The Denver Broncos apparently read our story on Saturday for the prescription to win this battle. Bring the defense, run the ball and make the “other” QB one dimensional and force that opponent to keep pace. The story was available to our team and coaches and apparently none of them read it.
Let’s take a little look twenty four hours later and see what sunk in. What were the keys to the defeat?
- Denver controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. This is an automatic game winner, the ultimate game changer. Their offensive line got onto the second level quickly and effectively in blocking or at least chipping Sean Lee and Jaylon Smith.
- Denver basically used three DB’s to cover our WR’s with single high or two deep safeties. Dak, when he had time, couldn’t find a WR downfield that was open. Denver clamped down on everyone, including Beasley, who many think is uncoverable.
- Denver was better prepared, Dallas was not prepared. Denver coaches got an A for preparing their team. They got the recipe of a balanced run and passing game. Dallas coaches get an F for being out coached and another F for not making adjustments during the delay or at half time. The first two plays after the delay were poorly executed as the players appeared completely out of sync.
- Denver was a team with questions on their offensive line and only Demarcus Lawrence was able to do anything with pressure.
- Denver moved the ball effectively on 1st and 2nd down, with gains of 4-7 yards on every play.
- Denver was highly successful on 3rd down and until late in the game, weren’t facing 3rd and long. Perfect design for a young QB, who can get a little rattled at times.
- Denver forced Dallas to keep pace and got the Boys to give up their running game.
- Dallas got off the plane in Denver …….
- Dallas WR’s led the league in fewest drops last season, yet had at least three yesterday. All catchable balls. When Dak had time, they couldn’t get separation later in routes.
- Dallas’s offensive line struggled in both run and pass protection early before the Broncos pinned their ears back late in the game.
- Dallas missed tackles throughout the game. We rely on Sean Lee and he was blocked cleanly or enough to make him a tick late on too many tackles. No one else picked up the slack in and around the LOS. Jaylon had ten tackles but too many of those, as in Lee’s case, that were five or more yards beyond the LOS. We weren’t getting anyone in the hole for minimal gains (2-3 yards).
- Dallas injuries to the DB’s didn’t help the problem, but when they had Carroll and Awuzie out there, the results weren’t many better. I wrote that Siemian would be going short for the most part, in the 5-7 yard range and that’s how he started.
- Dallas allowed Siemian to make plays instead of forcing him to try and make plays.
- Don’t fall into the narratives that certain players were bad! Most weren’t good and yes some were bad. Everyone has a bad day at some point in their lives at work. When you don’t block well nor tackle well, any number of players won’t get good grades. Let’s get back to work and get the heads up!
- Dallas coaches from all appearances didn’t have the the team prepared. Their game plans offensively & defensively weren’t effective nor were they able to counter punch the schemes used by the Broncos. The suspension of play should have allowed for mid game adjustments, but the coaches didn’t seem to have any answers.
- The refs or stripes as I like to call them did a poor job overall. Had the Cowboys played with any reasonable level of competitiveness those blatantly bad calls may have made some difference in the game. However, how poorly the Cowboys played the calls wouldn’t have altered the outcome.
- Bottom line, Denver totally outplayed Dallas with each and every unit on the field. Best team won …..
- Next week is a new opportunity! We weren’t going 19-0, so lets put this behind us and move on. Analyze what went wrong. Starts with the coaches preparing the team for optimal success.
