role player There were some heroes in the Dallas Cowboys’ win over the Detroit Lions Authentic Joe Looney Jersey , players we are relying on to continue the winning against the Houston Texans. Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott, DeMarcus Lawrence, Byron Jones, Jaylon Smith, Leighton Vander Esch, Krispy Kreme-loving Joe Looney and the rest of the offensive line - all have been praised, and deservedly so.But there was one other hero from that much-needed win who has not gotten the notice he should. That is tight end Geoff Swaim, whose role in the victory was a lot more significant than you probably think. As a matter of fact, he deserves a lot of credit for getting the Dallas offense out of neutral.Think back a moment. After a week heaping ashes on our heads, rending our garments, and gnashing our teeth over the lack of big offensive plays against the Seattle Seahawks, we were all starting to feel a little queasy after the first Cowboys possession went three-and-out when Ezekiel Elliott (who carried the ball on all three of those snaps) was uncharacteristically stuffed on 3rd and 1. Dallas needed something, anything, to get the offense rolling and create some confidence. Then, after the defense got off the field and Dallas had the ball on their own 10-yard line to start their second possession, this happened.Now, the text on that tweet is certainly not accurate. Swaim has a long way to go to show he has the craftiness at getting open and the sure-handedness that were hallmarks of Jason Witten.But he is certainly a better open field runner than Witten was in his last few seasons. That play was just what the Cowboys needed. It got them a nice chunk of yardage, gave a little nudge to the composure of the Detroit defense, and greatly improved the field position. In addition to there being a very nice run after the catch, Swaim was a wide-open target for Prescott. That is almost certainly due to a very nice play call and design from Scott Linehan.And of course, the Swaim Train wasn’t done for the day.It was a career day for Swaim. Although, that is not saying all that much. In addition to the 31-yard kickstart and the touchdown, he only had one other catch for seven yards (it was the first play of the final, game-winning drive, however). Swaim has only caught 11 passes total this season, and projects out to just over 400 yards and four scores on the season. Even as paltry as his numbers are so far, they still eclipse all he had done prior to 2018. One of the most cited stats during the offseason was that Swaim was the only tight end on the roster with any catches at all - a grand total of nine.But this isn’t about becoming a superstar or part of a new “triplets”. It is about whether Dallas has a functional tight end, something that is required to make their offense work. No one was sure of that before the season started. Now, to this point at least, the answer is starting to look like “yes”. Not everyone on an NFL team can be a superstar. The salary cap makes that impossible. Nor is there enough talent to go around in the league. What does work is to have a handful of those All-Pro and Pro-Bowl types, with a bunch of good, solid, working-class players to complement the roster. Players who go out, do their jobs, and don’t let the team down. What Swaim demonstrated against the Lions was that he can do the basics. He can be a cog in the machine that makes it all work better. And part of it all is the way he is used by Linehan. While the two plays you can watch above were different in many ways, they have one thing in common. In both Youth Kavon Frazier Jersey , Swaim is wide, wide open. There are no defenders within yards of him. That allowed him to get going and make that very nice run in the first one, and on the touchdown, all he had to do was not drop the danged ball. This is not a testament to Swaim’s skill at running a route or getting away from a defender. Nope. This was pure scheme and play-calling. Both plays were in situations where the Lions were likely looking for the ball to go to Elliott, so Swaim was able to sneak out and find those vast spreads of green (or blue and silver in the end zone) to basically wait, unhindered, for the ball to get to him.So Swaim’s success going forward is going to be dependent on his OC, and also on the ball-handling and faking skills of his QB. The latter is not really doubted, as even in his bad stretches, Prescott has done well with play-action and such. And last Sunday, at least, Linehan was dialing up the good stuff.From a broader perspective, the win was also about building confidence on the offense, particularly among teammates. Swaim did his part by making the catches and the plays he needed to. He does not need to play like a future Hall of Famer. There are three or four players with that potential on the offense already. And he doesn’t need to put up huge numbers. While 400 yards may not be enough, 600-800 should get ‘er done, and three more touchdowns will suffice if Linehan can get some of those for the rest of his receiving corps. Swaim may never garner any post-season honors, but that in no way lessens his value to the team. What the Cowboys needed was someone who could do a good enough job at tight end to make things work. Last game, he showed us exactly that. If he can just keep it up, and maybe do a wee bit more, then he will be carrying his part of the load.Kind of like a freight train. Nothing glamorous or flashy, just getting the job done day after day.Tale of the tape: Improvement on offense for the Cowboys all starts with the offensive line We’re going to do this a little bit different this week. Instead of going through every position group and breaking down the good and the bad, were going to zone in on the offensive line. There has been mixed reviews going around the internet on whether or not this offensive line is playing as bad as the statistics say. Let’s take a look at the tape and see if we can find some answers with the Paul Alexander-led group.Failing to read the read-optionOn the first drive of the game the Cowboys received a bit of help from the Seattle defense when they literally walked their “12th man” on the field for a five-yard penalty. This took the Cowboys from a 3rd-and-6, to a 3rd-and-1. In recent years, 3rd-and-short was almost a gimmie for the Cowboys offense, that is not the case anymore. The Cowboys line up in shotgun with Zeke lined up to the right of Dak Prescott. The read-option had worked wonders for the Cowboys the week before so if you guessed that the read-option was coming you were exactly right. The Seahawks also guessed right and forced the Cowboys to punt after losing a yard on 3rd-and-1. The Seahawks blitz Bradley McDougald, and center Joe Looney decides to block him leaving Bobby Wagner free in the middle. Prescott needs to see that Wagner is moving to the front side of the play pre-snap, and with McDougald also pressed up to the line, that there is an overload on that side. If he pulls the ball he has tight end Geoff Swaim crossing to block on the back side, and he has Allen Hurns coming in for a seal block to give Prescott the edge. On that side of the ball he has three blockers and there are three defenders, he needs to read that and keep the ball. It doesn’t help that on the front-side Connor Williams gets bullied into the backfield and Tyron Smith is unable to hold his block for any length of time. Pressure from all anglesThe Seahawks send a slot-blitz on this play and Zeke Elliott does a nice job of picking it up. Elliott runs the blitzing DB all the way up the field and completely out of the play. Awesome right? Wrong. Zack Martin gets walked all the way back into Dak Prescott’s lap forcing him to step up in the pocket, avoiding the defender’s arm (that should have been a penalty for hitting the QB in the helmet), and throw off balance while avoiding the DE, and running into the side of Tyron Smith. It also looks as if Bobby Wagner was spying Dak Prescott on this play taking his legs out of the equation on third down. Even when the receivers do run some nice routes to create some separation, the offensive line can’t allow the pocket to break down so soon.Bad CommunicationThis looks to be a misdirection run called by Scott Linehan that could have been very successful if executed the right way. The Seahawks are showing an overloaded blitz to the left side of the offense and the run if supposed to be going right. One problem, no one blocks Frank Clark, and he gets into the backfield before Elliott even touches the football. Tyron Smith is letting him go expecting Connor Williams to pick him up, but Williams gets engaged in a combo block and only realizes there’s a free man running by after it’s too late. The refs missed a hold here on Connor Williams http://www.cowboysauthorizedshops.com/authentic-anthony-brown-jersey , and Ezekiel Elliott trips over his own feet trying to cut right. A chance for a big play was ruined, due to the offensive line miscommunication. Poor technique is causing issues for multiple linemanFirst off, let me comment on how good of a get jump Frank Clark got on this play. But the truth is, if Tyron Smith gains more depth with his initial kick step he could have handled this speed rush with ease. Instead, Tyron takes almost a chop step here with his first step, and that completely took away all of his chances of making a play against the talented pass rusher. From the looks of it, Smith did not anticipate Clark rushing him to the outside with a speed rush, so he didn’t get his weight moving to his outside foot, and this was an easy sack for Frank Clark. Smith needs to improve his play, this is sloppy for an All-Pro left tackle and one of the better ones in the game.Elliott, and TE’s have struggled in pass protectionIf you’re familiar with the Cowboys coaching staff, you know how much they love having their running backs, tight ends, and receivers block both in the run game, and in the passing game. Unfortunately for the team, they have been atrocious at doing so, so far this year. This will be the second time in three games that Ezekiel Elliott has decided to “cut” a blitzing linebacker in attempts to block them. On the first occasion, the play ended in a sack, on the second occasion, the play ended in an erratic pass to an open receiver. Zeke as to do a better job than this. If Elliott squares the blitzing linebacker up here, it gives Prescott a chance to complete a pass on 2nd-and-7, instead, this ball is thrown inaccurately due to a Prescott having a 250-lb linebacker being catapulted into his face.The Cowboys offensive issues are not with one player, one unit, or one coach. It is a combination of all three, but if the offensive line can pick up their play just a little bit, that should give the quarterback, running back, receivers, and coaches more chances to make plays. Until then, we will likely see a lot of the same due to the inability to run deep routes, run the ball with consistency, and give a quarterback who isn’t playing with much poise, the ability to bounce back and pick up his play. The Cowboys brought in Paul Alexander to coach up this offensive line, and so far the results have been far from positive. With the team already at 1-2 on the young season, they do not have much time to figure it out.