Twitter: Jeff Cavanaugh on OL and run game vs Saints

[EGTuna]

a couple of them, if I remember correctly, were on third and longs, meaning he took the underneath. We definitely didn’t challenge deep and even Harrison pointed out at half that if he was Dak he’d throw deep a couple of times to get the defense to open up a little bit. I’m not sure if he said it was because of the man coverage that he said the deep would force the hand.

Not sure what game Harrison was watching, but on 3rd and long, NO went with 3-man rush and dropped 8 in coverage (often referred to as clog and cover). Hard to take deep shots when both safeties are not letting anyone get 1on1 deep and the extra DBs and LBs are clogging the middle. Dak beat this twice - once with Jarwin (lead to a TD), and once to Witten (fumble). Lattimore shut Cooper down knowing he had S help deep, and Cobb and Smith had little success getting open on anything beyond 0-5 yards..

It didn't help that Dallas couldn't run vs. 7 and 6 man boxes (2nd 1 on 2nd to last drive of the game was a 6 man box, and Zeke lost a yard thanks to Travis and Zach getting worked).

Saints had 36 TOP advantage so their DL (and the rest of the D) was fresh.

Sometimes the other team whips your "you know what".

 

[Staubacher]

It was 1st and 20, that's why they shouldn't know it's a run.

Saints had 1st and 20 late in the game and they let Bridgewater make 3 straight throws for a first down

 

[AbeBeta]

I mentioned in the game thread that there is probably a tell in offense on run plays. Their defenders were coming down hill as soon as we snapped the ball on run plays. It was evident by the second half they knew what was coming. This goes back to us having an inferior head coach who never considers the details. They need to do some self-scouting and figure out what is causing them to tip their hand.

LOL

The old "its a tell" story.

Guess what kids. Every team has tendencies. When the other team guesses right a bit more than average, it doesn't mean that our coaches are idiots. It means that this is one of those games that offsets the games where the D never guessed right.

We get TDs on blown defensive plays -- often resulting from a defender guessing wrong -- but no one is talking about how great our coaching was in those situations.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Yeah right it is Dak’s fault. Maybe the offensive genius including the HC should have seen the stacked box and tried to get the ball to Zeke in the flat rather than pounding it between the tackles every run. Very Linehan.

That's a very fair point. I agree, the Coaching Staff missed the boat by a long ways IMO but it's very fair to throw some shade Daks way as well. The easiest read on the field is the short dump off to a back. You almost know if they are going to be open by the way the LBs drop, the way the Safeties line up and the way a Corner lines up. You know if they are going to be there and there were backs running routes in this game. Yes, the coaching staff absolutely should have pointed out that we needed to be using are backs in the passing game more but the easiest read in the book is to the hot. The easiest audible in the book is the QB keeper and Dak could have done either one of these things on his own. It's fair to throw some shade towards Dak here as well IMO.

 

[Whyjerry]

That's a very fair point. I agree, the Coaching Staff missed the boat by a long ways IMO but it's very fair to throw some shade Daks way as well. The easiest read on the field is the short dump off to a back. You almost know if they are going to be open by the way the LBs drop, the way the Safeties line up and the way a Corner lines up. You know if they are going to be there and there were backs running routes in this game. Yes, the coaching staff absolutely should have pointed out that we needed to be using are backs in the passing game more but the easiest read in the book is to the hot. The easiest audible in the book is the QB keeper and Dak could have done either one of these things on his own. It's fair to throw some shade towards Dak here as well IMO.

It was not a great game for Dak. Easy to see that. Also easy to see the game plan and lack of adjustments were the primary cause for the loss.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

It was not a great game for Dak. Easy to see that. Also easy to see the game plan and lack of adjustments were the primary cause for the loss.

It's hard for me to look past the three turnovers but the game plan was certainly a turd in the Bouillabaisse. The entire Offensive concept around this game was just bad IMO. I've said that several times myself. But I don't think arguing over Dak solves any of that. Dak played bad and a lot of people aren't going to want to hear that but, it's true. Now, he wasn't alone here. A lot of folks turned in a crappy performance but this game was close. A play here or there from Dak and this a win because he is that important to our Offense. He is physically capable of doing so many things and I just don't understand why he did none of them. He's really turning into a great RPO QB, one of the strongest parts of his game and he used it zero. He's a huge physical guy and he challenged DBs breaking the pocket zero. He can move, he is perfectly capable of breaking the pocket and getting 8 or 10 yards and he didn't do it. We can talk about this stuff all day but it does no real good. Dak did not play a great game for us and so little would have been needed to win that it's really a shame because he could have done it I believe. I don't know why we didn't try and do a little more in certain areas. It's hard to understand.

 

[DallasDW00ds0n]

The "right call" for the defense seems to be just taking to Fred beard bc hes been garbage

 

[Mr_437]

The "right call" for the defense seems to be just taking to Fred beard bc hes been garbage

Agree. Another mentioned the Fredrick/Martin combo block on Malcolm Brown... TFred fell on the ground that play and I've never seen anything from him that looked that poor before. If dude not ready, put Looney in.

 

[Sydla]

Interesting. Some seem to be saying Moore didn’t have the strongest game.

 

[CB61]

Yep they were definitely going to make Prescott beat them I saw that the whole game that should come to no surprise to the Cowboys they should have realized that coming into the game and if they didn't after the first couple series it was pretty evident that they were running 6 7 man box

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

Interesting. Some seem to be saying Moore didn’t have the strongest game.

I think it's clear that Moore did not have a strong game against Nola but if we look at this logically, why is it all on Moore? I mean, don't get me wrong, the play calling offensively is on the OC. No question about that but, it had to be Jerry and Garrett who decided to make a 31 year old Former QB with next to no coaching experience, the next OC. I mean, if you don't think he's going to need some help along the way, then whose fault is this really? On the other hand, if this was not his game plan, which I believe is the truth, then it's not on him.

JMO

 

[Future]

It's not like that happened every play. Could be that he made a guess based upon down and distance and guessed right. That happens all the time.

It happened A LOT against the Saints.

 

[Future]

I think it's clear that Moore did not have a strong game against Nola but if we look at this logically, why is it all on Moore? I mean, don't get me wrong, the play calling offensively is on the OC. No question about that but, it had to be Jerry and Garrett who decided to make a 31 year old Former QB with next to no coaching experience, the next OC. I mean, if you don't think he's going to need some help along the way, then whose fault is this really? On the other hand, if this was not his game plan, which I believe is the truth, then it's not on him.

JMO

This was Jason Garrett's game plan, to a T. Four weeks in a row the number of play action passes and passes on first down have decreased. The offense looks more and more like Linehan's, which means JG is asserting more and more control.

This is why I think the Saints loss is more than just a loss. It is brutal, a total regression of the offense. If you lose and go down swinging, fine. But Dallas' gameplan was straight out of 2017 and HANDED the game to the Saints.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

This was Jason Garrett's game plan, to a T. Four weeks in a row the number of play action passes and passes on first down have decreased. The offense looks more and more like Linehan's, which means JG is asserting more and more control.

This is why I think the Saints loss is more than just a loss. It is brutal, a total regression of the offense. If you lose and go down swinging, fine. But Dallas' gameplan was straight out of 2017 and HANDED the game to the Saints.

Well, if this is the case, then it's Jerry's job to fix this. It won't take long for the fan base to straight up revolt if things continue down this path. I guess we'll see.

 

[DallasDW00ds0n]

Agree. Another mentioned the Fredrick/Martin combo block on Malcolm Brown... TFred fell on the ground that play and I've never seen anything from him that looked that poor before. If dude not ready, put Looney in.

Swear I said the same thing in my room after watching that exact play.

TBH Martin doesnt even look good either.

 

[G2]

I noticed that they shut down our play action. At least I don't remember seeing it much.

 

[Tommy]

I mentioned in the game thread that there is probably a tell in offense on run plays. Their defenders were coming down hill as soon as we snapped the ball on run plays. It was evident by the second half they knew what was coming. This goes back to us having an inferior head coach who never considers the details. They need to do some self-scouting and figure out what is causing them to tip their hand.

When the offense is rolling we say how great it is that Garrett has been ordered to stay away from the offense. When the offense stinks it up we blame Garrett for not fixing the offense.

You can’t have it both ways every week.

 

[Dre11]

So, Dak should of audible more is what Jeff is inferring in the first tweet.

Except some were saying Dak was audibling to runs.
Also Cavanaugh isn't telling you that out of the 11 runs on first down, 6 had a missed blocked

 

[Dre11]

So I agree in principle that we should have thrown more, especially on first downs, but shouldn't the Cowboys in 11 personnel be able to run against a 7 man box?

Yes,except they had 6 of those runs, had a missed block according to film Broaddus watched

 

[Dre11]

Run to what, for what? I mean, yeah, you can get 3 yards on 1st if it's blocked well but what you want is to be in 2nd and 5 rather then 2nd and 7 or 8. Make them do what they don't want to do. Make them defend what they are not good at or not suited to, personnel wise. That's the way to beat a good defense.

So if you throw incomplete on 1st down you get no yards and facing 2 and 10, which you're almost always passing, then your forced to pass on 3rd when everyone in the building knows your passing