Balanced Run/pass?

[wconn1979]

Cowboys 27, Texans 13: When Romo Has the Rhythm, Everybody Can Dance

Posted by Rafael at Monday, September 27, 2010


Another day, another 385 offensive yards. This time, it came with 27 points attached. What changed? Was the play calling significantly different?

No.

The stat heads will look at the finals and see 30 passing attempts and 25 rushes, the most balanced of the season -- by far -- and think Jason Garrett has finally seen the light and turned the running backs loose. Not so fast. The Cowboys opened the game run heavy, just as they did against Chicago, and had modest success running the ball. But what did they have to show for their troubles?

First Two Series: 8 rushes, 5 passes, 0 points. One series over on downs, one three-and-out.

Dallas opened with its bread-and-butter plays, the counter and the lead draw, the plays it needs to run better if it is to establish a solid running game this year. But notice what happened near the end of the first drive. On a 3rd and 3, Tashard Choice slips on an open draw and gains just two. An option pitch to Felix Jones gets that yard on 4th and 1, but only by the nose of the football. This was Chicago deja vu.



Read the rest at:


http://www.cowboyszone.com/2010/09/...m_campaign=Feed:+cowboyszone+(Cowboys+Nation)


http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cowboyszone/~3/6speGNiork4/cowboys-27-texans-13-when-romo-has.html

 

[percyhoward]

That's a 72% to 28% pass-to-run ratio. As he did in '07, Garrett brought Barber on to bleed the clock down. Nine of Dallas' final 10 plays were runs, leading to the balanced-looking final numbers. So what was the difference?

Better execution.

Better execution was the only difference between this game and the Chicago game.

Better execution and sticking with what was working are the two differences between this game and the Washington game.

The article is an in-your-face from Garrett (in the form of Vela) to those who had criticized him for not running enough, regardless of whether the run was working or not. But it doesn't tell us why abandoning the run is a good idea when you're running well in a close, low-scoring game. I don't subscribe to the theory that all 3rd downs are necessarily bad and should thus be avoided. I think 3rd and short is decidedly preferable to 3rd and long, and when you're running well, you put yourself in 3rd and short a lot.

 

[theogt]

Better execution was the only difference between this game and the Chicago game.

Better execution and sticking with what was working are the two differences between this game and the Washington game.

The article is an in-your-face from Garrett (in the form of Vela) to those who had criticized him for not running enough, regardless of whether the run was working or not. But it doesn't tell us why abandoning the run is a good idea when you're running well in a close, low-scoring game. I don't subscribe to the theory that all 3rd downs are necessarily bad and should thus be avoided. I think 3rd and short is decidedly preferable to 3rd and long, and when you're running well, you put yourself in 3rd and short a lot.

What about the people that criticized him for not knowing when to run and when to pass?

Coming out and rushing the majority of plays and only throwing short passes against one of the worst secondaries to ever play the game is some ridiculous game-planning.

This was one of those "pouty" performances by Garrett where he does something just because he got his feelings hurt. And the stupidity was highlighted by the opponent we were playing.

 

[jay cee]

I have no problem with them taking advantage of one of the worse defensive backfields in the NFL, with a pass heavy attack.

But IMO, to consistently win against the better defenses, they will need to do better in the running game.

 

[AMERICAS_FAN]

What about the people that criticized him for not knowing when to run and when to pass?

Coming out and rushing the majority of plays and only throwing short passes against one of the worst secondaries to ever play the game is some ridiculous game-planning.

This was one of those "pouty" performances by Garrett where he does something just because he got his feelings hurt. And the stupidity was highlighted by the opponent we were playing.

It's also about keeping the defense guessing and putting your players in the best position to succeed (caugh: "execute"). By sticking with the run early, the Texans committed to keping a S in the box. When they did that you saw the aerial asualt. So the passing game worked, but not in absolute; it wrked because it was set up by the running game. All you needed to do to find evidence of that is the eefectiveness of the play-action passes. S, LBs and DBs were playing run first. Houston bit on those every time because they respected the run so much. Finally, FINALLY, it was Jason Garrett who was dictating the game to the opponent, and not the other way around. That's what the stat sheets and Vela's game scripts won't show you, but that was the difference. That's why good execution falls on the coaches - because it all starts with hte right game plan and Garrett putting his players in position to succeed.

 

[khiladi]

What Vela fails to note is, especially on drive 3:

Dallas rarely ran out of shot-gun
Dallas ran plenty of play-action

The threat to run was there, because Dallas gave the necessary looks to keep the safeties off balance.

 

[jay cee]

What Vela fails to note is, especially on drive 3:

Dallas rarely ran out of shot-gun
Dallas ran plenty of play-action

The threat to run was there, because Dallas gave the necessary looks to keep the safeties off balance.

I'm not certain, but it seems they ran more play-action in this game than the 1st two combined.

 

[Stash]

I still don't like the pass to run ratios and I hope that number will be more balanced going forward.

But it did look to me like some tendencies were reversed while others remain.

Does it look to anyone else that the 'kill' calls at the line of srimmage are 95% audibles to running plays?

Isn't this a dangerous tendency that gives the defense an advantage?

 

[Chocolate Lab]

What Vela fails to note is, especially on drive 3:

Dallas rarely ran out of shot-gun
Dallas ran plenty of play-action

The threat to run was there, because Dallas gave the necessary looks to keep the safeties off balance.

I messed up my recording :bang2: but that's what I was thinking during the game, that Tony was under center a lot more often than he has been at times in the Garrett era.

That's what worked on the one Chicago drive that worked, and is a lot of what I've been hoping to see.

 

[Baileyneverfailey]

Talking about how they didn't score points on the first two drives by running doesn't address the fact that showing the run set up a lot of the plays we ran throughout the game.

The play action roll outs where Romo hit Marty B and other guys don't happen if the other team isn't keying on the run a little bit. Do we want to run it better? Yes. Did we run it horribly? Not a chance.

 

[Doomsday101]

Talking about how they didn't score points on the first two drives by running doesn't address the fact that showing the run set up a lot of the plays we ran throughout the game.

The play action roll outs where Romo hit Marty B and other guys don't happen if the other team isn't keying on the run a little bit. Do we want to run it better? Yes. Did we run it horribly? Not a chance.

We ran it 27 times compared to an avg of 21 times in the 1st 2 games. It is not as if Dallas went run happy in the game. They did a better job of getting some yards on the ground and just as importantly stayed out of negative plays

 

[Stash]

Talking about how they didn't score points on the first two drives by running doesn't address the fact that showing the run set up a lot of the plays we ran throughout the game.

The play action roll outs where Romo hit Marty B and other guys don't happen if the other team isn't keying on the run a little bit. Do we want to run it better? Yes. Did we run it horribly? Not a chance.

It sounded to me like someone trying to use the positive end results as some sort of justification for the disproportionate pass-to-run ratio.

I'll give Garrett some credit, I thought it was better than it had been, but I'd also add that it still has a ways to go.

I still see very little patience when it comes to the running game.

 

[AdamJT13]

We ran it 27 times compared to an avg of 21 times in the 1st 2 games. It is not as if Dallas went run happy in the game.

Our rushing attempts and yards in each game --

WEEK 1
First three quarters: 17-79
Fourth quarter: 5-24

WEEK 2
First three quarters: 17-36 (plus one kneel down)
Fourth quarter: 2-1

WEEK 3
First three quarters: 16-72
Fourth quarter: 10-30 (plus one kneel down)

 

[Doomsday101]

Our rushing attempts and yards in each game --

WEEK 1
First three quarters: 17-79
Fourth quarter: 5-24

WEEK 2
First three quarters: 18-35
Fourth quarter: 2-1

WEEK 3
First three quarters: 16-72
Fourth quarter: 11-29

Dallas had a lead and was not trialing in the 4th qrt. of course we ran it 11 times as we tried to kill the clock.

 

[Baileyneverfailey]

It's not just about plain running it. It's about when you run it too. You have to actually watch the games to see if you're running out the clock, if you're running a draw on 3rd and 20 because you kill yourself with penalties, etc. We ran the ball in better situations against Houston in general.