‘Dak Never Pushed Back’: Dallas Cowboys OC Klayton Adams Reveals Why Dak Prescott’s Offense Has Used Less Pre-Snap Motion

FRISCO, Texas — Dak Prescott has never pushed back on the Dallas Cowboys’ use of pre-snap motion, offensive coordinator Klayton Adams said Thursday. Defenses timing pressures to the motion and a couple of games spent in two-minute mode have both cut into how often Dallas uses it, according to Adams.

Around the league, defenses have gotten aggressive on normal down-and-distance plays, Adams said, and some have timed pressures to Dallas’ motion at the snap. Shifts and changes in cadence can do some of the same work, and Prescott is good at both.

“No, I mean, I’ve thought about that as well, and I do think that there’s a couple of different reasons for that also. And Dak never pushed back and said that he doesn’t want that,” Adams said. “So, continuing to try to be creative and put stuff out there that … paints the picture and builds the formation a little bit better is always part of the goal.”

“There was a period of time, and I think it probably still is the case, is the way the NFL is moving right now, being like really aggressive on normal down and distance plays. Sometimes you’re getting pressures that are timed up to some of those motions when you’re timing it up with the snap of the ball,” Adams continued. “I’ve tried to be careful in some of those situations of, if they’re going to try to unfold a safety and have them hit the line of scrimmage or have a backer time a pressure hitting the line of scrimmage based on motion, that’s probably not helping us.”

“So there’s still other ways to do it, though. There’s shifts or, changing your cadence with that is something that we’re good at and the quarterback’s good at. Those are all things that are being considered,” Adams added. “I do think that it’s good for us and productive for us when we do it, so we’ve got to keep working on it.”

“I think the other reason is there were a couple of games, for whatever reason, like we just ended up kind of being in two minutes for most of the game. You’re not going to do it a lot in those situations,” Adams noted. “And we’ve addressed why and how we need to create more balance. But I do think as we play more balanced and have success doing that, it’s easier to build formations.”

Klayton Adams Explains When Dallas Cowboys’ Two-Minute Offense Has Worked

In the middle of games, Dallas has not been as good when it has shifted into two-minute mode, Adams said. In true end-of-half and end-of-game situations, he pointed to the 34-30 win over the Houston Texans on Oct. 4.

“I would say two minute when we’ve actually been in that situation, end of half, end of game,” Adams explained. “I think we had … we had the one in the Houston game. We’re really good in those situations, and in a lot of ways we’re built for it. When we’ve been in games and kind of gone into that mode in the middle of the game, we have not been as good for reasons that we kind of talked about before. But when you have a premium quarterback and two premium receivers, you should be good in those situations, and our quarterback does a really good job of having urgency and making good decisions.”

Dak Prescott, Cowboys Prepare For Indianapolis Colts After Overtime Loss

On Sunday, Dallas led the Arizona Cardinals 24-10 early in the fourth quarter before losing 33-30 in overtime. The Cowboys’ first overtime possession ended in a three-and-out.

CeeDee Lamb has 60 catches for 709 yards and 6 touchdowns this season, and George Pickens has 39 catches for 533 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Dallas is 3-5 and visits the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium, with kickoff set for noon CT on FOX.