Nation
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I wanted to take a look at the play again to see what if anything else was available on the play other than the throw to Dez and the subsequent controversy. First and foremost this is some heavy use of hindsight as it is a lot easier to freeze-frame a play and see what is there than it is to execute on the football field.
The Cowboys lined up with an empty backfield, with Dez on the outside to Romo's left, and Dunbar in the slot to Romo's left. TWill was lined up on the outside to Romo's right, with Beasley in the slot and Witten flexed out. The Packers show man coverage with a safety on the trips side, and only two down linemen. Two OLBs show pass rush threats as well as an ILB and the safety as well.
At the snap of the ball the slot corner who was lined up on Beasley blitzes. This leaves Dallas with 5 offensive linemen to block 6 guys, as both OLBs are coming as is the ILB initially.
The left side of the line has everyone accounted for but with the corner is going to get a free rush from the slot. Such is life when you send 6 on 5, and Dallas did the right thing blocking this from inside-out. You can also see in this screenshot that the inside linebacker is making a play based on either the defensive call, or the fact that he was stonewalled, to drop back into coverage. This allows Green Bay to doubleteam Witten, taking away Romo's safety valve in these scenarios.
Now we are at decision time. It's nice that Fox unintentionally left the graphic up because you can see just how fast that nickel corner is coming for Romo. The ball was snapped with 7 seconds on the playclock and you can see that :05 graphic fading away. This was a one-read throw and Dallas took their best player in one-on-one coverage. It's a hard one to fault them with.
The way things shake out Witten is double-teamed and Dunbar runs a route with his feet at the marker but if he catches the ball it is likely short. This leaves throwing deep to the outside guys and Beasley. It looks like we could have hit Beasley over the middle but this is again the complicated part of watching 3 seconds worth of game action on a frame-by-frame basis, and I know there is a large percentage of Cowboys fans that think this was a great catch to begin with and the only thing worth questioning here is the officiating.
If I'm going to second guess anything I guess it would be the playcall to begin with. I'd have like to have seen Dunbar staying in the backfield to help pickup the blitz. If Dunbar staying in results in the defense not sending one more man than Dallas can block then I don't see a big difference in him running a pass route from the backfield if the one he ran from the slot is going to result in him potentially being tackled short of the marker.
The Cowboys lined up with an empty backfield, with Dez on the outside to Romo's left, and Dunbar in the slot to Romo's left. TWill was lined up on the outside to Romo's right, with Beasley in the slot and Witten flexed out. The Packers show man coverage with a safety on the trips side, and only two down linemen. Two OLBs show pass rush threats as well as an ILB and the safety as well.
At the snap of the ball the slot corner who was lined up on Beasley blitzes. This leaves Dallas with 5 offensive linemen to block 6 guys, as both OLBs are coming as is the ILB initially.
The left side of the line has everyone accounted for but with the corner is going to get a free rush from the slot. Such is life when you send 6 on 5, and Dallas did the right thing blocking this from inside-out. You can also see in this screenshot that the inside linebacker is making a play based on either the defensive call, or the fact that he was stonewalled, to drop back into coverage. This allows Green Bay to doubleteam Witten, taking away Romo's safety valve in these scenarios.
Now we are at decision time. It's nice that Fox unintentionally left the graphic up because you can see just how fast that nickel corner is coming for Romo. The ball was snapped with 7 seconds on the playclock and you can see that :05 graphic fading away. This was a one-read throw and Dallas took their best player in one-on-one coverage. It's a hard one to fault them with.
The way things shake out Witten is double-teamed and Dunbar runs a route with his feet at the marker but if he catches the ball it is likely short. This leaves throwing deep to the outside guys and Beasley. It looks like we could have hit Beasley over the middle but this is again the complicated part of watching 3 seconds worth of game action on a frame-by-frame basis, and I know there is a large percentage of Cowboys fans that think this was a great catch to begin with and the only thing worth questioning here is the officiating.
If I'm going to second guess anything I guess it would be the playcall to begin with. I'd have like to have seen Dunbar staying in the backfield to help pickup the blitz. If Dunbar staying in results in the defense not sending one more man than Dallas can block then I don't see a big difference in him running a pass route from the backfield if the one he ran from the slot is going to result in him potentially being tackled short of the marker.
