Dallas Cowboys upgrades & downgrades

Oct 12, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones signs autographs during pre game warmups against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

In Week 6 of the 2014 NFL regular season, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the 3-1 Seattle Seahawks to go 5-1.

During the preseason, nothing was expected of the Cowboys; after a resounding loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1, even less was.

The victory in Seattle was nothing short of a miracle. And if you could encapsulate last season in a game for Dallas, that would be it.

Fast forward a year later and we’re at a Week 8 rematch between the two teams.

While both the Cowboys and Seahawks entered the season considered legitimate contenders for Super Bowl 50, neither have lit up the NFC.

The Cowboys are 2-4 with four consecutive losses.

While the Seahawks are 3-4 sitting third in the NFC West.

With the Cowboys clearly in a very different place to where they were 12 months ago, I wanted to take a look at the statistics and see where the injuries, addition of players and departures have hit the team the most.

UPGRADE – PASSING YARDS

Ok, so Brandon Weeden and Matt Cassel are definitely not upgrades on quarterback Tony Romo.

It seemed to take four consecutive losses for some people to finally accept the ability that Romo has.

Statistically the teams have barely differed from 2014 to 2015.

In five games last year Romo threw for 1260 yards (and average of 252 yards per game).

In six games the trio of Romo, Weeden and Cassel have thrown for 1514 yards (an average of 252.33 yards per game).

Remove the two Romo games from this years figures and of course the average drops – to 223 yards per game.

This maybe isn’t as drastic as you’d initially think.

With the (initially) improved health of Romo and departure of running back DeMarco Murray then it was always likely the Cowboys would look to move the ball through the air more.

Yet with Weeden at the helm for three games whom barely threw the ball further than 5 yards at a time the average is higher than expected.

Next: Upgrade - Sacks!