Last week http://www.authenticsdallascowboys.com/cheap-jeff-heath-jersey , our NFC Least report was a depressing slog through the division’s ineptitude following a week five that saw all four teams lose. eam not named the “NewYork Giants” not only won, but impressed in doing so. The result is that while no team has managed to separate itself from the others, fans of three different teams can fervently cling to reasonable thoughts of a 2018 NFC East division title. Here’s how the division stands today:Two words come to mind: “mediocrity” and “competitive”. The top three teams have very similar top-level resumes at this point. They win some, they lose some. They don’t score a lot of points and don’t give up a lot of points. We’re gonna pretty much ignore the New York Football Giants because they’re pretty much toast. We will, however, point out the Giants have now lost 19 of their last 24 games (.208 win percentage for those keeping track).You would have to go back to the mid-70’s to find the last time the New York Football Giants sustained this level of incompetence for such an extended period. Frankly, this is simple karma for an organization that won two of the least deserved Super Bowls in the history of Super Bowls, so zero sympathy. Let’s concentrate instead on the “contenders”. Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington all followed up bad week five performances with good week six performances. Both the Eagles and Cowboys played their best, most complete games of the season in dominating performances where the games were practically over at halftime (combined 48-6 scores after two quarters). The Redskins, meanwhile, bounced back from a dreadful beating at the hands of Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints to notch a hard-fought win over a pretty good Carolina team. As a result the three long-term rivals now have almost identical odds of winning the division, according to our good friends over at Football Outsiders:And things are just starting to get interesting as none of the three competitors have faced each other head-to-head. That changes this Sunday when Dallas travels to Landover, Maryland to face the Washington Redskins; whoever emerges victorious will claim sole possession of first place. These are interesting times, indeed. The offenses still stinkWe documented last week how putrid the division has been with the ball. So http://www.authenticsdallascowboys.com/cheap-anthony-brown-jersey , keep in mind that all of the following numbers and rankings we look at come after Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington combined for 97 points in their three games. Let’s start with basics:All four teams are below average when it comes to scoring points. In addition, all but the Eagles are below average in yardage gained, and the Eagles are merely league-average. In short, every NFC East team is a below average offensive team. Note the 46-yard differential in yards per game between the Eagles and the Cowboys. These two charts are interesting:Note how many more plays the Eagles have run than the Cowboys. Philadelphia is getting nine more opportunities per game to make plays than the Cowboys. Thus, even though Dallas and Philadelphia gain exactly the same yards per play the Eagles are generating 46 more yards of offense per game. At the current rate, the Eagles would run 144 more offensive plays than the Cowboys. Considering most NFL teams get around 60 offensive snaps per game, that’s the equivalent of two-plus games. That’s an enormous discrepancy. Note that the division’s (and perhaps the league’s) worst team is the only team that’s even average in yards gained per play. The three “contenders” are all well below average. The one offensive area where the division (other than the Giants) is doing well is running the ball. The “contenders” all:Run the ball more often than the average NFL teamRun for more yards than the average NFL teamDallas is particularly impressive on the ground, running for nearly 150 yards per game and over five yards per carry. Despite the addition of the scintillating Saquon Barkley, the Giants are below average in rushing attempts and rushing yards. The Eagles, Redskins and Giants are all around league average in simple pass attempt, pass completion and passing yardage metrics. The Cowboys lag far behind in these metrics, though. When we look at efficiency metrics, however, things go south pretty quickly. Every NFC East team is below average in both net yards per attempt and touchdown percentage. The only positive is the four teams do avoid interceptions (other than the Cowboys who are near league-average). None of the four are above average at throwing interceptions.So it’s somewhat surprising to find that three of the four teams enjoy higher than average quarterback passer ratings. The Eagles rank highest Color Rush Connor Williams Jersey , and considering Carson Wentz has played only four of the team’s six games, that number could very well improve. Note how far the Cowboys lag behind the others in the traditional passer rating yet are quite close in QBR (ESPN’s proprietary quarterback performance metric). QBR awards generous points to quarterbacks who can use their legs to both avoid sacks and make positive plays. One of the Eagles’ biggest weaknesses this year has been an inability to protect the quarterback, while the Cowboys’ Dak Prescott continues to be one of the best QBs in the league at making plays with his legs. Perhaps the single best image to demonstrate the struggles of the division’s offenses is this one showing each team’s rankings in various metrics:There is a lot of red and very little green in this table. There’s also a lot of rankings in the 20s, which basically indicates you’re a bottom-third performer. Ugh. For those who like advanced statistics and insights into key metrics like third down conversions and red zone efficiency:It’s noteworthy that the three “contenders” all rank in the top half of the league in third-down opportunities. But none rank above average at converting third downs (though to be fair, Philadelphia and Washington are average, as opposed to terrible). We see some similar trends in the red zone. Philadelphia ranks very high in terms of RZ opportunities (no doubt partly a result of running more plays). Dallas (and New York) doesn’t enjoy many RZ opportunities, by comparison. And none of the teams are particularly good at converting those scoring opportunities. You can see the NY Giants’ woes in stark detail here, ranking 29th in RZ conversions and 22nd in 3rd down conversions. Add it all together and you get some pretty foul-smelling offensive performances. This is captured in Football Outsider’s DVOA metric, which attempts to measure each team’s overall effectiveness:DVOA attempts to quantify each team’s performance relative to the league. The simple explanation is a negative number means below average and a positive number means above average. The fact all four NFC East offenses have negative numbers reveals much. None of the NFC East teams are even average on offense. In fact, the three “contenders” all rank among the bottom 14 of the league with the Giants ranking highest overall (who knew?). We also see that the teams are significantly better running the ball than passing. But in terms of passing this is a woe-begotten division. Considering the widespread ugliness, it seems reasonable to quote the great Vince Lombardi: “What the hell is going on out there?”It’s somewhat remarkable that, considering the collective offensive ineptitude, that three of these teams are at or above .500. Of course, offense only tells us half the story. Tomorrow we’ll look at the other side of the ball, where the division largely lives up to its NFC Beast moniker. The Dallas Cowboys 2018 season came to an end Saturday night after losing to the Los Angeles Rams 30-22 in the divisional round of the playoffs. This is the fourth straight division playoff game the team has lost dating back to the 2007 season. It was a good run for Dallas Youth Tyron Smith Jersey , who finished the regular season strong to take down the NFC East, but they were no match for the Sean McVay’s Rams. Here are 10 thoughts on this tough loss.1. Run overIn a game that many expected to be a battle of the running game, nobody expected the Rams to just run wild over the Cowboys defense. Dallas finished the season as a top five run defense, only allowing an average of 94.6 yards per game. The Rams finished with 273 rushing yards which is a new playoff record, eclipsing the 269 yards the Rams gained against the Cowboys the last time these teams faced on in the playoffs during the 1985 season.While most of the damage was done by Eric Dickerson’s 248 yards last time, the Rams used a two-headed monster of Todd Gurley (115 yards) and late-season signing C.J. Anderson (123 yards) this time around. Cowboys fans might remember Anderson from last year when he churned out 118 yards with Denver in that 42-17 blowout against the Broncos.2. Defense couldn’t get a stopLast week the Cowboys defense only allowed one Seattle drive over six plays and half of all their possessions ended in a three-and-out. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t come close to doing that against one of the league’s top offenses. The Rams had a total of nine drives in the game and only one of them was less than six plays. Three of them were 11 plays or more. Only once did the Rams punt and they held the ball for over 36 minutes in the game. The Rams compiled 459 yards of total offense, which is the second-worst defensive outing of the year for the Cowboys, trailing the Week 5 Houston game by only three yards.The Cowboys defense just couldn’t get off the field. They looked worn down and it was made worse when the Cowboys offense couldn’t move the ball and allow them a chance to catch their breath. In a game where the Cowboys didn’t commit many penalties (four for 26 yards) and never turned the ball over, it was frustrating to watch the Rams offense grind the game away.3. The great wall of Los AngelesWe’ll just go ahead and assume all the Rams offensive linemen are Pro Bowlers because they were flat-out incredible on Saturday night. The Cowboys defensive line had been creating so much disruption down the stretch that many of us expected them to cause problems in the trenches against the Rams. They didn’t.The offensive line for the Rams played phenomenal both in the running game and in pass protection. The parted open running lanes like the red sea, allowing two different running backs to have over 100 yards rushing. Not only that, but Goff wasn’t ever in any type of trouble. He wasn’t sacked only once.4. Air it out, would ya?In a game where the Cowboys offense knew it had to play well to stay with a high scoring Rams team, they just didn’t have it in them to move the ball. While the Cowboys bread and butter is a stout rushing attack, it just wasn’t working in this game. Ezekiel Elliott only had 47 yards on 20 carries (2.3 ypc).While the running game wasn’t there Color Rush Allen Hurns Jersey , the Rams defense didn’t show much ability to stop the Cowboys passing attack. Dak Prescott was 20 for 32 with 266 yards for an 8.3 yards per attempt. The Rams secondary looked soft and it was baffling as to why the Cowboys offense didn’t try to attack them more. All three of their scoring drives were aided by big plays in the passing game, but for some reason the offense didn’t start attacking until it was too little, too late.The Rams are a good team and losing to them is nothing to hold your head down about, but you want to at least feel like they left it all out there. It just feels like they could’ve done more in the passing game and Scott Linehan will have some explaining to do. 5. Should’ve been a touchdown for GallupPrescott had a great play scrambling to his left to hit Michael Gallup for a big 44-yard passing play late in the third quarter. Gallup was called down at the two-yard line and for some reason the Rams decided to challenge the call. Gallup clearly caught the ball. In fact, if anything, the ball came loose as he was sliding on the ground and he didn’t regain control until he had crossed into the end zone. It should have been a touchdown. Making it even worse was that the referees spotted the ball at the two-yard line. At the very least it should’ve been placed inside the one.It’s moot as the Cowboys scored anyway, but it cost them extra time of the clock. Gallup had his best game of his young career. He finished with six catches for 119 yards and one robbed touchdown. The young receiver continued to make strides as the season progressed and you have to be excited about a future consisting of him and Amari Cooper.6. Costly penalty by ByronThe Cowboys defense had all kinds of trouble getting off the field on third down. That’s why it was especially frustrating when the Rams got a fresh set of downs thanks to an illegal hands to the face by Byron Jones. The defense appeared to make their first third-down stop of the night when Jared Goff missed Gerald Everett on a 3rd-and-14 play late in the second quarter. The Cowboys were down 13-7 and the stop would’ve given them a shot to retake the lead. But thanks to the penalty, the Rams had new life and two plays later they found the end zone when Todd Gurley took off for a 35-yard touchdown. That was unfortunate as the Cowboys could’ve really used that stop.7. First career sack for La’elIt’s odd that the only sack of the game wasn’t even a sack at all. The Cowboys were at the Rams 36-yard line facing a 3rd-and-7 when Prescott was ruled in the grasp after getting tangled up with Cowboys right tackle La’el Collins. Dak was dancing around and got turned around and wondered right into Collins, but the whistle-happy referees mistakenly thought Prescott was in the grasp. There’s no official word yet whether Collins will get credit for his first ever career sack.Dak had escaped and would’ve been able to keep the play alive if the refs didn’t blow it dead. Maybe it wouldn’t have amounted to anything, but even if Dak throws the ball away, the Cowboys could’ve had a shot to attempt a long field goal.8. Aggressive GarrettWhile the offense spun it’s wheels in the muddy soil of the L.A. Coliseum, at least their head coach had his foot on the gas. On the team’s first offensive possession, they faced a 4th-and-1 at midfield. The Cowboys head coach understood what he was up against and intended to fight fire with fire as he sent an early message that he was going to be aggressive. The Cowboys were able to convert the fourth-down play on a Zeke run and got bonus yards when Rams corner Marcus Peters was flagged for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty. On the very next play, Prescott hit Cooper for a 29-yard touchdown pass to give the Cowboys the early lead.Garrett also opted to go for two after the Cowboys scored their second touchdown of the and the score was at 23-13. Rather than taking the extra point, Garrett wanted to try to make it a one score game right then and there. It was a good decision that worked out.9. Coming up short on fourth-downAfter the Rams went up 23-7 Color Rush Leighton Vander Esch Jersey , it was looking rather bleak, but the Cowboys put together a nice nine-play, 75-yards touchdown drive, capped off with a two-point conversion from Amari Cooper. And when the defense held the Rams offense to just 23 yards on five plays on their ensuing drive, suddenly hope was starting to creep in again.The Cowboys offense started off moving the ball well. Prescott hit Gallup for 15 yards and then Beasley for another 15 yards a couple plays later. Dak even had a nice completion to Noah Brown for 13 yards on a big 3rd-and-14 play as the third quarter came to an end.The Cowboys needed to convert on 4th-and-1 to keep the momentum, but that was stymied when the Rams defense stuffed Elliott short of the first-down marker. It was a back-breaking play for Dallas that was compounded when the Rams chewed up half the fourth quarter with a 12-play, 65-yard touchdown drive.10. Time to pull for the SaintsThe Cowboys are out of the playoffs so the idea of hosting the NFC Championship at AT&T stadium is over. Had the Cowboys won, it would’ve raised the question of whether or not we wanted the Philadelphia Eagles to upset the New Orleans Saints so the Cowboys could host the game next week. That’s no longer an issue.Being bounced from the playoffs is disappointing, but it would add insult to injury if the Eagles somehow advanced. It’s time to root for Saints and hope for a shootout between New Orleans and LA the following week. Custom New Orleans Saints Jerseys