DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys parted ways with offensive line coach Paul Alexander on Monday. The longtime Cincinnati Bengals assistant had been with the NFC East club for seven games into the regular season before the team sent a statement announcing the release of the position coach.
With the team axing an offensive line coach during the bye week, unquestionably the Alexander experiment ended in failure. However, it wasn't a total loss for the Cowboys.
First of all, despite taking 23 sacks, the eighth-most in the NFL even after the Cowboys' bye week, quarterback Dak Prescott did not miss any playing time from the inordinate number of sacks and hits he was taking. At least Dallas escapes with their starter in tact.
Secondly, the Cowboys evaluated themselves in the off-season and decided to take a chance and incorporate a power blocking scheme that running back Ezekiel Elliott ran well behind at Ohio State. Furthermore, Alexander's offensive lines in Cincinnati finished in the top-10 of fewest sacks allowed in nine seasons since 2003 with the last of them occurring from 2013-15. The Cowboys were looking for a way to protect Prescott after finishing a season where they allowed 23 sacks in the final eight games.
Obviously the Alexander experiment wasn't working since the quarterback took 23 sacks through the first seven games of 2018.
Cutting the decision off when the Cowboys did also doesn't necessarily mean it was a complete failure. In fact, deciding to get rid of Alexander when they did is partly why the experiment won't be an unmitigated disaster that could affect the availability of key personnel.
"You know, decisions so often you're 50-50 on any decision," said Cowboys owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones on 105.3 The Fan on Sept. 25. "It's when you let your good one go long and you stop as quickly as you can your bad ones. That's really the trick. No one is smart enough to do better than 50-50 in my mind. But you can make cut short going in a direction you don't want to go. I don't think that's the case in general as we're sitting here right now."
Of course, at that point, Prescott only sustained 11 sacks on the season through three games, one of which they attributed to the renascent Seattle Seahawks defense. Why fire the offensive line coach? Four more games and 12 sacks later, and maybe it's time to reevaluate the power blocking scheme.
One question that will always remain as a coda to the Alexander tenure in Dallas is how it all would have ended if he had All-Pro center Travis Frederick for the first seven games. Would the line have given up 23 sacks? Would Alexander still have his job? These are questions left in history's what-if bin.
Do you think things would have worked out differently for Alexander in Dallas had he had Travis Frederick in the thick of things? Share your thoughts on the state of the o-line with Mark on Twitter @therealmarklane.