TonyS
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I think pretty much every Cowboys fan was feeling pretty good at halftime yesterday. We had some good drives and took what their defense gave us and even broke a big play for a TD and turned in a defensive TD for good measure. Wow, we looked like we were there to play, greatly different from the SEA game of yesteryear!
I think pretty much every experienced fan was also feeling that nagging feeling in the pit of their stomachs as they waited for the Cowboys coaches to discuss halftime adjustments and set a course for the 2nd half. Could we keep up the performance or would San Diego out-coach and outplay us in the 2nd half?
Our deepest football fears were confirmed throughout the rest of the game. On the offensive side, San Diego determined that our LBs were a weakness in coverage and that Rivers could be deadly with a 3 step drop and that their running game could continue to pickup enough yardage to make our LBs take that first step to respect the run so Gates could slip behind them. Heck, he flat out ran them. The blueprint for taking the Cowboys' D out of the game was complete and implemented with little resistance.
On the defensive side, San Diego knew that we were not committed to picking up yards on the ground, even though Murray was averaging a respectable 5 ypc. This allowed their safeties to cheat more and blanket Witten and Bryant. Dallas obliged with a paltry 15 running attempts: 14 for Murray (70 yds) and 1 for Dunbar (7 yds). San Diego executed the blueprint for shutting down the Dallas offense perfectly for the entire 2nd Half.
The St. Louis game last week probably did more to hurt the Cowboys as it made us think we could use the same Romo-Witten safety net against every NFL team. If a team can reliably predict where your QB will go with the ball on a consistent basis, you have already lost the battle. Prediction is completely underrated by the fan base, but much of a game is gambling on predictions for a defense. If the cards are stacked in their favor with a scheme that is based upon consistent offensive tendencies, they don't have to have superior talent to win the battle. The San Diego secondary doesn't scare anyone, but they were where they needed to be in the second half yesterday and that is our fault for being predictable.
Unless our coaches and Romo can get us away from using the same tired scheme and formula, we are going to see more of the same against teams this year. We will beat the ones with inferior talent and who don't make the same guesses (like the Rams), but we won't beat the ones who out coach us like the Chargers did.
I think pretty much every experienced fan was also feeling that nagging feeling in the pit of their stomachs as they waited for the Cowboys coaches to discuss halftime adjustments and set a course for the 2nd half. Could we keep up the performance or would San Diego out-coach and outplay us in the 2nd half?
Our deepest football fears were confirmed throughout the rest of the game. On the offensive side, San Diego determined that our LBs were a weakness in coverage and that Rivers could be deadly with a 3 step drop and that their running game could continue to pickup enough yardage to make our LBs take that first step to respect the run so Gates could slip behind them. Heck, he flat out ran them. The blueprint for taking the Cowboys' D out of the game was complete and implemented with little resistance.
On the defensive side, San Diego knew that we were not committed to picking up yards on the ground, even though Murray was averaging a respectable 5 ypc. This allowed their safeties to cheat more and blanket Witten and Bryant. Dallas obliged with a paltry 15 running attempts: 14 for Murray (70 yds) and 1 for Dunbar (7 yds). San Diego executed the blueprint for shutting down the Dallas offense perfectly for the entire 2nd Half.
The St. Louis game last week probably did more to hurt the Cowboys as it made us think we could use the same Romo-Witten safety net against every NFL team. If a team can reliably predict where your QB will go with the ball on a consistent basis, you have already lost the battle. Prediction is completely underrated by the fan base, but much of a game is gambling on predictions for a defense. If the cards are stacked in their favor with a scheme that is based upon consistent offensive tendencies, they don't have to have superior talent to win the battle. The San Diego secondary doesn't scare anyone, but they were where they needed to be in the second half yesterday and that is our fault for being predictable.
Unless our coaches and Romo can get us away from using the same tired scheme and formula, we are going to see more of the same against teams this year. We will beat the ones with inferior talent and who don't make the same guesses (like the Rams), but we won't beat the ones who out coach us like the Chargers did.