*Photo by Kieth Allison https://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/
The Dallas Cowboy will face the Tennessee Titans on Monday night coming off the bye week. Currently the have a 3-4 record but still have a shot at winning the division. They have made some moves to try to improve their team going forward but how do the Dallas Cowboys grade through the first 7 games of the season? Here is a breakdown of offense, defense and special teams position by position.
OFFENSE
Quarterback: GRADE = D
Dak Prescott has not been good in 2018. He played pretty well in the games that Dallas has won and recently in the loss against the Redskins but he looked awful against the Texans. Panthers and Seahawks. He is not been accurate but that was never his strong suit. Dak is not entirely to blame for his poor play this season. Aside from the coaching staff, who have been heavily criticized, he has not had a lot of help from his pass catchers. Both his receivers and tight ends have struggled to get open and have had drop issues. Prescott has also been under a lot of pressure. He has been sacked 23 times and hit 46 times already his year and he appears to be uncomfortable in the pocket as a result. Despite his struggles and despite taking a physical beating Dak continues to play hard and remain mentally strong. After the firing of offensive line coach Paul Alexander, hopefully the protection improves and Dak can get to where he needs to be.
Running Backs: Grade = A
Ezekiel Elliott is an absolute beast and the best player the Cowboys have but he can’t carry this team alone. When teams have been able to stop Elliott the Dallas Cowboys end up losing the game. The Cowboys need the passing game to take advantage of teams focusing on stopping Elliott. Play action and RPO are often mentioned as effective ways to exploit opposing defenses that key on Elliott but good defenses have been prepared for those things. Perhaps changing it up with hurry up offense, quick passes, and a taking some early shots down the field are less predictable ways that the same can be accomplished.
Wide Receivers: Grade = D-
The Cowboys attempted to build an offense without a #1 wide receiver. By bringing in WR coach Sanjay Lal to teach a rag tag group of wide receivers to separate, the Cowboys front office had hoped that the offense would become more Dak friendly. That plan has not worked out and the Cowboys have now spent a 1st round pick on WR Amari Cooper to try to compensate for that error. The play calling and Dak’s subpar play are part of the problem but the current group of wide receivers own a fair share of the blame too. Bringing in Cooper should help Cole Beasley as he will permanently return to his ideal role in the slot. Hopefully, Cooper’s presence will also take a lot of pressure off of guys like Allen Hurns and the outstanding rookie Michael Gallup who could see more open looks.
Tight Ends: Grade = F
This group of young tight ends have not worked out according to plan. Swaim has been the only guy that has looked the part of a starting TE but he took a nasty shot to the knee against Washington and could be out for some time. Blake Jarwin has been utterly disappointing as a pass catcher and a blocker. The rookie Dalton Shultz is not ready to make a big impact yet and Rico Gathers may never be.
Offensive Line: Grade = C-
The Dallas Cowboys offensive line has long been considered the strength and identity of the team so it was a curious decision for the Cowboys to hire Paul Alexander to come in and teach a whole new method. The expression “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is appropriate to describe the mistake that was made in that hiring. To be fair, the loss of Travis Frederick has been impactful but the poor play of La’el Collins and even All-Pro Tyron Smith are the biggest indictments on Paul Alexander and his methods. Now that the Cowboys offensive line has given up 23 sacks and have played poorly on the road citing “communication issues” as the reason why, the Cowboys have decided to move on from Paul Alexander and hire Marc Colombo to replace him. If Colombo is able to bring this unit back to elite status then the entire offense may suddenly click.
Offense Overall Assessment: Grade = D-
The Dallas Cowboys offense has struggled mightily this season ranking near the bottom of the league in total yards/game. The run game led by Ezekiel Elliott has produced big numbers but has also been inconsistent. The biggest concern is that the Cowboys rank 29th in passing yards/game and 26th in points/game which is simply not good enough for Dallas to win football games.
DEFENSE
Defensive Line: Grade = A-
Demarcus Lawrence picked up where he left off last season to start the year but has been slowed down by a shoulder injury. D-Law is the Alpha Dog of this unit but the entire group have played well. It is a deep group at defensive end and Taco Charlton, Dorance Armstrong and even Randy Gregory have provided a strong rotation. The play at defensive tackle has been surprising seeing as this was a position of concern coming into the year. Tyrone Crawford had moved back inside while David Irving was serving a suspension and Maleik Collins was hurt. Antuan Woods has been a real pleasant surprise and has played a crucial role in the interior DL. The Cowboys still rank in the bottom half of the league in sacks with 19 but they have been able to generate pressure in most games and rank 6th in the league in sacks/pass attempt ratio.
Linebackers: Grade = A
It is hard to believe it but the Dallas Cowboys boast one of the best linebacker units in the entire NFL. In the past if Sean Lee ever missed time with an injury the Cowboys defense was done for. This season, even with Sean Lee missing time the linebackers have been superb. Jaylon Smith looks like the player he was predicted to become pre-injury and rookie Leighton Vander Esch has been equally impressive when he had to step into the lineup to replace Lee. These guys are all athletic, can cover and are making plays from sideline to sideline and in the backfield as well.
Secondary: Grade = C+
The Dallas Cowboys corners have played well for the most part especially Byron Jones. Jones has blossomed after being moved over from the safety position. As for Chidobe Awuzie and Anthony Brown, they have both played really well but have also been beaten at times. Jourdan Lewis had not been getting enough playing time and appeared to have lost some confidence before getting an opportunity with Awuzie injured. Lewis responded well to the challenge. The safety play has been pretty good playing against subpar offenses thus far but have given up some big plays. Safety is by far the weakest position group on the defense and Cowboys fans have to be concerned about how Jeff Heath, Xavier Woods and Kavon Frazier will matchup against some of the more explosive passing offensives like Atlanta, New Orleans and Indianapolis who are on the schedule. Though the secondary has been decent this season the lack of turnovers created combined with the strength of schedule contributed to a lower grade for that unit.
Defense Overall Assessment: Grade B
The Dallas Cowboys defense has played exceptionally well this season. They rank 2nd in points against, and top 10 in both rushing and pass defense. Those numbers are even more impressive considering the Cowboys offensive ineptitude has often forced them to deal with short fields and disproportionate time of possession. Impressive as the defense has been they have had a favourable schedule in terms of opposing offenses. I am excited about the potential of this defense but will temper my expectations until they prove they can play well when they are really challenged. I will be keen to re-evalate them after facing the likes of Matt Ryan, Drew Brees, Andrew Luck and Carson Wentz.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Special Teams: Grade = C
The decision to move on from Dan Bailey to Brett Maher appears to have been a really good one. Aside from that the Cowboys special teams has been a downgrade from previous years. It may be the loss of former special teams coach Rich Bisaccia or perhaps role players like Kieth Smith, Ryan Switzer and Kyle Wilbur but either way they have been disappointing. The Cowboys return game has not made a significant impact and they have not seemed to be able to pin teams deep or make big plays like they did so often in seasons past under Bisaccia. Hopefully the Cowboys special teams can make a stronger impact in the second half of the season.
OVERALL GRADE = D+
The Cowboys have a losing record and they have not won a single game on the road. They were outplayed in every single game they lost and although they had opportunities to win two of those games they could not seal the deal. The three victories they do have were all against teams that currently have losing records so there is a lot of work to do to get where the Cowboys need to be. Despite everything, the Dallas Cowboys are firmly in the mix for the playoffs and they have made some aggressive moves to try to achieve that goal. By seasons end, I expect the Dallas Cowboys grade to improve significantly.
All data and statistics obtained and verified from https://www.pro-football-reference.com/
*Photo by Kieth Allison https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode