If you’ve found yourself thinking that the Dallas Cowboys of

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is stagnant this season , you’re correct. You’d also be accurate if you felt like this wasn’t something new and something that rippled over from the tail end of last season.We all remember what happened when the Cowboys traveled to Atlanta last November. It was their first game without Ezekiel Elliott (Tyron Smith and Sean Lee, too) and it showed. The Cowboys scored in the single digits in three consecutive games, something that had never been done in the long history of the franchise. A new low.It made sense that it was the sudden change though, didn’t it? Zeke disappearing so suddenly, Tyron Smith getting hurt, Sean Lee’s absence, that was when Dan Bailey first started to regress... it made sense that a perfect storm of yuck had encapsulated the Cowboys and that things could get better. That was fair logic then. It isn’t now.The Cowboys offense has been completely ineffective for a full season’s worth of games nowIf you were one of those, I know that I was, who thought the second half of last season was some sort of aberration then that is justifiable. There was reason to think, or at least reason to hope, that with an offseason of preparation and the confirmation (theoretically, at least versus last year) of Ezekiel Elliott that the offense would regain its form from the first half of 2017. Those thoughts were wrong.We’ve now seen the Dallas Cowboys play 16 games counting the “burning of Atlanta.” This became apparent when Jason Witten returned to work a Cowboys game on the one-year anniversary of Tony Romo’s first time doing so. We have a full season’s worth of games and the point totals are not good, in fact they are terrible.Cowboys point totals for their last 16 games:7 at Atlanta Falcons9 vs. Philadelphia Eagles (the worst loss in AT&T Stadium’s history)6 vs. Los Angeles Chargers38 vs. Washington Redskins (the night Dez Bryant broke the record)30 at New York Giants20 at Oakland Raiders (Index card! Jeff Heath!)12 vs. Seattle Seahawks6 at Philadelphia Eagles (the Cowboys actually “won” this game)8 at Carolina Panthers20 vs. New York Giants13 at Seattle Seahawks (Earl Thomas, sigh)26 vs. Detroit Lions16 at Houston Texans40 vs. Jacksonville Jaguars (this feels forever ago)17 at Washington Redskins14 vs. Tennessee TitansLongtime NFL defensive coordinator and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Dick LeBeau has a rule of thumb. If as a defense you hold the opposing offense to 17 points or less, you should win the game. That makes sense. If your offense can’t outscore 17 points you really won’t be winning many games in the NFL. In fact, in the six games that the Cowboys have scored more than 17 points listed, they’ve won them all. What’s that tell you?The Dallas Cowboys have scored 17 or less points in 10 of these 16 games. TEN. And they lost every one of them except the end-of-year Philly game where the Eagles didn’t play their starters. This is not the mark of a good or even relatively functional NFL offense. This is a state of inefficiency that is now no longer something that can be attributed to a suspension, injury, or any otherwise unforeseeable circumstance. The sample size here indicates that there is a real and identifiable problem that needs to be addressed.Will Jerry Jones and the Cowboys address such a thing, though? That remains to be seen. For now we can only grit our teeth and hope that somehow, some way the Cowboys manage to score at least 18 points against the defending Super Bowl Champions on Sunday. That’s all. No big deal. The bar is pretty low.Cowboys @ Panthers: Dallas just wasn’t ready for this game, falls 16-8 The season opened with a thud for the Dallas Cowboys as they dropped their opener 16-8 to the Carolina Panthers in a mistake ridden effort. They could get nothing going until the second half and were outplayed on both sides of the ball. Despite that, they managed to get it to a one possession game in the fourth quarter as the offense began to show a modicum of life, but the last hope was snuffed out on a strip sack of Dak Prescott. A lot of games this first week of the NFL schedule have raised the question of just how much NFL teams really need preseason games , and this one was certainly evidence that keeping your starters in bubble wrap can lead to really bad football. The Cowboys looked confused for much of the game, and ineptitude on the part of the offense left the Dallas defense looking definitely worn down as the second half progressed. The loss of Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, and Dan Bailey are going to be talked about a lot this week, as the offense sputtered for so much of the game and Brett Maher missed his first field goal attempt as a Cowboy. The first half was almost as bad as it could be for the Cowboys. The offense only muster 60 yards total with four first downs, and never had a snap in the Carolina half of the field. Ezekiel Elliott was bottled up, only gaining 18 yards on 7 carries, and most of those came on long plays just to set up the punt. Dak Prescott was frequently off target, none more egregious than a low pass to a wide open Blake Jarwin that could easily have gone the distance. The offensive line was pushed around, and Tyron Smith was flagged twice, once on a block to the back that wiped out one of the few decent offensive plays. The defense managed to hold the Panthers to only 10 points, but they were getting pushed around as well up front, and missed tackles were an epidemic. Even the normally superb Sean Lee had ballcarriers just run through him. Cam Newton was the biggest weapon of the half. He was 11 of 18 for 102 yards, and had 64 yards on seven carries, including a touchdown. His runs came on both designed plays and when he evaded the pass rush, which could only muster one sack. The 10-0 halftime deficit should really have been much worse, as the Panthers were driving on their first possession, but Daniel Ross forced a fumble that was recovered by DeMarcus Lawrence at their own 10. And the Panthers had a shot at a second touchdown as the half ran down, but poor clock management forced them to settle for a 27 yard field goal. Six penalties in the half didn’t help Dallas at all.The offensive impotence could not be blamed on offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, as he tried various things like a jet sweep, but the execution varied from poor to just plain bad. Another sign that his playcalling is different this year were empty backfield sets on first down, which definitely goes against the trend of first down runs he has been blamed for. The Cowboys could get no rhythm going, and the defense, while making some stops at important times , got gashed a few too many times. There was really only one bright spot outside the forced fumble, and that was Chris Jones, who averaged 52.4 yards on five punts. But even then, poor coverage allowed the Panthers to improve their field position as they racked up 62 yards on returns.The second half started to show a little improvement, as Elliott got a couple of long runs and Prescott started to find some receivers. The got into Panthers territory on their first three drives, and finally got into the red zone on a third down scramble by Prescott. (It was only the second third down conversion of the game, and came at about the 10 minute mark of the fourth quarter.) Then, after a nice run by Zeke, the Cowboys served the Panthers a nice dose of their own medicine. Cam Newton had dished the ball to Christian McCaffrey earlier in the game for a nice gain, and Dak and Zeke combined on their own option toss to get a four yard touchdown run. A two point conversion by Prescott running up the middle made the score 16-8, and it was suddenly a one-possession game thanks to a missed extra point by the Panthers on their second touchdown.The next drive by Carolina was cut short after a stuffed run by Newton, and then a holding call made it second and 26 all the way back at their own 20. A pass to Devin Funchess got it to 3rd and 14, but Lawrence came through with a sack to force the punt. But the problem for the Cowboys was that they had less than five minutes on the clock and 79 yards to cover after the punt. Some costly penalties, the second sack of the game by Kawaan Short, and an incomplete pass to Deonte Thompson on fourth down turned the ball back over to Carolina with just over two minutes to go. The offense came through with toolittle, too late, and the defense’s efforts, which gave the Cowboys one last shot inside the two minute warning, was also not enough.On an injury note, Randy Gregory left the field with what might have been a concussion. The Panthers lost tight end Greg Olsen, linebacker Luke Kuechly, and tackle Daryl Williams during the game. It was about the only place Dallas came out ahead.

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