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The Importance Of The "Center Field" Safety In The Cowboys' Defense
By Joey Ickes @JIckesBTB on Jul 28 2014, 12:00p 109
http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2014/7/28/5943489/cowboys-defense-safety-hamilton-wilcox-johnson
When the Cowboys made the decision in the 2013 offseason to hire Monte Kiffin as defensive coordinator, he brought his cohort, and current defensive coordinator, Rod Marinelli with him. There was a great deal of talk regarding the "Tampa Two" scheme, and how the team would execute in Cover Two.
As the season went on, I observed that they were playing a very significant majority of their snaps in either Cover 1, Cover 3 or Cover 10. These are coverages that feature a single deep safety in the middle of the field (Cover 1 & 3) or shaded to one side or the other (Cover 10).
In order to substantiate my initial observations, I decided to go back and chart the coverages played by the Dallas defense in several games. In order to do so, rather than attempting to identify that nuances of the individual coverages played each snap, I divided them into three categories, based on the number of deep safeties - Two Deep, Single High,and Zero. Rather than studying the full 16 games, I settled on the first nine games of the year, which extended through stretches played by each of the three safeties who started games next to Barry Church: Will Allen, J.J. Wilcox, and Jeff Heath, to determine whether the changes in personnel at that spot would impact the scheme.
The table below outlines the findings of my studies...
So, of 637 total defensive snaps over 9 games and three different starters, the Cowboys played 74% of their snaps with a single deep safety. So much for "Tamp Two" huh?...
By Joey Ickes @JIckesBTB on Jul 28 2014, 12:00p 109
http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2014/7/28/5943489/cowboys-defense-safety-hamilton-wilcox-johnson
When the Cowboys made the decision in the 2013 offseason to hire Monte Kiffin as defensive coordinator, he brought his cohort, and current defensive coordinator, Rod Marinelli with him. There was a great deal of talk regarding the "Tampa Two" scheme, and how the team would execute in Cover Two.
As the season went on, I observed that they were playing a very significant majority of their snaps in either Cover 1, Cover 3 or Cover 10. These are coverages that feature a single deep safety in the middle of the field (Cover 1 & 3) or shaded to one side or the other (Cover 10).
In order to substantiate my initial observations, I decided to go back and chart the coverages played by the Dallas defense in several games. In order to do so, rather than attempting to identify that nuances of the individual coverages played each snap, I divided them into three categories, based on the number of deep safeties - Two Deep, Single High,and Zero. Rather than studying the full 16 games, I settled on the first nine games of the year, which extended through stretches played by each of the three safeties who started games next to Barry Church: Will Allen, J.J. Wilcox, and Jeff Heath, to determine whether the changes in personnel at that spot would impact the scheme.
The table below outlines the findings of my studies...
So, of 637 total defensive snaps over 9 games and three different starters, the Cowboys played 74% of their snaps with a single deep safety. So much for "Tamp Two" huh?...