The final injury report for Sunday’s Week 11 game is encouraging for Cowboys fans- both in who Dallas will have suiting up, and also in who they won’t have to face across the line in Detroit. But the Cowboys aren’t the only ones assessing their opponent; a Lions star grades his Dallas assignment tops in the league.
Also, a wily veteran offers his take on the team’s slow starts… but is he part of the problem that’s holding the offense back? A native Michigander comes home this week to play in front of friends and family, Dak Prescott has the numbers to disprove the doubters, the latest on the Cowboys’ interest (or lack thereof) in Colin Kaepernick, and a look at where Jason Garrett really ranks among long-tenured coaches. That’s on tap in this edition of News and Notes.
The Cowboys are expected to be close to full strength heading into Sunday’s game in Detroit. Offensive tackle La’el Collins is listed as questionable with a knee and back issue. Safety Jeff Heath has the same designation with a shoulder ailment. Only guard Connor Williams is a confirmed scratch for Week 11; he missed the whole week or practice with a bad knee. All other names who appeared on the injury report over the past few days are cleared and expected to suit up, including Amari Cooper, Zack Martin, Tyron Smith, Sean Lee, and Michael Gallup.
The Lions are not so fortunate when it comes to team health. They will be without quarterback Matthew Stafford for the second week in a row as the veteran continues to nurse a back problem. Also listed as out are defensive end Da’Shawn Hand and tackle Rick Wagner. Safety Tracy Walker, defensive end Romeo Okwara, running back Ty Johnson, defensive tackle Damon Harrison Sr., and punter Sam Martin are all considered questionable for kickoff.
Of all the wideouts in the NFL, Lions cornerback Darius Slay calls Cowboys wideout Amari Cooper tops at winning at the line of scrimmage.
“‘I might give nods to (Cooper as the best) just cause he’s a lot more explosive than all of them, just cause of the fact that he can run,’ Slay said Wednesday” as per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “‘He came out as a 4.3 guy (in the 40).'”
Slay, a two-time Pro Bowler, typically travels with the opponent’s No. 1 receiver, so expect to see him shadowing Cooper for much of the afternoon. As for other pass-catchers with a great get-off, Slay also mentioned Keenan Allen of the Chargers and the Packers’ Davante Adams.
“‘Keenan’s got quick instincts, but he’s a guy that can be quick off the line of scrimmage and quicker downfield, and he’s a little bit bigger than some of them,’ Slay said of Cooper. ‘Overall, they’re all kind of like the same, but he’s very, very, very great off the line of scrimmage, so got to have great patience with him.'”
Despite reports earlier in the week that suggested the Cowboys front office would be sending a team representative to Atlanta for quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s league-wide audition, owner Jerry Jones refuted the story on 105.3 The Fan on Friday.
“That’s not correct,” Jones said on-air. “We’re not going to have anybody there. We’ll basically… You know, those are taped, and we’ll look at the tape if we need information there. We really like where we are with our quarterback. We’ve got some very young quarterbacks, and that’s the way we think, to bring anything up behind Dak is to do it with young ones like we’re doing. So we won’t be there.”
If the Cowboys’ notoriously slow starts in games this season are maddening for fans to watch, it’s even worse for the players on the field. It’s well-covered territory in coaches’ interviews and press conferences, with everyone on staff trying to find a reason and zero in on a fix.
But tight end Jason Witten has a theory.
“‘Sometimes when you go through opener (drives), you’re using that to see how they’re going to play certain other things,’ Witten said,” according to USA Today’s Jori Epstein. “‘It may be, in the midst of that, sometimes if you have a three-and-out, yeah, it may have opened our eyes to what we can do in the next series down the road, what we want to get to. But it may have had a negative impact on that possession not scoring early in the game.'”
Dallas will look to come out of the blocks faster in Detroit and score a first-quarter touchdown for the first time since Week 3 versus Miami.
Dallas cornerback Jourdan Lewis gained a lot of new family and friends this week, it seems. The Motor City native has been bombarded with ticket requests for Sunday’s game when the Cowboys visit Ford Field in Detroit. So far, he’s bought 40.
“Yeah, 40… I’m playing for free this week,” Lewis joked. “And I had to scratch a few off the list. There’s definitely some people hitting me that I haven’t heard from in a while. After 40, you have to get your own.”
The Michigan alum says that despite playing at the Lions’ home stadium with various youth teams and high school squads while growing up, paying a visit to Ford Field as a pro is still “definitely a dream.”
Owner Jerry Jones has always been coach Jason Garrett’s biggest fan. The prevailing philosophy he espouses in interviews and sells to the fanbase is that Garrett’s smarts, his pedigree, and his patience and consistency will eventually bring home a Lombardi Trophy.
But as Ari Temkin points out, Garrett is one of just six coaches in league history to coach at least 145 games with the same team and not play for a conference title. The only one with a worse winning percentage than Garrett’s 56% is Marvin Lewis, who won 52% of his games leading the Bengals.
Interestingly, Tom Landry coached 152 games (the same number Garrett will reach with the season finale) before he finally took Dallas to a conference title game. But expecting Garrett to magically go on a Landry-like run at this point is the equivalent of hoping for Garrett to evolve overnight into something he’s never been. As Temkin writes, “Garrett is more Marvin Lewis than Tom Landry.”
Jason Witten’s return to the field as the Cowboys’ starting tight end was a feel-good story when it was announced, but some wondered if the team would trot out the future Hall of Famer at the expense of the younger tight ends already on the roster trying to gain valuable experience.
RJ Ochoa cites a stat from Inside Edge that says backup tight end Blake Jarwin has averaged 9.8 yards per target this season, the best mark of 42 qualified players at the position. Better than Kelce, better than Ertz, better than Hockenson, better than Kittle. And yes, better than Witten.
“Essentially, on average, when Dak is targeting Blake Jarwin, there’s a move of the chains on the line… Jarwin could be the future at tight end for the Cowboys; maybe that future is now.”
The Dak Doubters don’t want to talk about it, but the Cowboys quarterback is having a monster season, by almost any measure. He’s leading a passing attack that ranks highest in the league in: EPA per pass attempt, success rate per pass attempt, offensive DVOA, yards per pass attempt, and yards per play.
But the chart that should by all rights turn the non-believers around is Eli Cuellar’s highlighting of Prescott’s week-by-week effectiveness (using Expected Points Added per play) and how he’s compared to the league average quarterback play.
It’s an eye-popping visual and can be found at the link, but the punch line is this: on Prescott’s worst statistical week of the season, he basically matched the league’s average performance.
The two-minute-drive playcalling that got the Cowboys coaching staff raked over the coals all week has also sparked a larger discussion about how NFL teams are approaching fourth downs in general.
While teams generally do not attempt to convert fourth downs as often as the stats say they should, 2019 has seen the highest go-for-it rate in at least 25 years. So far, though, offenses are converting those fourth-down tries at a below-average pace.
“As coaches like Garrett continue to learn which players to trust and when to trust them,” Ty Schalter writes, “they should continue to look at the numbers and realize how far they have to go before they’re actually making the best fourth-down calls they can.”
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