Dallas Cowboys: The coaching staff deserves blame too

The Dallas Cowboys’ players have shouldered much of the blame for their 2-6 start, but its time to shift some the blame to the coaching staff.

When it comes to the Dallas Cowboys 2-6 record, the majority of the blame goes to the players, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Honestly, the Cowboys defense deserved every bit of criticism because it was giving up over 30 points a game.

As of right now, the Cowboys defense is ranked dead last in the NFL, allowing a pathetic 33.3 points a game. Heck, the lowly New York Giants and Team Washington were averaging around 12 and 13 points a game before they played the Cowboys, and both teams scored season highs of 30 and 25 points against the Cowboys defense.

That’s awful.

But after watching the Dallas Cowboys lose a competitive game against their arch nemesis, the hated Philadelphia Eagles, in a Primetime Sunday night game, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Cowboys woes aren’t solely on the shoulders of their players.

The entire coaching staff deserves as much blame, if not more, for this lackluster start as the players do. After eight games into the season, head coach Mike McCarthy and his staff look as clueless as rookie quarterback Ben DiNucci did in his debut against the buzzards.

Let’s talk about Dallas’ coaching staff and why they’re the real culprits in this debacle of a season.

Offensive play calling is below average

Not much is being discussed about Dallas’ offensive shortcomings and its ineffective play calling. Sure, Dak Prescott is done for the year with a broken ankle, and a bunch of rookies/mediocre players are holding down the offensive line. However, that doesn’t excuse the predictable and noncreative play calling we’ve seen- look at the Eagles game.

As DiNucci played, nobody was expecting the rookie signal caller to come out and play like a Pro Bowler, but his mistakes were magnified to great lengths because the coaching staff put him in bad positions. For example, Dallas was carving up Philly’s defense with Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard. Well either Big Mac or offensive coordinator Kellen Moore decided the running game wasn’t good enough and called a reverse that lost several yards and took Dallas out of field goal range and stopped a positive drive.

My goodness!

The only difference is the coaching staff. Not the players. And that’s why the coaching staff deserves just as much blame.

Instead of continuing to with the successful running game, Dallas shot itself in the foot with a poor play call that took away momentum and took points off the board. Zeke and Pollard ran the ball so well that either one could have taken it to pay dirt. And if that had happened, it would have taken pressure off of DiNucci-a rookie quarterback who clearly looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Plus, leaning on the running game would have worn out Philly’s defense and allowed Dallas to use play action to helped DiNucci,-who could have benefited from a simple play action pass. That game alone highlights the coaching staff’s inability to put its players in position to succeed.

Here’s another example of why Big Mac and company deserves the blame. Instead of DiNucci playing to his strengths and giving him slimmer of confidence, Dallas’ coaching staff threw him into the lions dens with no weapons or anything to defend himself. DiNucci should have been coached up to manage the game with an emphasis on not creating turnovers, take sacks when needed, throw the ball away, and simply run and slide when needed.

Those skills would have went a long way in not only winning the game, but in building up DiNucci’s confidence for another start.

There are other issues this coaching staff has to take blame for, like the lack of motion with its receivers. That goes on the coaching staff all day long because you make the best out of what you have.