The Dallas Cowboys trounced the Los Angeles Rams for their most important and impressive victory of the year. The 44-21 win gets them back to .500 and tied with the Philadelphia Eagles at 7-7 for first place in the NFC East.
The Cowboys offensive coordinator got back to his winning ways, and he did it by calling an offensively-balanced game as he did early in the season. With the offense executing well enough to score points and the defense only giving up one touchdown, Kellen Moore was able to maintain a balanced approach. In the the previous three games, Moore called a balanced game in the first half, but resorted to passing from the shotgun almost exclusively in the second half.
Moore showed that when the Dallas Cowboys can run the ball effectively, he will keep running it.
Here’s how.
The Context
This weekly examination of the Cowboys pay calling began as a simple question: would Moore, the guy touted as having a genius football mind, be less predictable than the previous coordinator, Scott Linehan?
Linehan was predictable in the most pedestrian of ways: he called running plays more than 80% of the snaps the quarterback took from under center, and he called passing plays on more than 80% of the shotgun snaps.
This is an ongoing attempt to assess whether Moore is any less predictable than Linehan based on the formation and play calling mentioned above.
You can read the stats from all the previous games here.
The Raw Data from Week 15 versus the Los Angeles Rams
Where these stats differ from the official game logs, it is because we have intentionally included plays nullified by penalties and/or we included scrambles by the quarterback as passing attempts.
Dallas ran 67 offensive plays against the Rams. Quarterback Dak Prescott was under center for 28 of those plays (42%) and in the shotgun for 39 plays (58%). The week before, against the Chicago Bears, Prescott was in the shotgun for more than 80% of the plays.
Moore called 40 running plays, two runs off play-action, 17 pass attempts, and eight pass attempts off play-action.
First half snaps under center
The Dallas offense ran 42 plays in the first half. Prescott was under center for 14 of those plays. Of the 14 snaps from under center in the first half:
- 10 were runs
- one was a pass attempt after dropping back from under center
- three were play-action passes
First half snaps from shotgun
Prescott was in the shotgun for 28 snaps in the first half. Moore called:
- 13 runs
- 10 passes
- two runs off play-action
- three passes off play-action
The thing that stands out the most is that Moore called for rushes on 53.5% of the shotgun snaps. That is more runs from the shotgun (15) in a half than Moore has ever called in an entire game. The previous high for runs from the shotgun in a game was 13 against the Giants in Week 10.
In the first half, Moore called 25 runs and only 17 passes.
Dallas scored 28 points in the first half. Only one of those touchdown drives was short. Other than the one drive that started inside the Rams 10, the Cowboys had three long drives (90 yards on 15 plays, 97 yards on 14 plays, and 75 yards on three plays).
Moore continues to use play-action on more than 25% of the passing attempts. This week it was six play-action passes out of 17 total pass attempts (35%).
If you include the two play-action runs, then Moore called for play-action on 19% of all offensive plays.
In the five game games before the Bears in Week 14, Moore had only called a total of three play-actions runs. Against the Bears and Rams, he did it twice in both games.
Many fans want Moore use the running abilities of Dak Prescott more often.
Second half snaps from under center
Dallas only ran 25 plays in the second half.
Prescott was under center for 14 plays. On those 14 snaps:
- 12 rushes
- one pass after dropping back from center
- one play-action pass
Second half snaps from the shotgun
- five rushes
- five pass attempts
- one play-action pass
The Cowboys had a lead to protect in the second half; Moore called eight pass attempts and 17 rushes.
This is the kind of run-heavy football that Moore wants this team to play. The only problem is that they haven’t been able to establish the early leads that would allow them to be that kind of offense.
Moore called 11-consecutive runs in the fourth quarter. Seven from under center and four from the shotgun. Compare that to the end of the last two games (28 and then 24 consecutive pass attempts from the shotgun). The Cowboys scored 10 points off those 11 runs.
Although Ezekiel Elliot (2) and Prescott (1), shared in those 11 fourth-quarter runs, rookie running back Tony Pollard deserves most of the credit. He had a nifty 33-yard jaunt on the field-goal drive, and then he had the 44-yard scamper for the touchdown.
Totals for the game
Moore called 67 plays in Week 15. Prescott was under center for 28 plays and in the shotgun for 39.
Moore called 42 running plays:
- 22 when Prescott started under center
- 18 from the shotgun
- two off play-action (both from shotgun)
Moore called 25 pass attempts:
- two when the quarterback drops back from center
- four off pay-action when Prescott starts under center
- 15 from the shotgun
- four off play-action in the shotgun
The Dallas offense was balanced in terms of the under center/shotgun distribution (28 under center compared to 39 in shotgun), but considerably more run heavy than most weeks (42 runs and 25 pass attempts).
Conclusions
Moore called more runs from the shotgun (18) than any other game this season. He called more runs in total (40) than any game this season. Not surprisingly, he called his fewest number of passing plays in a game this season (27). They scored more points (44) than any other game this season.
The Cowboys ran the ball on 62% of the plays. They averaged 5.8 yards per carry.
In terms of the predictability, Moore has been able to distance himself from the 80% threshold associated with Linehan in one of the two formations (under center or shotgun), but rarely has he done it from both formations in the same game.
Moore called runs on more than 50% of the shotgun plays (20 rushes out of 39 snaps). However, he called runs on almost 80% of the snaps that Prescott started under center (22 rushes out of 28 snaps).
Miscellaneous Observations
After the 20-yard reception off play-action by tight end Blake Jarwin in the second quarter, Troy Aikman remarked, “That is what the running game does for you.” Apparently no one has told Troy Aikman about Cris Collinsworth’s discovery that effectively running the ball has no impact on the success of play-action passing.
Aikman’s comments on the merits of running the ball may be the most astute observation that viewers have heard during a broadcast since Tony Romo, in Week 13, commented, after a nice run by Elliott, that running was the “way to beat the best defenses” and that the Cowboys offense needed to “go through Elliott.”
If the Dallas Cowboys get on a run and have any playoff success, surely people will look back and realize that the 97-yard touchdown drive (14 plays) was the TSN Turning Point in their 2019 season.
The Cowboys successfully converted 7 of their 13 third-down attempts. They are now 85-175 for the year, which is 48.5% and best in the NFL.
The Rams successfully converted just four of their 12 attempts. The Cowboys defense is now 60-175 for the year, which means they prevent a first down on more than 65% of attempts (fourth best in the NFL).
According to Football Outsiders, Dallas is second in the NFL with an average of 40.76 yards per offensive drive; fifth with 2.4 points per drive; third with 6.57 plays per drive; and sixth with .279 touchdowns per drive.
The Cowboys travel to Philadelphia this week to face the Eagles for first place in the NFC East. Dallas desperately needs to win this week to keep their momentum going into the playoffs.
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