I’m going to try to keep this going for one more year at least – as always, life gets more hectic but will do my best to get these out asap after the game.

Format:

Will put together a weekly set of grades for the Cowboys for each game.

Will only include total grade for each player who plays a total of 10 snaps or more (so if a particular player isn’t there, then he didn’t reach the 10 snap threshold).

Keep a running tab throughout the year so we can compare player grades from week to week – tables will be split into two halves (weeks 1-8 and weeks 9-17) so the tables don’t get too overwhelming.

PFF grading:

The info on how PFF calculates their grades is included here - https://www.pff.com/grades#:~:text=THE%20GRADING%20SCALE,but%20those%20are%20the%20basics

Obviously, this is an attempt to make add objectivity to what is a subjective analysis. However, it is always worth remembering that despite this, it is still a human being with all his/her inherent biases making the judgement.

PFF tend to colour code their player grades and I’ve added those to the charts below. The colour coding works roughly as shown below. It is slightly confused for week by week games as PFF use shades, so I’ve add my own number for a cleaner definition (although am adding my own bias a little bit).

Will include seasonal grade (as the weeks progress) and positional rank – this only includes players with a minimum of 20% of total snaps, so not everyone included. Note – positional rank will usually exclude the final Monday night match, to ensure I get the grades out as fast as I can.

Since QB is such an important position, I’ll add one extra chart at the end which includes the QB PFF grade and the QBR. Both rate QB play on a play by play basis. PFF has some subjectivity, QBR is largely an objective analysis.

Finally, I’ll add a few thoughts at the end.

PFF grades – Week 12: Washington Commanders

For ease of use, I have condensed the table so that performance in the first 8 games is now included at the end of each table. The individual game data restarts from week 10.

Offense:

Defense:

QB:

I guess this is the final read out for Dak Prescott for the 2024 season. I’ll leave it there for now.

As for Rush.

Thoughts:

Since I don’t include PFF scores for ST in this analysis, I’m not entirely sure that the grades above accurately depict what happened yesterday!! In case you’re wondering, Turpin has a 90.1 grade (2nd) and Aubrey has a 95.1 grade (1st).

With regard to team performance this week, I feel like we should start with the OL. It might be the best collective performance of the season. Hoffman, Bass and Steele all had very good games. Beebe and Richards were decent. Even Guyton wasn’t terrible, despite his penalties. That allowed Rush some time to throw the ball, and he did what Rush can do if he isn’t under too much pressure. It’s a low risk offense, but with the help of Dowdle, it allowed the Dallas offense to control the ball, which meant the defense wasn’t too gassed late in the game. Overall, the OL deserves a lot of credit for the win. As for skill positions – Lamb still stands out. Unsurprisingly. The TEs did well for the 2nd game in a row. The other WRs can give you the odd play here and there.

Apart from the 4th quarter, the defense played extremely well. The starting DL did a very good job across the board. Micah was Micah. Osa has been playing better of later. Whisper it quietly, but Mazi has put together a string of decent to good performances! In fact, a number of defensive players are playing a lot more consistently at the moment. Kendricks and Hooker also. It was great to see Bland back, and the Commanders (still don’t like that name), largely avoided him. Butler’s grade seemed a little low. I’ll give the gold star award to Jourdan Lewis. He’s always felt like one of our leaders on defense, even if the grades haven’t always matched. That’s his third 80+ grade of the season, which for a slot corner is pretty good going.

Outside of the Eagles, the rest of the schedule isn’t horrendous by any stretch. The blueprint for any future Cowboys victory has been laid out. Run the ball, control the clock. Make Rush’s life as easy as possible. Give you defense enough of a breather that it can cause problems for the opposing QB. I feel like the Cowboys will probably split the last 6 games, which will make the end of this season infinitely more enjoyable – even if we lost 5 or 6 draft spots.