The Dallas Cowboys lost their season-opener 16-8 to the Carolina Panthers. An offense that was awful for three quarters had one nice moment Womens Joe Looney Jersey , but fell apart again when they needed to score. The offensive line was a huge problem in Week 1 and will need massive improvement going forward. Check out our full recap. Fourth QuarterThe Cowboys risked a 4th-and-10 at midfield, and didn’t get it. Now they are going to get the ball back with two minutes left after a punt.The Panthers are backed up with a 2nd-and-26, if the Cowboys can stop them, there is a chance. On 3rd and 14, who is it? It’s your El Capitan of the Hot Boyz, DeMarcus Lawrence for the SACK.The Cowboys cap off the drive with a Zeke TD on an option pitch play, and then Prescott converts the two-point conversion on a QB draw. Carolina 16 - Dallas 8.The Cowboys offense is finally putting together a crisp drive. Some Zeke runs mixed with the passing game has them deep in Carolina territory. The Cowboys defense was unable to hold Carolina as they drive right down the field and put it into the endzone. The only good thing is Carolina botched the extra-point. Carolina is up 16-0 at the start of the fourth quarter.Third QuarterThe Cowboys finally drive into scoring position and try a 47-yard FG... guess what happened? Miss! Still 10-0.After three plays, the Cowboys defense gets off the field and the offense goes back on the field with decent field position.The Cowboys finally got some things going with Allen Hurns and Ezekiel Elliott but it was all for naught as they couldn’t pick up the 3rd and 3. Panthers pinned inside their 20 on the punt but the Cowboys should have considered going for it..Panthers were driving but then Maliek Collins decided that he was tired of dealing with Cam Newton and sacked him on 3rd and 13.HALFTIMESecond QuarterCowboys hold Panthers to three points. We’re heading to halftime, Panther 10, Cowboys 0.As we near halftime, the Cowboys defense is wearing down, the Panthers are in the red zone. Cowboys offense is stalling. After they moved the ball a little bit, Prescott had a wide-open Blake Jarwin for a huge gain and he underthrows him badly. Could have been a possible TD, or Prescott could have run for the first down. Neither happened. Another Cowboys’ offensive possession, Dak takes another sack, this time by Kawaan Short. The Cowboys offense stalls again and Chris Jones is back out punting the ball.The Panthers will be without Greg Olsen for the rest of the game:A couple of good runs by McCaffery to get the Panthers in the red zone. Cam Newton does the rest. 7-0 PanthersDak gets sacked on first down by a blitzing Shaq Thompson. Then a dangerous throw thankfully doesn’t get picked, Chris Jones punts 51-yards, the Panthers get 30 yards on the return.On first down, Sean Lee hits McCaffery for no gain. On second and 10, Cam to McCaffery incomplete. 3rd and 10, the “Hot Boyz” get help from blitzing linebackers, Carolina will punt.First QuarterAs the first quarter winds down, Kavon Frazier beat on second and long by the veteran Greg Olsen. On the next play Youth Kavon Frazier Jersey , Damien Wilson gets caught up and Cam Newton gets the first down.On the Cowboys ensuing drive, they get the passing game going a little with Cole Beasley but the offensive line picks up a holding call. Not the best start for Tyron Smith with two of the Cowboys four penalties. The Cowboys punt it back to the Panthers.Cam Newton has used his feet a couple of times and has the Panthers in the red zone. Panthers face a third and two, Christian McCaffery FUMBLES & it’s Cowboys ball.Cowboys defensive line stuffs Panthers on first two plays, incomplete pass on third would have lead to a punt, but they called a sketchy roughing the passer on DeMarcus Lawrence.Cowboys had a nice screen to Tavon Austin called back by a penalty on Tyron Smith. Then a delay of game on the offense backs it up to a 3rd and 25. Sloppy start for the Cowboys. Punt.PregameSunday is here. It’s time, Cowboys fans. The 2018 season kicks off this Sunday with a game on the road against the Carolina Panthers. We can put 2017, and the offseason, behind us as things begin for real.This is a new-look Cowboys team with Tony Romo retiring two offseasons ago, and now Jason Witten (retired), Dez Bryant (released) and Dan Bailey (released) are also gone. The Cowboys are Dak Prescott’s and Ezekiel Elliott’s team, with DeMarcus Lawrence and Sean Lee the faces of the defense. The Cowboys also shuffled their coaching staff with a ton of new assistants, including secondary coach/passing game coordinator on defense, Kris Richard. He’s famous for building the Legion of Boom, can he do something similar with the Cowboys secondary?It’s going to be a fascinating start to the season as we watch a re-tooled Dallas team start its quest for a playoff spot.Here are a few interesting nuggets from the NFL Communications office about the Cowboys:COWBOYS have a 38-19-1 (.667) record on Kickoff Weekend, tied for highest winning pct. in NFL history. Since entering NFL in 2016, Dak Prescott leads all QBs with 12 rush TDs.Prescott is 6-1 in past 7 starts on road with 9 TDs vs. 2 INTs & 101.4 passer rating. Since 2016, Ezekiel Elliott is tied for league lead in total TDs (25) & ranks 3rd in NFL in scrimmage yards (3,246).DE DEMARCUS LAWRENCE tied for 2nd in NFL with career-high 14.5 sacks in 2017. Had 1.5 sacks on Kickoff Weekend last year. Has 8 sacks, 2 FRs & 2 FFs in his past 8 on road. Since 2015, Sean Lee ranks 3rd in NFL with 374 tackles. Here’s your info for the game.What You Need To KnowImportant links: Cowboys depth chart | RosterDate: September 9th, 2018Game time: 4:25 PM ESTLocation: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NCTV channel: FOXCoverage Map: 506 SportsAnnouncers: Joe Buck Youth Jaylon Smith Jersey , Troy Aikman, Erin Andrews (Field reporter)Radio: 105.3 The Fan | Full listings | SIRIUS: 127 (Dal), 82 (Car) | XM: 391 (Dal), 227 (Car)Streaming: NFL.com GamePass (audio only during game), Fox Sports GO (local markets)Cowboys record: (0-0)Panthers record: (0-0)Odds: Dallas +2.5Prediction: Dallas 23 - Carolina 21Enemy blog: Cat Scratch ReaderTwitter: @BloggingTheBoysFacebook: Please Like us!The Cowboys are diametrically opposite of the state of the NFL in a very bad and concerning way When it comes to recent seasons it feels like there’s always been a hiccup with the NFL.For the longest time (shout out to the one and only Billy Joel) we didn’t truly know what a catch was, many would argue that we still don’t. These days the collective groan comes over the new roughing the passer penalties we’re seeing and how seemingly impossible it is to tackle the quarterback. It’s obvious why the NFL wants rules like roughing the passer to be enforced. The objective is to protect the quarterback because it’s a quarterback league. Quarterbacks move the needle and help drive the point-scoring, and the NFL sure does love it some points.The rules of the game in 2018 are very different than they were in 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005, heck even 2015 to a degree. The NFL wants points, scoring, and fantasy-like situations and that’s exactly what they’re getting.Points are being scored like never before in 2018While all of the roughing the passer calls provide for the occasional annoying moment when watching the game we all love, the fact remains that the NFL has somewhat achieved their objective. They’re in a state of nirvana of sorts with scoring in 2018 as there have been 3,739 points scored through five weeks... the most ever through five weeks.Denny Medley-USA TODAY SportsPlenty of people play fantasy football. If so, your team is likely scoring at ridiculous rates (unless you’re me... sad face) and things feel like a video game. Quarterbacks are airing it out, running backs are getting in the endzone, and receivers are making spectacular catches. It’s a lot of fun.Think about this and think about it long and hard. The NFL has designed an environment that lends itself to scoring. It’s like the league turned off gravity because they wanted everyone else to float the way Charlie and his Grandpa did in Willy Wonka, and as a result teams are soaring offensively like never before. One team is sinking though, and that team is the Dallas Cowboys.The Cowboys are near their franchise-low in scoring through five gamesGravity has been diminished. Everyone has been given suits with flaps on the side for more aerial movement. Literally everything is set up for offenses to fly and somehow the Dallas Cowboys are plummeting.While the NFL as a whole has scored more points than ever before through five weeks (3,739), the Cowboys aren’t exactly carrying their weight. Dallas has scored 83 points through five games. That is the seventh-fewest through five games in the history of the franchise. Lowest point totals through a season’s first five games in Dallas Cowboys history:1989: 54 points1964: 66 points1990: 70 points2002: 74 points2001: 75 points1970: 78 points2018: 83 points1960: 84 points1963: 86 points1996, 2004: 87 pointsIt’s long been said that a rising tide lifts all boats. The NFL’s tide has risen as we’ve discussed. The game Womens Chidobe Awuzie Jersey , its parameters, and its future are all designed to enhance scoring and offensive success. In spite of this the Cowboys are not only not experiencing that success, they’re regressing. In the five seasons preceding 2018 the Cowboys scored (in order from 2013 on) 152, 135, 101, 129, and 125 points through their first five games. Their 83 points scored this season are a serious dip down. A very serious one. It obviously all boils down to the passing game for the Cowboys which falls on the shoulders of quarterback Dak Prescott. Consider the team’s current standings in various offensive categories:Rushing: 4thPassing: 29thPoints scored: 30thThat’s amazing to think about, really. The Cowboys offense is one of the best across the NFL on the ground, yet their inefficiencies through the air are so glaring that they sink their offensive scoring as a whole almost all the way to the bottom. It would be difficult to do on purpose let alone on accident. NFL teams are adapting offensively which is yielding success, the Cowboys could learn to do thatThe class of the league when it comes to offense these days are teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, we could go on and on. Over the last few seasons we’ve seen more and more NFL teams adopt college-style offenses and philosophies. ESPN touched on this recently relative to Kansas City.It goes without saying, but the Cowboys are drastically failing to utilize any plays or pieces of offense that complement one another. They continue to avoid the renaissance that the rest of the league has experienced and are trying to shove square pegs into round holes. Adding a player with skills that work in offenses like this in someone like Tavon Austin doesn’t automatically make you like those teams if you don’t use him the way they would.This stagnation ultimately comes down to one of two possibilitiesThere are only two possible explanations for why the Cowboys find themselves in this enormous rut, and one of them is more likely than the other. It just depends which one you think it is. One possibility here is that the offensive system and scheme that the Cowboys are choosing to employ under Jason Garrett and Scott Linehan is archaic, outdated, and has been significantly improved upon by the competition both in terms of other offenses and in opposing defenses. If the Cowboys are trying to race a stagecoach against a sports car they’re going to lose that battle every time and then some. The other possibility here is a bit more rare but technically is an existing option. It’s possible that the Cowboys just happened to have assembled a cast of offensive players that are so collectively bad as one unit that they are literally one of the worst groups ever (7th-worst to be exact) formed on this side of the ball in the longstanding history of the Dallas Cowboys. Which do you think it is? The true answer is that it’s probably a bit of both, but what’s also true is that the coaching staff, and the front office, is the group that assembles the talent so theoretically more responsibility should fall on their shoulders. However you feel the fact remains that the other offenses in the NFL will continue to benefit from the rising tide while the Dallas Cowboys keep trying to swim downward for whatever reason they believe to make sense.
