kind of man gap 18% outside zone 17%. Counter 15.9%. Pull lead 14.2, power at 6.3%. That’s six different concepts that got at least 6%. Then some quarterback sneaks, some trip traps, some trick plays, some draws. That’s a stark contrast from the Cowboys. They ran zone concepts over 50% of the time. They didn’t do many man gap concept. I actually thought fit guys like Rico Dattle, Deuce Vaugh, and schematically better. This is a very more in Arizona was a far more diverse run game, which I think is a positive thing. Doesn’t I don’t just want to be the inside zone stuff just felt like it was constant just right up the middle for three yards. I hate that stuff. And Arizona, despite not having that talented on an offensive line, in the two years Clayton Adams was their offensive line coach, and OC Drew Petting gets credit, too. Don’t get me wrong, they were second and first in yards before contact with Adams as the offensive line coach. You can’t get any better than that. That tells me schematically they were doing some good stuff. Can Adams bring that over to Dallas? if he can, that’s going to be massive for the Cowboys ground game. And of course, the last thing we’ll mention here, and not necessarily least either, who gets the carries. You can have the best passing offense. You can have the best offensive line. You can have the best scheme. If you put me back there, it’s not going to be a good ground game. But can you get enough out of a running back room that I’m not confident in? The Cowboys are betting on those first three things. I think especially the offensive line and the scheme being more important than who exactly is getting all the carries in your ground game. I think there is some logic in that if not even a decent amount of logic. The analogy I like to use is the run game is like a fire. You need the kindling. You need a match. That’s your support system. That’s the early things we mentioned. It’s the offensive line. It’s the play calls. It’s the scheme. It’s the the quarterback is kind of the oxygen where if you can’t have a functional passing game, you might be able to light the run game, but it’s not going to stay around for loud because have enough oxygen to breathe. Then you can toss some gasoline onto the fire with a runner and have some explosive ability. The gas doesn’t matter without the first stuff. Didn’t we just see that with Saquon Barkley? It wasn’t like he suddenly got wildly better in Philadelphia, but everything else around him allowed him to be the accelerant that the Giants simply didn’t have a use for with the way that team was constructed. Now, I don’t think Javvante Williams, Miles Sanders, Jaden Blue, Deuce Von, Phil Mafa, any of these guys are pure gasoline that’s going to have enough of a spark, but if everything else is good, there could still actually be a fire that doesn’t get uh put out the first time something bad goes wrong against a good team. So, what is your confidence level in the Cowboys ground game? Scale it for me from 1 to 10 in the comment section of today’s show. Some final thoughts on the Cowboys hopefully fixing one of their big problems in terms of the ground game. I think the game of football is cyclical. It tends to go in circles. How long that loop ends up being, you don’t really know until you’re past it. I do think we’re trending towards run games matter more. Again, it’s not necessarily running backs, but the running games themselves. Teams are playing more too high stuff. They’re playing more show coverage. They want to they want to limit the explosive pass plays that kind of became popular when teams were doing the Seahawks cover three stuff and having an extra man in the box. Now we’re going back to the other side. You want to stop the two eye shell stuff. Run the damn ball is actually a very good reason. You have the numbers in your favor. If teams dare you to run it, then run it. and then you get the safety to come back down or they commit some more play action and now your passing game gets hooked and it’s all cyclical. I do think investing in the offensive line with highlevel draft picks especially compared to backs is probably smart and the way I would go about it as well. You still have to have good good players. Again, you can’t put me out there in the backfield expect me a not to die and also to have a competent ground game and good coaches and good schemes. I actually want the Cowboys to make life easier on Dak Prescott and CD Lamb. The reason why, go back to the let Russ cook stuff, why I was in favor of allowing Dak to cook, the offense was better because they couldn’t run the ball. But if you’re trying to make life easier on them by having a more competent ground game has to actually work. It can’t be run pass. We’re trying to make life easy on the QB, so we’re running it a lot early. Because if it doesn’t work, okay, now you’re in third and long, and now all you’ve done is actually make life harder on your quarterback. I think that’s been the case for this team far too often. Even in the big games, it’s never just been one thing. It’s a it’s a variety of things. It’s the defense, the offense, the quarterback, the penalties, the head coach, the run game, all of it. It all needs to work together in unison because it gets hard in the playoffs. It’s why only one team wins a championship every single year and it feels like it, you know, four teams have a shot every year in the end. So, we’ll see if a this is the plan as I suspect and more importantly if it works. [Music]

The Dallas Cowboys biggest problem for years (well, ONE of them) has been a poor ground game that STRUGGLES to produce in big games and when opposing teams dare them to run the ball. This offseason, with new coach Brian Schottenheimer, the Cowboys are trying to fix that by focusing on scheme and blocking. Has Dallas finally solved their biggest problem for the 2025 NFL Season? Chat Sports host Tom Downey breaks it down on this edition of the Cowboys Report.

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Dallas Cowboys run game stats in the playoffs / above .500 teams:
– Carries Per Game: 26.4
– Yards Per Game: 107.1
– TDs Per Game: 0.69
– Average Per Carry: 4.06
– Games Over 4 YPC: 12
– Median Yards Per Carry: 3.75
And here are the ranks vs. the 2024 NFL team stats (including playoff games)
– Carries Per Game: T-17th
– Yards Per Game: 21st
– TDs Per Game: T-23rd
– Average Per Carry: T-24th

Cowboys rushing stats before and after contact:
2024: 29th vs. 14th
2023: 15th vs. 19th
2022: 29th vs. 5th
2021: 19th vs. 8th
2020: 26th vs. 13th

The Cardinals were 2nd and 1st in yards before contact with Klayton Adams as O-Line coach. Adams is the Cowboys new offensive coordinator.

Dallas Cowboys YouTube videos from Chat Sports can be found here:
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Here’s what impacts the running game and you can see the Cowboys are focusing on the first 3:
– Competent Passing Offense
– Offensive Line
– Schematic Changes
– The Runners

Cowboys OL Depth Chart (staters, backups):
LT: Tyler Guyton, Asim Richards, Hakeem Adeniji
LG: Tyler Smith, Nathan Thomas, Robert Jones
C: Cooper Beebe, Brock Hoffman, Dakoda Shepley
RG: Tyler Booker, T.J. Bass, Saahdiq Charles
RT: Terence Steele, Ajani Cornelius, Matt Waletzko

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Get in the comments and reply to today’s questions on this edition of the Cowboys Report:
– Do you agree that the run game has been a problem? Type ‘A’ for Agree, ‘D’ for Disagree
– Will the Cowboys ground game be better this year? Type ‘Y’ for Yes, ‘N’ for No
– Confidence level in the Cowboys ground game? Scale it: 1-10

2024 Cowboys Stats Leaders (Rushing):
Rico Dowdle: 235 carries, 1,079 yards, 1 TD
KaVontae Turpin: 16 carries, 92 yards
Deuce Vaughn: 17 carries, 70 yards
CeeDee Lamb: 14 carries, 70 yards
Dak Prescott: 13 carries, 54 yards, 1 TD
Hunter Luepke: 12 carries, 38 yards

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Cowboys RB Depth Chart:
RB1: Javonte Williams
RB2: Miles Sanders
RB3: Jaydon Blue
RB4: Phil Mafah
RB5: Deuce Vaughn
FB: Hunter Luepke

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