1. None of the coaches are doing a good job
In a league where teams are all focused on passing offenses, the Cowboys have turned back the clock and want to be a run-first team. They built this team around a big offensive line — that’s not getting the job done — and a running game that’s supposed to carry them. Not only that, but they seem to be the only team that still receives the ball on the first kick — to set the tone as they say — only to go three-and-out and punt it away.
All this backward thinking is the plan put together by head coach Jason Garrett. He’s out there planning a team like it’s 1995 and it simply isn’t working. On defense, they have similar issues as Rod Marinelli is still in love with his Tampa 2 scheme that has too many holes and allows far too many uncontested passes — and pretty much no turnovers whatsoever.
Last season all these same issues were prevalent, but somehow Garrett, offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, and Marinelli sold the front office on the problem being everyone but them. They fired many position coaches and replaced them to fix the issues, but that’s not going to work when the problem is at the top.
Every week, this group is outcoached. They make no in-game — or in-season — adjustments and week after week they look exactly the same, and that’s not meant in a good way. They’re wasting an elite talent like Elliott — who they can’t figure out how to use in the passing game — by making him one-dimensional when other teams can get their backs involved in more facets of the offensive gameplan. They also haven’t capitalized on many of their talented defensive players either.
The fact of the matter is, this coaching staff isn’t doing a good enough job and there’s nowhere else for the three amigos to place the blame.