Dallas Cowboys: 18 shocking/important/record-breaking numbers to know

Dallas Cowboys: The bad offensive numbers

1 – The yards needed on 3rd and 4th down on Dallas’ last possession of the 1st half.

Dallas received the ball with just under 4 minutes to play in the 1st half and were looking to build on their 13-7 lead.  They had driven to the Minnesota 38-yard line mostly thanks to a 15-yard penalty on Harrison Smith for hitting a defenseless CeeDee Lamb.

Facing 3rd and 1 from the Minnesota 38, Dalton perfectly dropped a pass to Gallup between 2 defenders that hit Gallup right in the bellybutton, but it was dropped.  On 4th down Dalton threw slightly behind an open Cedrick Wilson who could not adjust to make the catch.

This resulted in a turnover on downs.  It was an odd decision to throw twice in a row when needing just 3 feet for a first down given Mike McCarthy’s statement that the Dallas Cowboys would need to run the ball at least 30 times to win the game (although they ended with 31 rushes and a win in the end).

However, I do need to point out that on the 3rd down Kellen Moore called a perfect play, Dalton threw a perfect pass, and Gallup just failed to execute the catch.

0 – The number of opening drive touchdowns the Dallas Cowboys had on the season entering the game.

This number remained unchanged however after Dallas quickly went 3-and-out on their opening possession.

The Cowboys offense has only scored on their opening possession 5 times this season and those were all field goals.  Only twice in 10 games have the Cowboys even reached the red zone on their first possession.

The Cowboys managed to reach the 20 yard line in their previous game versus the Steelers before kicking a field goal, and in the game against the Giants they got all the way to the SIX (!!) before settling for 3.

Kellen Moore called a really good game on Sunday afternoon against the Vikings, but he still has work to do in getting the offense ready for the start of games.

1 – The number of first quarter touchdowns the Dallas Cowboys offense has in their last 5 games entering Sunday.

Forget the first drive, what about the first quarter?! Dallas scored a first quarter touchdown for the first time since the October 4th game against the Browns when the offense scored TWO (!!) first quarter touchdowns.  Does anybody actually remember that the Cowboys led 14-7 at the end of that first quarter against the Browns?  Anybody?

9 – Cowboys largest lead of the year.  Now the Cowboys are really starting to blow the doors off.

The Cowboys nearly put up a touchdown + field goal lead early against the Vikings, which is the most they have been able to be ahead of an opponent at any time of the season.

The lead grew so large at one point that I thought I could stop watching given this total domination.

So we all feel good about the win (unless you feel better about a top-3 draft pick), but this team has never led by double digits y’all.