Cowboys of Old Show Up in Buffalo
Wasn’t the Cowboys’ performance in Buffalo the same type of thing that we’ve seen from this team in similar circumstances over the last few seasons?
Fair or not, the Cowboys look like world-beaters when the game plays out exactly as they want it to and an expansion team when they face resistance. When a grind-it-out approach is called for, Dallas hasn’t shown that they can play that type of game. At least they haven’t yet.
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On Sunday against the Bills, neither side of the ball appeared ready to grind. Buffalo went right at the Cowboys defense, running the ball almost 50 times for 266 yards. The offense also couldn’t get into a rhythm early, and that seemed to throw them off kilter for the entire game.
Part of it was what the Bills were doing defensively. During the Cowboys’ 5-game winning streak, they averaged 40.2 points per game. The timing and rhythm of the offense looked completely in sync and near perfect. So Buffalo’s approach was aimed at providing some kind of disruption.
The Bills used post-snap movement on seemingly every snap, ensuring Prescott and the offense couldn’t get a clean picture right away. They also played zone on roughly 90% of pass plays, making sure to clutter the underneath throwing lanes and keep the passing game in front of them.
Clearly, it worked. The Cowboys entered Week 15 with the 4th-most pass plays of 20 yards or more. On Sunday, they didn’t have one. In fact, their longest completion was just 16 yards.
Whether it was Buffalo’s approach directly or some other factor, Prescott and the offense looked uneasy from the first drive of the game. On the play below, the Cowboys faced a 3rd-and-14. They had an all-curls route concept called to the left:
The Bills would rotate to cover-3 buzz, leaving 4 defenders underneath at the first-down marker:
Prescott made up his mind early in the down that he wanted to throw Jalen Tolbert’s route to the outside. Now, let’s be clear about this - there’s nothing wrong with that decision. 4 underneath defenders taking away the middle of the field leaves the sidelines available.
The problem here was that Dak committed to it almost immediately and even started drifting in the direction of the throw despite having a clean pocket:
But cornerback Rasul Douglas was sitting on Tolbert’s route: