Cowboys Report Card

Should I comment on the mid-way point or game 9?
I will go with what I said prior to the Bills game.
Pre-Season, most predicted 8-8 to 9-7.
Defense was horrible last year and offense was yardage based with no points.

Offense- C
With all of the injuries and yardage that continues to accumulate, Garrett has proven that he can move between the 20's.  Being in lower 1/4 of TD's is unacceptable. I realize the Oline is young and porous, but other teams make better adjustments.
Red Jesus needs to adjust and realize that either he coaches his players to get free or he needs to trick people inside the red zone.
At the midway point they avg 2 TD per game, this is unacceptable. (3 Td's a game gets an B+)
Even after the Bills explosion they rank in bottom half in TD's.

Defense. B
The Cowboys are top 10 in Defense in yardage.
The offense has given up points so the middle of the road pts per game could be considered misleading.
They have increased the turnovers and yards per play.
They fell apart against Philly, but other than that debacle they have played solid. 
They couldn't stop the Jets, Lions and Pats in the closing minutes.
Overall, drastically better than I would have expected.
The LB's outside of Lee and Ware are weak.   They still have this injury problem at the CB position.

Special Teams B
What a find in Bailey, its is almost like they didn't want him and he has made them make the right decision.
He is amazing and a top 3 fg kicker.  Since FG is really more important than the other areas this score is higher than I expected.
McBriar is among the leaders in Net Yards and Yards.

The return yardage is still terrible and I am sick of the Coach calling for angle kicks going out of bounds and giving the other team the ball up the field.
Punt Blocked for TD.
They are so bad in return yards it is hard to fathom.  Dallas is bottom 6 in punt return and kickoff avg.
The worst Special Teams coach!

Coaching - C-
Execution is supposed to have been the change in Dallas this year, but all I saw was a continued collapse when the pressure started to amount.  
The Jets punt return- Blocked punt.
Terrible return yardage. Terrible.
Interceptions being thrown in 4th Qtr with leads. 
Injuries- Yes, I think coaches playing people too early leads to long term issues.
Buehler still on the rooster when other positions need backups.
Thank goodness for Rob Ryan or I would have given them a D.

Overall C - They are exactly where we expected= Average.

But, potential is looming with the weaker schedule and the possibility to gain effectiveness in the way they play on offense.  Romo is getting healthy and the Murray finding really has the Cowboys on the up swing.
Confidence is an important thing for Dallas, both sides of the ball seem to lack it when it matters at the end of games.

Red Jesus had better figure out what GB, NO, and Pats know ...How to score TD's.
4 against the Bills is a good start.
j