There has been a lot of brain dead talk lately about the Cowboys' record when Dak throws the ball 40 or more times. It's 6-14. But since football is a team game that got me wondering.. Why was Dak putting it up 40 or more times in the first place.. I probably kinda knew the answer but went and looked for myself. The bottom line is that pretty much the only time Dak has had to throw it 40 times it's been because the defense has been as loose as a 20 dollar you know what..
I wonder what other QBs records are when their defenses are giving up 30 or more. I bet it aint all that good. None of which is to say Dak doesn't need to play better. Just that these cherry picked numbers in a vacuum don't really tell you a whole lot. The team is 6-14 when giving up a boatload of points. Shocking right? How many times Dak threw the ball probably didn't have much to do with it. In those 14 losses the defense held the opponent to under 20 points twice. Philly in 2019 and KC in 2021. They managed to hold the opponent under 30 three other times.. So in those 14 losses that the talking heads beat their chests about the Cowboys gave up at least 30 points 9 times.
But I can already hear it.. If Dak had only thrown it less the defense would have given up fewer points.. Because we can't play defense if the offense is throwing the ball more than 40 times. It's apparently against the rules. I suspect the defense being porous probably had a lot to do with all those pass attempts. Not every time.. but I would wager more often than not, the pass heavy games featured the defense coming out flat and letting the other team waltz up and down the field, which in turn gave Kellen Moore the excuse he needed to just start slingin it every down!!
