The Dallas Cowboys were quite pass heavy as things wore on in the second half on Sunday night.
To be clear, the Cowboys appeared rather outmatched in an overall sense. Based on how they played it feels fair to say that they were always going to lose that game, but their decision-making as it wore on was certainly a bit suspect.
Consider that the Cowboys did make it close, though. They scored by way of Javonte Williams with 9:24 left in the third quarter and trailed 17-7. Plenty of time left.
At this point the Cowboys offense became incredibly one-dimensional, though. Below are their final 40 plays on offense. You will notice a common theme.
Possession:
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass (Punt after)
Possession:
- Bad snap
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass (Turnover on Downs)
Possession:
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Sack
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass (Turnover on Downs)
Possession:
- Pass
- Pass
- Run
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass
- Pass (TD)
- Pass (Failed 2-Point)
To be very clear, diluting what happened down to “pass” or “run” is a silly concept as football is more complicated than that. But the purpose here was to show that across their final 40 plays the Cowboys threw the ball 39 times. That isn’t sustainable. It was a horrible plan.
The Packers entered this game with the league’s 17th-ranked defense in rushing efficiency, courtesy of NFL Pro. Look at their key advantages graphic and breakdown of how the Cowboys offense fared (theoretically) against the Packers defense from a rushing perspective.
Obviously the context of the game matters and things were not exactly working out for the Cowboys offense at the time in question that they abandoned the run. But the argument here isn’t that things should have been 39-1 flipped the other way. The argument is that 39-1 is not practical in any amalgamation.
The Cowboys seemed to panic and tried to hope that something would hit in the air. That was not the case, and they wound up losing in tough fashion.