YR's My Meaningless Thoughts On The Offense...

[Yakuza Rich]

If there is one good thing about Goodell’s tenure as commissioner it’s that we have finally seen the All-22 film being made available to the public. It provides such an interesting view to watch football. I think I always understood that, but when you get to watch play-after-play on All-22, you really get to appreciate the angles even more.

Anyway, I have been watching a few different teams on offense and trying to compare them to the Cowboys offense. Is Garrett’s play calling the problem? How about Romo? Are our WR’s as good as they are supposed to be? Is the O-Line as bad as it is supposed to be?

From what I have watched, the problem with our offense is the same issue that has gone throughout our team for a while. As an organization, we DO find talent. But, we struggle to mesh the right skill sets together. That causes players to play out of position or do things that they are not good at. And what happens is when 1 starter gets injured, now more players start to play out of position or have to do things that they are not good at. That is why I believe the team continually struggles down the stretch each year. It has nothing to do with ‘choking’ or even a ‘lack of talent’ or a ‘country club atmosphere.’ We don’t mesh player’s skills together and players look bad because they are doing things that are not their strength. It has also convinced me that this is of utter importance and that if a player like Joe Montana had played in an Oakland Raiders deep ball system, we would have never heard of Joe Montana.

That doesn’t let Romo completely off the hook. He’s making more bad plays and bad throws than he should make. And yes, I do believe that there are QB’s in the game that could play better with this O-Line and coaching and surrounding talent.

But, it’s all for not until the organization figures out how to get the pieces to properly fit into their system. All of the Tom Brady’s and RG3’s in the world would not help the Cowboys if they continue to try and put square pegs into round holes.

From watching All-22, I actually think the pass protection has been pretty decent for the most part. In fact, only a few weeks ago the Cowboys were ranked 2nd in Adjusted Sacks Allowed by FootballOutsiders.com. But from what I’ve seen on film, outside of Doug Free and now Derrick Dockery, the pass protection has been fairly good.

The run blocking is pathetic. And as couchscout mentioned, Felix is actually better at making guys miss when he cuts going full speed. And that encapsulates a big part of the problem….the offense’s design does not fit the talent. The running plays for Felix tend to be slow developing plays, which are not his strength. Instead, he should be running more pitch outs and for the love of all that is holy, sprint draws. But, we don’t have enough talent on the O-Line to run pitch plays and for whatever reason, we don’t call the sprint draw very often. Don’t get me wrong, the O-Line doesn’t run block well outside of Tyron (who is now injured). But, we are not doing Felix any favors by using him in a way that does not suit his strengths.

And this is where the problem with the passing offense resides. The pass protection is actually good enough. But, the pass routes take a long time to develop because of their design. Defenses know this, so they send blitzes or have the 4- down linemen go full bore at Romo. By the time the WR’s routes start to develop, the rush is getting right on Romo.

Now, for a tall QB who throws overhand like Tom Brady. He could still find the WR’s. The other way is to have a QB like Matthew Stafford. His O-Line is no better than Romo’s. But, he simply can back up further from the rush and with his super strong arm, fire the ball at the WR with good velocity. Romo can’t do either, so he ends up doing one of the following:
1) Missing an open receiver
2) Hitting his check down too early
3) Getting sacked
4) Scrambling away from the pressure and making a play
Is that all Romo’s fault? No. But, there are other QB’s that would play better on this team. That’s because they are better suited for this offense. In order for Romo to play well in this offense, the O-Line’s pass protection would have to be elite and I’m not so sure that would quite work as well as we think because we would probably have to have more players in to block and less WR’s running routes.

Lastly, the other issue is that we are utilizing Jason Witten very poorly. He’s becoming a 6-yard hot read receiver. He’s most effective running 10-15 yard patterns, owning LB’s in pass routes and finding holes in the zone. I think Garrett recognizes that and that is why he’s using Beasley more. But it’s clear that Witten is the only player that Romo trusts and we end up using him poorly because of that.

The potential good news is that there is some hope in the future, even though Romo is starting to get a little long in the tooth.

I believe that Romo is better suited for a West Coast style of offense. I also think it’s something that both Dez and Miles can work in and Witten as well. We already run a zone blocking scheme and I think Romo has the footwork, the release and smarts to pick up the system. Generally, I would be a little leery of going to the new system since it would probably take about 2 years to run well, but I think with the rate the offense is going, it would still be better to switch now. And we have a very good WCO coach in Callahan.

Secondly, I think the other offense that Romo would operate well under is the Sean Payton style of offense. I assume that even though he’s not coaching this year, the Saints are still using the same offense. Payton’s offense is a bit of a hybrid between a WCO and a Ernie Zampese style of offense. In fact, I think the Saints struggles this year have more to do with Brees trying to gamble too much and throw it deep along with not enough running of the football (sound familiar?).

If we stick with Garrett, the offense has to change from a schematic standpoint. Otherwise, we are going to see the continued downward decline of Romo and the entire offense. The only way we can have success in Garrett’s system is to somehow turn the O-Line into the best in the league in roughly a year or to find a different QB. To me, it would be much easier to change the offense than to try and find a new franchise QB.






YR

[Zordon]

excellent points. i've been upset with the schemes for 3 years now. there are no easy plays in this offense. even when the receiver catches the ball it is usually with a corner draped over them. where are the easy plays? rg3 basically played pitch and catch down the field on that field goal drive. have we seen anything like that this year? no more than 10 points in the 1st half all season long. pathetic.

[Zordon]

YR let me ask you from your observations on all22 do you see any consistencies in how defenses are approaching us every week? is the book out on garrett's offense and how to go at them?

[DBOY3141]

Good points, problem is Garrett isn't changing. He hasn't since 07, the same offense you see this year you will see next Nov. Hopefully different results.

[CATCH17]

As an organization, we DO find talent. But, we struggle to mesh the right skill sets together.

If you look at my posts this is what i've been saying for awhile now. We don't adjust.

Jason Garrett's ego is the problem. He has a system and he refuses to adjust to the players he has.

He doesn't adjust to having a bad Oline. He doesn't adjust to having catch and run receivers. He doesn't adjust his gameplan to the type of QB he has.


With the receivers and QB we have it should be easy for us to help out a struggling Oline but we don't do that at all.

We try to win 1 on 1 battles and offer no creativity in play design. None.

[Clove]

Sometimes, when a guy is touted as a genius, he tries to outsmart the world. Instead of trying to outsmart the world, simply make a scheme that fits the players.

Be about winning, not looking good. I agree that Austin should be a slot guy, and that he should be slanting across the filed shallow as much as possible because of his RAC abilities. And I also agree about Witten running deeper routes.

Beasley may one day be strong enough to fight off powerful CBs that want to jam him, but until then, keep him motioning. And it wouldn't hurt to motion Dez to the slot sometimes.

Anyways, good writeup as usual. Waiting for the defensive one now.

[Zordon]

Originally Posted by CATCH17

If you look at my posts this is what i've been saying for awhile now. We don't adjust.

Jason Garrett's ego is the problem. He has a system and he refuses to adjust to the players he has.

He doesn't adjust to having a bad Oline. He doesn't adjust to having catch and run receivers. He doesn't adjust his gameplan to the type of QB he has.


With the receivers and QB we have it should be easy for us to help out a struggling Oline but we don't do that at all.

We try to win 1 on 1 battles and offer no creativity in play design. None.

maybe it isn't stubbornness. maybe he just doesn't know how to adjust. idk, its so difficult to get a read on him with his robotic ways.

[Yakuza Rich]

Originally Posted by Zordon

YR let me ask you from your observations on all22 do you see any consistencies in how defenses are approaching us every week? is the book out on garrett's offense and how to go at them?

Very much so. They will stack 8 in the box a lot. Not to stop the run because often times they'll drop 7 in coverage. They rarely drop 8 in coverage because the intent of defenses is to go after Romo. If we had a good running game, that may have teams think twice about that. But, I think teams would eventually realize that you can do more good by getting close to Romo.







YR

[Yakuza Rich]

Originally Posted by CATCH17

If you look at my posts this is what i've been saying for awhile now. We don't adjust.

Jason Garrett's ego is the problem. He has a system and he refuses to adjust to the players he has.

He doesn't adjust to having a bad Oline. He doesn't adjust to having catch and run receivers. He doesn't adjust his gameplan to the type of QB he has.


With the receivers and QB we have it should be easy for us to help out a struggling Oline but we don't do that at all.

We try to win 1 on 1 battles and offer no creativity in play design. None.

It's not about adjustments.

Miles could provide us with a big advantage if he went into the slot about 1/2 the time. But, if he goes into the slot we have nobody to play his usual position out wide. If we had one more legit threat in the slot and out wide, we could really punish opposing defenses.







YR

[Zordon]

Originally Posted by Yakuza Rich

Very much so. They will stack 8 in the box a lot. Not to stop the run because often times they'll drop 7 in coverage. They rarely drop 8 in coverage because the intent of defenses is to go after Romo. If we had a good running game, that may have teams think twice about that. But, I think teams would eventually realize that you can do more good by getting close to Romo.







YR

i get a helpless feeling hearing stuff like this. especially when i think about how few screens we've run to combat the aggressiveness.

[CATCH17]

Originally Posted by Yakuza Rich

It's not about adjustments.

Miles could provide us with a big advantage if he went into the slot about 1/2 the time. But, if he goes into the slot we have nobody to play his usual position out wide. If we had one more legit threat in the slot and out wide, we could really punish opposing defenses.







YR

When I say adjustements im talking about adjusting your play designs to the Roster you have.

IMO he doesn't put our players in the best position to succeed with his play calls.

Dez Bryant is basically a Adrian Peterson type @ receiver. Miles Austin is like a runningback. Just simply getting the ball in their hands at times is all that is needed.

Instead they have to make some high flying grab 20 yards downfield to touch the ball.

Same problem with Terrell Owens.

These are big physical guys that are hard to bring down.


Also I don't like the amount of check down options Romo has. Especially on 3rd down and 4 when all of our receivers are clearing out the field for Witten. Witten gets covered and then we don't have any other options.

No screens ever. You went for more athletic linemen and your just trying to win the Line of Scrimmage with power football instead of a finesse gameplan.

[rickjameschinaclub]

So essentially, even without the All-22, the critics of Jason Garrett have been right on the money per your view:

1. Slow developing pass plays, causing a lot of pressure on Romo as well as 'pass protection'
2. JG doesn't utilize the skill set of his players well
3. Romo would be much better in a WCO or Sean Payton style offense

So why did we hire JG again when our QB was already in place?

[burmafrd]

Originally Posted by Yakuza Rich

If there is one good thing about Goodell’s tenure as commissioner it’s that we have finally seen the All-22 film being made available to the public. It provides such an interesting view to watch football. I think I always understood that, but when you get to watch play-after-play on All-22, you really get to appreciate the angles even more.

Anyway, I have been watching a few different teams on offense and trying to compare them to the Cowboys offense. Is Garrett’s play calling the problem? How about Romo? Are our WR’s as good as they are supposed to be? Is the O-Line as bad as it is supposed to be?

[View Full Quote]From what I have watched, the problem with our offense is the same issue that has gone throughout our team for a while. As an organization, we DO find talent. But, we struggle to mesh the right skill sets together. That causes players to play out of position or do things that they are not good at. And what happens is when 1 starter gets injured, now more players start to play out of position or have to do things that they are not good at. That is why I believe the team continually struggles down the stretch each year. It has nothing to do with ‘choking’ or even a ‘lack of talent’ or a ‘country club atmosphere.’ We don’t mesh player’s skills together and players look bad because they are doing things that are not their strength. It has also convinced me that this is of utter importance and that if a player like Joe Montana had played in an Oakland Raiders deep ball system, we would have never heard of Joe Montana.

That doesn’t let Romo completely off the hook. He’s making more bad plays and bad throws than he should make. And yes, I do believe that there are QB’s in the game that could play better with this O-Line and coaching and surrounding talent.

But, it’s all for not until the organization figures out how to get the pieces to properly fit into their system. All of the Tom Brady’s and RG3’s in the world would not help the Cowboys if they continue to try and put square pegs into round holes.

From watching All-22, I actually think the pass protection has been pretty decent for the most part. In fact, only a few weeks ago the Cowboys were ranked 2nd in Adjusted Sacks Allowed by FootballOutsiders.com. But from what I’ve seen on film, outside of Doug Free and now Derrick Dockery, the pass protection has been fairly good.

The run blocking is pathetic. And as couchscout mentioned, Felix is actually better at making guys miss when he cuts going full speed. And that encapsulates a big part of the problem….the offense’s design does not fit the talent. The running plays for Felix tend to be slow developing plays, which are not his strength. Instead, he should be running more pitch outs and for the love of all that is holy, sprint draws. But, we don’t have enough talent on the O-Line to run pitch plays and for whatever reason, we don’t call the sprint draw very often. Don’t get me wrong, the O-Line doesn’t run block well outside of Tyron (who is now injured). But, we are not doing Felix any favors by using him in a way that does not suit his strengths.

And this is where the problem with the passing offense resides. The pass protection is actually good enough. But, the pass routes take a long time to develop because of their design. Defenses know this, so they send blitzes or have the 4- down linemen go full bore at Romo. By the time the WR’s routes start to develop, the rush is getting right on Romo.

Now, for a tall QB who throws overhand like Tom Brady. He could still find the WR’s. The other way is to have a QB like Matthew Stafford. His O-Line is no better than Romo’s. But, he simply can back up further from the rush and with his super strong arm, fire the ball at the WR with good velocity. Romo can’t do either, so he ends up doing one of the following:
1) Missing an open receiver
2) Hitting his check down too early
3) Getting sacked
4) Scrambling away from the pressure and making a play
Is that all Romo’s fault? No. But, there are other QB’s that would play better on this team. That’s because they are better suited for this offense. In order for Romo to play well in this offense, the O-Line’s pass protection would have to be elite and I’m not so sure that would quite work as well as we think because we would probably have to have more players in to block and less WR’s running routes.

Lastly, the other issue is that we are utilizing Jason Witten very poorly. He’s becoming a 6-yard hot read receiver. He’s most effective running 10-15 yard patterns, owning LB’s in pass routes and finding holes in the zone. I think Garrett recognizes that and that is why he’s using Beasley more. But it’s clear that Witten is the only player that Romo trusts and we end up using him poorly because of that.

The potential good news is that there is some hope in the future, even though Romo is starting to get a little long in the tooth.

I believe that Romo is better suited for a West Coast style of offense. I also think it’s something that both Dez and Miles can work in and Witten as well. We already run a zone blocking scheme and I think Romo has the footwork, the release and smarts to pick up the system. Generally, I would be a little leery of going to the new system since it would probably take about 2 years to run well, but I think with the rate the offense is going, it would still be better to switch now. And we have a very good WCO coach in Callahan.

Secondly, I think the other offense that Romo would operate well under is the Sean Payton style of offense. I assume that even though he’s not coaching this year, the Saints are still using the same offense. Payton’s offense is a bit of a hybrid between a WCO and a Ernie Zampese style of offense. In fact, I think the Saints struggles this year have more to do with Brees trying to gamble too much and throw it deep along with not enough running of the football (sound familiar?).

If we stick with Garrett, the offense has to change from a schematic standpoint. Otherwise, we are going to see the continued downward decline of Romo and the entire offense. The only way we can have success in Garrett’s system is to somehow turn the O-Line into the best in the league in roughly a year or to find a different QB. To me, it would be much easier to change the offense than to try and find a new franchise QB.






YR

not much surprise here. But I disagree that we need an ELITE O line. If it was just pretty good (say 10th in the league) that is all that we would need to be a high power offense.

[VACowboy]

Amen.

[Heisenberg]

Originally Posted by burmafrd

not much surprise here. But I disagree that we need an ELITE O line. If it was just pretty good (say 10th in the league) that is all that we would need to be a high power offense.

Agreed. Our offense in 2007 was really good and we didn't have an elite o-line. We just had one that didn't suck.