Landry Considers Abandoning Flex - Dallas Cowboys Forum

DavyBaby · 01-26-2010

It would have been interesting to see if Landry could have turned it round in '89. The core was there: Aikman (who they planned to draft); Irvin, Walker; Ken Norton Jr.; Nate Newton; Kevin Gogan; K-Mart.

I think Coach Landry had a plan; It was too little too late.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=6949,3579407

DavyBaby · 01-26-2010

Some are still using the an updated version of the flex defense!

http://sonofneocles.blogspot.com/201...-missouri.html

warrior43 · 01-26-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavyBaby

Some are still using the an updated version of the flex defense!

http://sonofneocles.blogspot.com/201...-missouri.html

How did Landry run it????????? And why is it Called Flex Defense??? Might be stupid questions but i'm to young to remember anything at all. Why was it Called 4-3 Flex defense and not just 4-3 defense?

Hostile · 01-26-2010

This is a passage from God's Coach. It does a pretty nice job.

Quote:

A couple of months ago, I had a debate with a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs about what he called, “The perceived greatness of Tom Landry”. He was under the impression that Landry’s Flex defense was not at all revolutionary and that many teams were using his innovations long before he “supposedly” came up with the Idea.

While reading a Cowboys book while watching the DNC

, I came across a passage that inspired me to write the article below.

Dextor Clinkscale breaks down the Flex

As 25 year old, I never got the chance to see the Flex defense in all of its glory. When trying to convince fans of other teams of Landry's greatness, I would always argue, "He was a great man, he invented the Flex defense". In truth, I really didn't even know what the Flex defense was.

[View Full Quote]It was something that I had heard about on the news and from many of Landry's ex players. Recently, I was fortunate to come across a passage by the Cowboys Free Safety Dextor Clinkscale in the book "God's Coach", by Skip Bayless breaking down the nuances of the Flex defense. While speaking to Skip Bayless, Charlie Waters had this to say about Clinkscale, who was signed in 1980, "Watch this Clinkscale. He's picked up the Flex faster than anyone I've ever seen". Here is what Clinkscale had to say:

What opponents didn't understand with the Flex was that it was stupidly simple. Growing up as a huge Cowboy fan, I always read how complicated the Flex was, but all it really had was a lot of fancy names and terms. If you just look at the playbook, it was intimidating. It was like taking advanced placement English and having the teacher assign you this 450-page book by some guy named Dickerson or Dickens. You say, "Damn, this big book?" I wasn't well-read (as an honors student at South Carolina State), and neither were the most players who played the Flex. Most only read their press clippings.

But you always hear Summerall and Madden talk about how intricate the Flex was and how Landry was such a scholar and theologian. You (as a rookie) are thinking, "I cant be looking at a coach. He's not draped in blue and white [team colors]. He looks astute. He's a thinker." Then you try to read his playbook, and these things are just tearing up your mind. You try to figure out little things like the technique on [safety's] end-run force, and it becomes a logic game like on an SAT test. It's not like that.

The Flex is probably the simplest defense in the world because unless you're the middle linebacker, you have only one thing to do. You just have one gap to control. Of the front seven, the middle linebacker is the only one with two gaps. The object is to control every gap. There are only so many gaps an offensive line can create for a ball carrier, so by their initial movements, the center and two guards tell the middle linebacker where to go. They are his keys. The defensive linemen keep the offensive linemen off the middle linebacker so he can make the tackle. The middle linebacker has one gap and one "tango", usually to the weak side of the Flex. He can "tango" weak, meaning an immediate "scrape" by the middle linebacker to get an outside gap.

You see, it was necessary to set two of our four defensive linemen a yard off the line of scrimmage in a frog stance because this allowed them to sit back and see what was going on. They could read the actions of the offensive line, which would tell them which specific area they would control. You didn't control a man, you controlled an area. In the regular 4-3 [four linemen, three linebackers], you tried to control a man, but the Flex took away your natural instincts of pursuit. In effect, you held your ground and waited for the ball to come to you.

In the '60s and '70s this was an absolute brilliant concept. Lee Roy Jordan was a student of the game and very quick and agile at around 200 pounds. Then came Bob Breunig in 1976, who was very smart and had some jets on him so he could get outside. He wasn't big (maybe 220) or strong, but he at least could pull down a ball carrier. When he retired [in 1984] all Landry had was Eugene Lockhart, a poor middle linebacker for the Flex. Eugene doesn't have the speed or agility to get outside, and he isn't a thinker like Breunig and Lee Roy. The Flex might have been more dominant in the '80s if the Cowboys hadn't passed over [Baylor's] Mike Singletary (in the 1981 draft). Gil, as I recall, decided Singletary was too short.

warrior43 · 01-26-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hostile

This is a passage from God's Coach. It does a pretty nice job.

Thanks!

dwmyers · 01-26-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hostile

This is a passage from God's Coach. It does a pretty nice job.

I know the passage and the book it came from. That quote is found in "Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes" by Pete Golenbock. It's a terrific book, given all the interviews he conducts.

But to note, if Landry didn't invent the 4-3 outright, he was heavily involved in the defense from the beginning. Certainly he was the master of it with the New York Giants.

http://www.amazon.com/Cowboys-Have-A.../dp/0446519502

Hostile · 01-26-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwmyers

I know the passage and the book it came from. That quote is found in "Cowboys Have Always Been My Heroes" by Pete Golenbock. It's a terrific book, given all the interviews he conducts.

But to note, if Landry didn't invent the 4-3 outright, he was heavily involved in the defense from the beginning. Certainly he was the master of it with the New York Giants.

http://www.amazon.com/Cowboys-Have-A.../dp/0446519502

I have that book in my hands. It is always on my desk because I agree it is terrific.

Dexter Clinkscale is mentioned on pages 688, 689, 692, and 693. In none of those pages is this passage found.

I loaned out my copy of God's Coach by Skip Bayless and never got it back. If I had it, I could turn you right to the passage.

I promise, that is in "God's Coach."

burmafrd · 01-26-2010

Problem was it took a while for a rookie to learn that defense because it negated his instincts. And you had to be pretty smart. Once the boys stopped drafting well it all fell apart. Nowadays it would be hard to keep the team together long enough for them to fully learn the Flex.

dwmyers · 01-26-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hostile

I have that book in my hands. It is always on my desk because I agree it is terrific.

Dexter Clinkscale is mentioned on pages 688, 689, 692, and 693. In none of those pages is this passage found.

I loaned out my copy of God's Coach by Skip Bayless and never got it back. If I had it, I could turn you right to the passage.

I promise, that is in "God's Coach."

It's Chapter 20 (great chapter) where they cover the flex in "Cowboys.." and the quote isn't there.

But I'm very familiar with this quote. The only thing I can think of is that it's been posted here before, and my brother reads this board. When things interest him, he mails the whole family. So what I'm thinking now is that I read that email several times.. the phrase "jets on him" is just too familiar for me not to have read it many times.

David.

silver · 01-26-2010

so it works when you have good players. what a concept.

LeonDixson · 01-26-2010

Man, just imagine if we had drafted Singletary!

pjjrfan · 01-26-2010

Landry didn't invent the shotgun but he brought it back. Everyone was so hot and still are about the Chief's and thier multiple offense but Landry was using it since at least 66. He didn't create the offensive coordinator, but he was one of the few coaches who called all the offensive plays with his revolving corp of recievers to bring in the plays. All this on top of the flex defense. As far as Footbal is concerned what a mind.

Hostile · 01-26-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwmyers

It's Chapter 20 (great chapter) where they cover the flex in "Cowboys.." and the quote isn't there.

But I'm very familiar with this quote. The only thing I can think of is that it's been posted here before, and my brother reads this board. When things interest him, he mails the whole family. So what I'm thinking now is that I read that email several times.. the phrase "jets on him" is just too familiar for me not to have read it many times.

David.

Oh, I misunderstood what you were saying. Bayless was inspired to write the article from Golenbock's book.