I'm not even sure how someone can harp on the defense and look themselves in the mirror.
They played outstanding up until the last half of the 4th quarter.
No shocker of course, Dallas only had the ball for 11:40 in the second half, basically leaving the defense hanging out to dry with numerous stalled drives culminating in converting on 3rd down only 3 of 10 times.
4th quarter, Dallas had 3 possessions.......2 if you rule out that last series.
Time of possession in the 4th quarter, 4:05.
You can't win close games by not being able to hold the ball.
The offense just isn't good enough and the defense, while vastly improved, can't be relied upon to hold teams to less than 13 points in order to give the offense a chance to win.
The offense is far too inconsistent, they don't really control the clock to the extent that their T.O.P would indicate because there's been a number of TDs surrendered by the offense and special teams, giving the ball right back to them. Throw on the fact that they use just about every single second of playclock and the difference between snapping the ball at 5 seconds and snapping the ball at 1 second is likely artificially inflating their overall #4 T.O.P stat.
They also rank #20 in T.O.P in the 4th quarter.
Anyone want to know how pitifully ineffective the offense has been this year? If not, don't look.
Through 8 games, Dallas averages 19.8 points per game.
Prior to today through their first 8 games, Cleveland averaged 18.6 points per game.
Dallas averages 5:38 of T.O.P per game more than Cleveland.
Tennessee is (or was prior to today) dead last in terms of average T.O.P and they score more points per game than Dallas who is #4 in that category.
There is 1 team in the NFL who has a bigger difference between T.O.P rank and Points Per Game Rank.......Kansas City. And why is that? Because KC is the only team with more turnovers and just like Dallas they get the ball right back and fail to do anything with it but chew up time.
They're ranked 28th in points scored in the 1st half of games with a grand average of just under 8 points per game in the 1st half, practically ensuring a tie or deficit when coming out for the second half.
They're bottom 5 in the major rushing statistics.
When you look at real offensive effectiveness, they're pretty awful.
In terms of yards per point, they suck, indicating yet another year of yardage compiling with the continual struggle to actually rack up what matters most.....points.
They're 28th this year in yards per point. Not a surprise as that's been the Garrett offense for nearly the entire time he's been in Dallas.
2012: 28th
2011: 20th
2010: 13th
2009: 25th
2008: 21st
2007: 4th
Aside from his first season and the anomaly of a year in 2010 when Romo missed a ton of time, that's it....Bottom 10 or close to. 1 truly good year and 4 seasons being 20th or worse.
30th in penalties this year.
28th in penalties in 2011.
They're currently committing more penalties per game this year than they had committed during ANY year that Wade coached, including 2010.
In fact, over the past 10 seasons two of the highest three penalties per game years are this year and last year.
The defense has played well enough for Dallas to be undefeated.
Unfortunately the offense with help from Joe D's group of idiots has played poorly enough for Dallas to be nearly winless.
It's seriously pathetic. When other teams across the league are getting more from lesser players and about 6:00 less of ball control per game, how can anyone say with a straight face that the coaching is up to snuff?
Maybe Jason Garrett will turn out to be a good HC. Who knows. One thing is for sure, his offense sucks and as long as he thinks he can handle both duties (which he has shown he can't. See last weeks ref arguing and realization he has to call a play.) Dallas will suffer.
This is his 6th season calling plays and his offense has been average or worse in scoring in all but 1 year.
If he's going to continue to call plays, he needs to go.
I think he's likely too arrogant to give up those duties so it's time to move on. No need to waste more time with him.
