The Dallas Cowboys’ 16-10 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday was ugly for any number of reasons, perhaps the foremost being that they committed 13 penalties for the second time in three games. Weird thing is, as Todd Archer of ESPN Dallas points out today, the Cowboys’ are 2-0 in these games.
Their 13 flags against Tampa Bay went for 105 penalty yards--the other 13 penalty game came against the Giants in week one, when they were docked 85 yards for these miscues but, once again, came away with the victory.
2-0 in these games or not, head coach Jason Garrett knows that this penchant for pre-snap miscues--which has the 2012 Cowboys on pace for a new franchise record for penalties--has to be addressed in the coming weeks.
“The communication at the line of scrimmage, we just have to clean up,” Garrett said, per ESPN Dallas. “I think some of the other penalties that have happened were almost effort penalties, guys trying to do too much and getting hands up in a face mask or some things that occur in a ballgame. You have to address those as well.
“We constantly address 'do your job,' and sometimes a guy wants to do their job well and get themselves in trouble. The pre-snap penalties we’ve just got to eliminate. We’ll keep working as a coach staff on it.”
After three weeks, Dallas has 36 penalties and are on pace for 156, which would shatter the franchise record set in 1988 of 141.
