Short of firing Linehan/Moore (a clear choice in offseason), there is a fix for this offense. For some reason, we run very little playaction passes with Dak under center. Rather, Dak almost always throws from shotgun, with only playaction fake being a horizontal “read option” action to Zeke. This has two negatives. First, Dak’s footwork is very sloppy when he’s in shotgun. He shuffles and often throws off his back foot or across his body. Second, LBs are not forced to step up to fill (rather, at most they step horizontal with fake to Zeke). Thus, there is less of a hole behind them to throw deep crosses or posts. Which we all see from Dak’s green dot passing chart that he rarely throws and completes (he almost always throws outside the numbers or short middle). The fix? Put Dak under center and get back to running outside zone and FB lead runs, and playaction passes with the same action. It will stress the LB and create natural passing lanes behind them. More importantly, it will force Dak to take a 5- or 7- step drop, plant his back foot, and throw on time and with anticipation. And on zone run action, it has the added benefit of having him dropping back outside the pocket. With Zeke, we ought to have the best playaction passing game in the league. But we rarely use it. Cmon Linehan. Not that difficult.
