Cowboys must improve turnover ratio

October, 10, 2012
10/10/12
8:00
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IRVING, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys did not need to hire a search party during the bye week to find the reasons why they are 2-2. They didn't need some analytics specialist to review their four games to reach a concrete conclusion.

It's pretty simple really.

It comes down to, as Jason Garrett likes to say, the ball.

"The obvious thing to us as a staff is we have to do the things that contribute to winning and taking care of the football and going to get the football, that's line one in this game," Garrett said. "Has been for a long, long time and you saw it all over the games [last] weekend and so we just have to do a better job of that."

The Cowboys have been a charitable team through four games, giving the ball away 11 times -- and that does not include Seattle's blocked punt returned for a touchdown in the official stats.


The Cowboys have been less demanding in taking it away, coming up with only four turnovers. Inside linebacker Sean Lee leads the team with one interception after he tied for the team lead last year with four.


The Cowboys' minus-7 turnover ratio is tied with Philadelphia for 30th in the NFL. Only 1-4 Kansas City is worse at minus-15, so the good news is that the Cowboys have a long way to go to be the NFL's best at being worst.


Read more about the Cowboys' turnover dilemma here.
Todd Archer joined ESPNDallas.com in November 2010. He's covered the NFL since 1997 and the Cowboys since 2003. He covered the Bengals and Dolphins before arriving in Dallas. A Massachusetts native, Archer lives in the Dallas area with his wife and two children.

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