Breakthrough: who can steal the show at camp

[gimmesix]

We had such a good team in the 90's, we did not have to scheme. We could tell the defense the play and they would still have a hard time stopping it.

That type of team will never be built again, at least not in Dallas.

We still had a scheme. We were just very good at executing it.

That was one of my main problems with Garrett when he was coach. He wanted to repeat what we did in the 90s and outexecute the other team. He didn't have the players for that. There were always weak links while the 90s teams didn't have any or at least not weak enough that defenses could take advantage.

 

[KJJ]

You either get players who fit your scheme or fit your scheme to the player. Schottenheimer and Solari chose to run their scheme no matter what kind of back they had.

I saw no evidence that Pollard could be a bell cow before we tagged him, but I think he would have been closer to the back he had been if we used him to his strengths, even in a starting role. The staff chose to give him the starting role but not use him to his strengths. That's on them. The fact that the front office did not bring in a back who better fit what the coaches wanted to do is on the Joneses.

I do think it is interesting that Tennessee signed him to pair with Tyjae Spears, who is also more of an outside-in back. The Titans' coach, Brian Callahan, said he views both players as starters. Maybe the Titans will be smart enough to use them to their strengths, though. That does not mean you run all outside running plays (that is just as stupid as running all inside running plays). It means, you force defenses to be concerned about protecting the edges, so the middle is softer. Pollard did some damage here when they played to his strengths and then punched that soft middle. Last year, we were so intent on establishing him as an inside runner that we just rammed him into the box. It was stupid.

Pollard was our best back and we had no choice but to use him the way we did. We had virtually nothing behind him. You have to be able to run inside and we had no one else. You can’t keep bouncing plays to the outside. Some down and distances require tough inside running. We’re not seeing things the same way.

 

[DoctorChicken]

I also unironically believe in Deuce.

Besides Zeke, he had the best college career of any RB on our roster. Deuce consistently tore up really good college teams, and did so for three years.

I don’t think the qualities that made Deuce a good player in college have suddenly disappeared since he was drafted.

 

[Chasing6]

Dude, Pollard was a fourth round pick who had yet to play a regular season snap for us. He was drafted to provide depth at the position. You’re acting like Pollard was a first round pick. Zeke was the best back in football and we re-signed him five months after we drafted Pollard. We had no idea what Pollard could do in the regular season. We weren’t about to go into the 2019 season with a rookie fourth round pick as our starting RB.

The rounds are irrelevant. See Trance.

 

[KJJ]

The rounds are irrelevant. See Trance.

The rounds aren’t irrelevant and what does Lance have to do with this discussion? You’re not making one ounce of sense.

 

[gimmesix]

Pollard was our best back and we had no choice but to use him the way we did. We had virtually nothing behind him. You have to be able to run inside and we had no one else. You can’t keep bouncing plays to the outside. Some down and distances require tough inside running. We’re not seeing things the same way.

Again, no one is saying, hey, we should have used all outside runs. You have to run the ball inside some or the outside runs are not effective. Considering the starting back we had, we should have used more outside runs than inside runs. We should have used an outside zone running scheme. You seem to be going all our nothing on this and that's not the way it works. For instance, if Elliott and Freeman end up as our top two backs this season and all of our running plays are between the tackles, then defenses will pinch the tackle box and it will become much more difficult to run there. Pollard would have been more effective running inside if we had been using outside zone to get him on the edges more. That lightens the box for the inside runs.

 

[KJJ]

Again, no one is saying, hey, we should have used all outside runs. You have to run the ball inside some or the outside runs are not effective. Considering the starting back we had, we should have used more outside runs than inside runs. We should have used an outside zone running scheme. You seem to be going all our nothing on this and that's not the way it works. For instance, if Elliott and Freeman end up as our top two backs this season and all of our running plays are between the tackles, then defenses will pinch the tackle box and it will become much more difficult to run there. Pollard would have been more effective running inside if we had been using outside zone to get him on the edges more. That lightens the box for the inside runs.

I gave my opinion. Not going to invest anymore time with this.