Film Room: Cowboys fail on the ground vs. Falcons

As you can see, the Cowboys’ rushing attack wasn’t up to par on Sunday, which was somewhat expected. However, the reason they struggled wasn’t because of the play of the running backs. In fact, they played well. It was the rest of the offensive line and secondary blockers who struggled on Sunday. In the game in which the Cowboys needed them to step and help fill the void left by Elliott, they struggled in every single way.

The subject of today’s film room will focus on the Cowboys’ rushing attack and why you can’t place much blame on the team’s running backs in this one. Instead, blame the offensive line and tight ends. Below are six runs from the Cowboys on Sunday, all of which occurred on first down. The breakdowns will be short and sweet, so let’s get started.

The first play of the game for the Cowboys was one that has been a staple of their offense for years; the wide-zone run to the right. Dallas tried to help get Alfred Morris going by running his best play, but Travis Frederick gets beat by Dontari Poe and it disrupts the entire timing of the play. Luckily for Dallas, Morris was able to make Poe miss and somehow find space to gain two yards.

Morris’ next carry was also a wide-zone run and once again, the offensive line failed him. This time, Frederick was able to execute the reach block, but it was Jonathan Cooper who couldn’t make his block on the second level. Cooper was late getting to the linebacker (along with La’el Collins’ man) and that allowed De’Vondre Campbell (No. 59) to be able to make the tackle after just a one-yard gain. This run was blocked for no yardage, but Morris was somehow able to gain one.

However, Morris wasn’t so fortunate on his next first-down run. On this run, Terrance Williams (I know the tweet says Jason Witten, but forgive me) was supposed to block the backside defensive end. But instead, he ran a pass route and no one was fooled by Dak Prescott’s “bootleg”. Two defenders met Morris in the backfield and he lost two yards. Once again, Dallas found themselves in a passing situation on 2nd and 12.

The Cowboys eventually spelled Morris and allowed Rod Smith to enter the backfield. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to fair much better. On his first run, Dallas pulled both guards to the left to try to run G-power in order to get Smith in space. But Cooper overran his target and was tagged for a holding call. That forced the Cowboys into a 1st and 20; another obvious passing situation.

Eventually, Darren McFadden got a shot in the running game in order to try to light a spark for the Cowboys’ offense. But, as you may have predicted, he had no chance. On McFadden’s only carry of the season, he was quickly met in the backfield by Deion Jones after Terrance Williams failed to execute his wham block. On top of Williams’ whiff, the pulling La’el Collins also missed on the cornerback, so there was likely no chance this toss run was ever going to succeed.

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There was truly no excuse for the poor execution from the unit in this game. The Falcons don’t have a dominating front-seven and in fact, their inability to stop the run this season has been a major problem. It was a total let-down by the Cowboys’ rushing game.

The Cowboys are still right in the thick of things in the NFC wild-card hunt, but with Ezekiel Elliott missing the next five games, the team is going to have to find some way to have success on the ground. But in order for them to do so, the offensive line has to play better. However, if the unit doesn’t play any better than what we saw on Sunday, they will struggle to win a single game while Elliott is serving his suspension.