A few years back, Cris Collinsworth discussed the concept of play-action on an episode of NFL Total Access. At the height of the argument among football fans—which Collinsworth claimed it took him a “lifetime” to realize was not true—play-action was only effective when you “established the run.”
Given his experience in PFF, Collinsworth is a proponent of technology and analytics in the current NFL. He pointed out that play-action is effective more because it creates mental hurdles for offenses rather than because a run game has been built. You can possibly get an advantage against defensive players by appearing to do something and compelling them to respond in some way. This way, you can still accomplish what you really want to achieve. The benefit is there, even if it is slight.
This Collinsworth quotation popped into my head this week when footage of former linebacker Luke Kuechly of the Carolina Panthers started making the rounds. Talking about transgressions utilizing motion with Bucky Brooks and Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks regarding how frequently offenses use motion in 2024, Kuechly detailed the defensive players’ mental acrobatics when everything is happening prior to the snap.
Although the comparisons between these are not exact, the fundamental idea is clear. You are forcing a defense to be prepared for everything, which is really difficult, if you are wreaking havoc, eye candy, whatever you want to call it, all before the ball is lifted and the play starts.
We have witnessed over time how that move affects the Dallas Cowboys defense and how it is by far their biggest flaw. The fact that Dallas is unable to find a solution to lessen this is still aggravating given the extensive utilization we have saw throughout the NFL, especially from Kyle Shanahan and the branches of his tree that are dispersed throughout the league.
But it is a discussion for another day. We are here today to discuss the Dallas Cowboys offense’s notable regression in terms of using motion, which is especially troubling considering how effective and practically essential it is in the NFL in 2024.
Four games into the season we have seen huge regression from the Dallas Cowboys offense in terms of motion use
We are going to contrast four games from a single season with 17.
(in this case, regular seasons) of another. The sizes of the data sets differ significantly. However, the Dallas Cowboys have only participated in four games this season, and that is all the data we have.
Even though four games is not seventeen, it is enough to elicit some valid comments. Before we go sideways for a little, let us take a look back at how the Dallas Cowboys performed against the rest of the league in terms of motion utilization each quarter during the previous season (thanks to Tom Downey for inspiring this entire exercise with his tweet on Thursday).
Dallas Cowboys’ Quarterly Average of Motion Plays, 2023
Question 1: 10.6
Question 2: 9.1
Question 3: 8.3
Question 4: 8.8
You can round up or down, depending on your preference and mood, because the decimals make things strange. Instead of examining the variance by quarter for the previous season, the main goal of this discussion and exercise is to compare the team’s performance through four games this year.
About this year, these are the Cowboys’ quarterly rankings in the league for motion utilization.
Dallas Cowboys Motion Usage By Quarter, 2023
Q1: The eighth
Q2: The 26th
Q3: The thirty-first
Q4: The 27th
This regression is considerable, to put it mildly. This season, the club has moved significantly less, which says more than the obvious.
Given how much the NFL as a whole is focusing on this, it is hard to see why the Cowboys would regress so severely. While it is true that the games against the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens got out of hand very quickly and altered some of the calculations, it is also true that this season’s games increased the necessity for offensive success and inventiveness.
Dallas Cowboys Motion Plays on Average Each Quarter, 2024
Q1: 5.4
Q2: 8.5
Q3: 6.5
Q4: 6.25
The Cowboys are not only losing games a little out of control, but they are also lacking in playmakers as compared to the previous campaign. Many things (and opportunities) are being weighed down by the team’s complete and total lack of a rushing game, and losing Brandin Cooks for an extended period of time will regrettably make matters worse.
The Cowboys’ motion use thus far this season is broken down as follows:
128 plays in total
48 rushing plays and 80 passing plays
3 total touchdowns
Week 1: Brandin Cooks to Dak Prescott
Week 1: Elliott Ezekiel
Week 4: Rico Dowdle to Dak Prescott
Take into account that two of Dak Prescott’s six passing touchdowns this season have utilized mobility. Two more are thanks to CeeDee Lamb, who has scored touchdowns of 65 and 55 yards after huge yards over the catch, especially one that was beyond expectation. In the middle of the Baltimore Ravens’ attempted comeback, Jalen Tolbert and KaVontae Turpin scored the other two touchdowns.
If we narrow the focus to just Prescott’s passing touchdowns this season, we find that three of them have resulted from motion plays, three more have come from Lamb’s amazing house, and the remaining three are hard to assess because Baltimore was retreating a little because they had a huge lead. It is not a neon sign that shouts “USE MOTION,” but it does serve as a reminder that, above all else, it is usually a good idea to do so.
Here are the NFL’s top 10 teams in terms of motion usage at the start of Week 5. This is a ranking of total amount of plays that it has been engaged, with full context:
Dolphins of Miami
49ers of San Francisco
Packers in Green Bay
Lions of Detroit
Rams of Los Angeles
The Chiefs of Kansas City
The Houston Texans
The Buffalo Bills
Saints of New Orleans
Ravens of Baltimore
Kyle Shanahan’s fingerprints can be found on numbers 1, 2, 3 (kind of), 7, and 9. Three and five are directly related to Sean McVay. We can see that motion plays a big part in the work of these offensive brains, who are among the most creative in the NFL.
The Cowboys are only defeating teams that we would normally laugh at—the Tennessee Titans, New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals, Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cleveland Browns, Washington Commanders, Indianapolis Colts, and Denver Broncos—and rank 23rd overall in terms of the quantity of plays involving motion.
It is really puzzling why the Cowboys have failed in this area, despite the fact that the best offenses in the NFL employ movement, while the worst ones do not, and that the general rule in today’s game is that motion is necessary for at least some levels of success. Dallas used motion last season and sporadically this season, and it was successful.
Perhaps Mike McCarthy has knowledge that we do not.
