IRVING, Texas - On Wednesday, while defending his alleged disinterest in the running game, Jason Garrett said something that absolutely begged the question.
"I think we've been fairly balanced most of the year," the Cowboys offensive coordinator dared to say. "We're among the better-balanced offenses in the league, I think."
In the wake of a 44-11 differential in called passes versus running plays during Sunday's loss, Garrett's passing fancy would seem to be a huge concern. To Garrett, though, it's not a big deal.
That's because as it turns out, the Cowboys just might have the league's most balanced offense. Despite ranking just 22nd in plays run from scrimmage, Garrett's unit ranks 10th in the league in passing attempts, and eighth in rushing attempts. They are the only team to be in the NFL's top 10 in both categories.
On 555 snaps this season, the Cowboys have run the ball 230 times, and including Tony Romo's sacks they have called 325 passes, a 58.5 pass-to-run percentage. They average 33.7 passes per game, and 25.6 runs. Even better, the Cowboys have been good at both. They are tied for fifth in the league with an 8.3-yards per passing attempt average, and rank second in average yards per rush, at a 5.1-yard clip.
Some teams are closer to a 50-50 split in terms of actual play calls, but it doesn't mean anything if they aren't able to do both effectively. Garrett spoke about having a team identity on Wednesday, about having a good tempo and being physical, but the thing he kept going back to was the importance of doing everything well.
"Our objective every week, really every time we break the huddle, is force them to defend as many things as they can," Garrett said. "Defend the run, defend the pass, defend it deep, defend it short, defend outside, defend inside. . . Identity's important too. You don't want to be all things to all people, but you want to be good at a lot of different things."
So how did the Cowboys ever manage to pass four times as much as they ran it against the Packers? To start with, it's a misconception that they abandoned the run.
In the first half they called 13 passes and eight runs, with Romo being sacked three times. That 62-38 percent passing probably isn't significant enough to accuse Garrett of giving up on the run, particularly since three of the passes came on third-and-nine or worse.
The Cowboys didn't really quit on the run in the third quarter either, they just didn't make the first downs to allow themselves to continue running it, not to mention the fact Green Bay held the ball for over 11 minutes in the quarter. On the Cowboys' first play of the third, Marion Barber had his only carry of the second half, losing a yard. Romo was sacked the next play, and missed Witten on a broken play on third-and-19.
The next time the Cowboys got the ball they ran it on second-and-10, with Tashard Choice going for 11 yards out of the Wildcat, following a pulling Leonard Davis. Garrett called a run the next play too, but before Romo could make the handoff he collided with Deon Anderson and fumbled, forcing two consecutive passes in an attempt to keep the drive going, with a penalty setting them back even further.
It was the fourth quarter before the Cowboys would touch the ball again, down 10-0. Felix Jones ran for four yards on the second play of the drive, but the next play Romo was sacked by Charles Woodson, fumbling and setting up the Packers to go ahead 17-0. From there the Cowboys had no choice but to throw in a desperate attempt to catch up. Save for two scrambles, Romo threw on every single play.
The notion that Garrett's lopsided play-calling got the Cowboys beat doesn't hold water. The Cowboys players made too many mental and execution mistakes offensively to win the game.
It had nothing to do with a pass vs. run discrepancy, and both Garrett and running backs coach Skip Peete said the Cowboys didn't audible out of many runs as was the issue last time the passing overload was severely criticized, in the loss to Washington at Texas Stadium last September.
"I think if you look at the numbers we just had very few plays," Garrett said. "And we threw it the last 27 plays of the game because we were down three scores with 10 minutes to go. Obviously that's not what we want. We want the balance early in the game to lead to being out in front, and continue that. But that's what happens in the game, and what you try to do is find what happens to give your team the best chance to win at that point.
"Unfortunately, some games circumstances got us into a situation where we had to throw it a ton at the end and it gets it out of whack. It's not what we're trying to do."
Wade Phillips, who said Monday he hopes to see more balance from the offense, admitted most of his input in run-pass decisions comes during the week of preparation and game planning, though he may say certain things to Garrett during a game. In general, though, he believes the Cowboys have achieved balance this season.
"I felt good, certainly, that the games we've needed to run the ball, we've run the ball well," Phillips said. "The games they piled everybody up, we threw it well. And we didn't do it quite as well this last ballgame. But I think we'll get back on track."
Balance, to both Phillips and Garrett, means being able to do a lot of things well. By and large, the Cowboys have done that this year. It just didn't happen for them against the Packers.
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Josh Ellis - 
