Super Bowl Reveals Truth About Cowboys O-Line

FRISCO - Patrick Mahomes lost more yards via sacks Sunday night than Troy Aikman did in his three Super Bowl wins combined.

No reason to dig deeper trying to find the reason the Kansas City Chiefs were embarrassingly dethroned in Super Bowl LV. Or to explain why the Dallas Cowboys haven’t sniffed a championship the last 25 years.

NFL trends come and go. Protecting the quarterback, though, will never go out of style. Solid houses have good “bones”; championship football teams boast consistent offensive lines.

Rinse. Repeat.

While the 2021 Cowboys will attempt to rebound from their abysmal 2020 on the hope that perennial Pro Bowl linemen Zack Martin and Tyron Smith return to full health and elite productivity, they were reminded again Sunday in Tampa that even the best-laid offensive plans are doomed to collapse without a coordinated front.

For most of the night, the GOAT nestled comfortably in his straw-soft stable. The Buccaneers’ Tom Brady – who now has more Super Bowls than any other franchise, much less player – was sacked on his fourth passing attempt. For the remainder of the night, covering 54 minutes and 25 dropbacks, he barely violated six-feet social distancing guidelines. No sacks. Few hurries. Only a couple of beads of sweat.

Mahomes, meanwhile, was transformed into GameStop stock. The Bucs’ defensive front energized into Reddit users. Every snap was immediately a frenzied police chase with No. 15 the alleged carjacker. Every pocket disintegrated. Every pass – well, at least an astonishing 60 percent of them (29 of his 49) – were thrown under physical and emotional duress.

The result? Three sacks for minus-27 yards. Two interceptions. Twenty-three incompletions. Three field goals. No touchdowns. One humiliating, historic defeat.

Shouldn’t have been a total surprise, because the Chiefs’ offensive line wasn’t, in fact, their offensive line. They were missing three injured starters – veteran left guard Kelechi Osemele (knee), four-time All-Pro right tackle Mitchell Schwartz (back) and left tackle Eric Fisher (Achilles).

Take away three-fifths of his starting offensive line and suddenly – on the game’s biggest stage – Mahomes deteriorated into Ben DiNucci. His chaotic scrambles and sidearm slings weren’t super, merely survival.

The Cowboys can empathize.

Long gone is the golden age of Dallas’ offensive line, when Hall-of-Famer Rayfield Wright anchored the unit in Super Bowl VI, “Four Irishmen and a Scott” (John Fitzgerald, Tom Rafferty, Pat Donovan, Jim Cooper and Herb Scott) helped it win Super Bowl XII and the overachieving, underrated group consisting of Mark Tuinei, Nate Newton, Mark Stepnoski, John Gesek, Erik Williams, Kevin Gogan, Derek Kennard and Larry Allen forged three Super Bowls in the 1990s.

In the XXVII, XXVIII and XXX victories, Aikman was sacked a combined five times for 16 measly yards.

In the 2020 debacle in which a record-setting porous defense shouldered most of the blame for 6-10, the Cowboys’ offensive line broke before it was ever built. Pro Bowl center Travis Frederick (Guillain-Barré syndrome) retired in the offseason.

Left tackle Smith (neck) missed 14 games. Same for right tackle La’el Collins (hip). Martin, who made the Pro Bowl in each of his first six seasons at right guard, was moved to right tackle before missing the final six games with a strained calf.

What debilitated the Chiefs in the last game of the season ruined the Cowboys’ offense before their first game of the season.

Journeyman center Joe Looney made 12 starts. Free-agent rookie Terence Steele – ready or not – started 14 games at tackle. Brandon Knight (nine), Connor McGovern (four) and rookie Tyler Biadasz (four) each made starts along the front as the Cowboys’ line resembled your grandmother’s tattered, patchwork quilt.

Only former second-round draftee Connor Williams started all 16 games.

Like Mahomes being trapped inside a run-for-your-life Pac-Man game in Tampa, Dallas’ dismal performance, in retrospect, was inevitable. The Cowboys allowed 44 sacks, including 24 of backup-turned-starter Andy Dalton. Elite offensive weapons such as running back Ezekiel Elliott and receivers Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and CeeDee Lamb were rendered useless without ample time to run routes or find holes.

But before panicked fans cry for the Cowboys to use the 10th overall pick in April’s NFL Draft on a lineman, there is hope.

That Smith and Martin (both only 30) and Collins will remain healthy in 2021. Assuming that? Well, it's football. Guys get battered. Assumptions can be dangerous. But ... assuming healthy returns?

Essentially, problem solved.

Williams grew stronger and better in 2020. Looney played capably at center and, if nothing else, backups such as Biadasz and McGovern are now experienced backups.

The Cowboys haven’t used a first-round pick on an offensive lineman since Martin in 2014 capped three in four years (Smith in 2011, Frederick in 2013). In the last six drafts, Williams (second round in 2018) is their highest player taken. From 2016-17, they didn’t draft any offensive linemen.

Which is all fine and good if you remain healthy. Or you have the luxury of the 1985 Chicago Bears’ defense. If not …

The Chiefs dusted off an old lesson for the Cowboys. Success in the NFL starts – or can abruptly end – along the offensive line.

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