Cowboys not worried about blueprints

Sep 22, 2017 - 12:06 AM FRISCO, Tex. -- As the Dallas Cowboys (1-1) prepare to face the Arizona Cardinals (1-1) Monday night, questions have arisen whether the Denver Broncos offered a blueprint on how to stop the Cowboys offense in their 42-17 victory last Sunday.

There is no question that the Cowboys looked nothing like the outfit that went 13-3 last year and 1-0 to start this season behind a run-oriented, ball-control attack.

"We played the game they wanted us to play, not the game that we typically play," head coach Jason Garrett said.

Running back Ezekiel Elliott had a career-low 8 yards on nine carries a week after setting an NFL record with his 16th consecutive game of at least 80 yards.

Quarterback Dak Prescott passed for 238 yards on a career-high 50 attempts with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He was sacked twice and took several hits.

Let the Broncos tell it: They had the perfect antidote to solve the Cowboys offense that finished second in rushing and second in time of possession last year, when Prescott became the most efficient rookie quarterback in NFL history.

"Our plan was to clog every gap, play man-free outside with the corners and their receivers and clog every gap," Broncos first-year head coach Vance Joseph said. "If (Elliott) did pop a run, it was going to be on a missed tackle. It wasn't going to be on an open gap. We knew coming into the game that was going to be our first order of business, to stop the run and clog every gap. When they went three-wides and one back, we played our normal base front with our normal secondary."

Garrett said the Broncos' philosophy wasn't anything the Cowboys haven't faced before.

"Again, teams have been trying to stop the run against us for a while," Garrett said. "They did a good job of that. We didn't do a good enough job.

"But the idea that teams want to stop the run, that is not a new concept."

Elliottt agreed. He said, "I mean, every week people stack up against our offense. It's not something we've seen for the first time. It may have been the first time that it's worked that successfully, but teams do that every week. So I don't think there's any blueprint to stopping us. I think it all comes down to how we go out there and execute."

So why did Denver work?

"We just didn't go out there and execute," Elliott said. "That is on us. We've just got to be better prepared and go out there and do a better job."

How the Broncos pulled it off might be something other teams can't duplicate because they don't have Denver's personnel, namely two Pro-Bowl cornerbacks in the secondary such as Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib to make up for the philosophy of selling out to stop the run.

When Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians was asked if the Broncos provided a blueprint, he said, "If you can borrow Denver's players."