Disjointed Dallas Cowboys still waiting on the identity of Mike McCarthy’s new offense
Traditionally during the week of practice, the Dallas Cowboys have played music by artists from the city of that week’s opponent.
On Wednesday, “Frozen’’ by Lil Baby, who hails from Atlanta, was curiously blaring during the media portion of practice.
And this bar fittingly rung out: “Could someone come unthaw my heart, I think its frozen. How you bring a knife to a gun fight.”
Are there no better words to explain shockingly disappointing and disjointed play of the Cowboys offense though five games?
A knife?
How about one with a rubber blade?
A Cowboys offense, consistently been one of the most explosive in the NFL with Dak Prescott as quarterback over the last few seasons, currently ranks 17th in the NFL and 20th in passing.
Most damning is that the Cowboys (3-2) have mustered a total of nine offensive touchdowns through five games heading into Monday’s matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers and former offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, whose team ranks fifth in offense and sixth in passing.
Remember, it was Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy who fired Moore after the season-ending playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. He took over playcalling and made a number changers on offense, merging the West Coast with some of Moore’s old schemes.
The new offense was nicknamed “Texas Coast” but has looked more like “Texas Toast.”
It has lacked consistency and rhythm since the start of the season before melting down into an utter mess in the 42-10 blowout loss to the 49ers last Sunday when Prescott passed for 153 yards and had three interception;, the running game totaled 57 yards and the Cowboys gained just eight first downs.
Stats for Prescott, running back Tony Pollard and No. 1 receiver CeeDee Lamb are down from past .
And sensitivities are running high.
Lamb is so frustrated with his lack of touches and involvement that McCarthy had to talk to him.
Owner Jerry Jones tried to admonish this columnist at practice Wednesday for allegedly reporting that Jones had negatively reacted to McCarthy’s Cowboys’ offensive playcalling and Prescott’s performance on his Tuesday radio show.
He didn’t and I didn’t.
Jones went out of his way to praise and show support foe McCarthy and Prescott.
It was the latest example of Jones trying to send the right message about the team remaining confident and not panicking.
It’s still early in the season, but it’s getting late for McCarthy and the Cowboys offense. Considering the changes that were made in the offseason, led by the firing of Moore, there were hopes of the Cowboys becoming more efficient and leading to more wins.
There is a lack of identity and a lack of cohesiveness that often comes with the growing pains of a new offense, especially when the starting offensive line has only been on the field together for one game.
McCarthy offered up a word salad when asked about the offense.
“We knew this coming out of camp,” McCarthy said. “It’s where you are when you do make changes. We knew there were going to be some things in protection that we needed more work on because it’s different. There are things in the passing game we needed to work on that were different. We’ll continue to grow that. I have great confidence in that. I think the run concepts were some of the things that were probably the less new learning segments for our offense, so you work that. Continuity and consistency is obviously what we’re focused on.
No. 1, you have to score points in this league. In the modern NFL, you look at all the critical elements to being a championship football team, scoring points is way up there. We’re clearly in tune with that.”
McCarthy continued by the saying the identity of the offense is protecting the defense by taking care of the ball and controlling the time of possession.
Like Lamb, who leds the team with 27 catches for 358 yards, receiver Brandon Cooks is frustrated about not getting ball. He has just nine catches for 73 yards.
But he said he is going to trust the process and trust the work the Cowboys put in in the offseason.
So what is the identity?
“We got so many playmakers on this offense,” Cooks said. “You know you got to get the ball to them. As receivers, I take it personal, we got to be better. Whatever the identity is, we got a great run game. I think we got a great pass game. We can’t talk about it. We just got to be able to show it. And the way that you do that is just go out there, put up points and move the ball.”
That is a must on Sunday against against the Chargers, not just because Moore is on the other side of the field but because the Los Angeles defense ranks 31st in total defense and 32 in pass defense.
When asked the difference between McCarthy and Moore, Pollard gave in interesting answer.
“Kevin is the guy that wants to put up a lot of points,” Pollard said. “McCarthy is the guy who’s really just trying to win with complimentary football, whatever it takes.”
It will take the offense scoring points on Sunday and not bring a knife to a gun fight.
