OK, I have reviewed the Dallas-NO game from week 4 of 2014. Here are the negative plays:
1. White plays off coverage with a big cushion. There is 1 Safety in the middle of the field. White plays leverage to force TWilliams inside. (TWilliams 15 yards)
2. White plays off coverage with no deep help. Harris 8 yard catch. There really can't be any other result when playing this far off in coverage.
3. Press coverage, no help, TWilliams with tight split and 2 way go, Romo with time, Touchdown. White is in a trail position and help is late getting over. (TWilliams 6 yards).
4. White plays off with a big cushion. He has no help. One Safety is in the box to defend the run and the other Safety is on the other side of the field to double Dez. White played the coverage correctly, but missed the tackle.
It is interesting to watch the Cowboys from the perspective of the opponents defense. Linehan schooled Rob Ryan in this game. Ryan decided to defend the run and double Dez often leaving White to cover TWilliams or Harris with no help. White played off coverage with an extra big cushion. The Saints were basically conceding underneath throws to Williams/Harris in these situations. On the TD to TWilliams, White played the correct technique, but without help it would be very difficult for him to make that play. Romo had the ball for about 5 seconds. Again, the help was focused on Dez and defending the run.
My only complaints about White were that he missed a tackle on TWilliams and I thought maybe he should have bumped Williams on the TD play; although, I don't know their coaching allows for a bump on that play or not. I think the big cushions in off coverage were just part of the scheme and there was not much White could do in terms of preventing the catches while playing with that much cushion. This was week 4. In the week 8 and week 11 games that I reviewed he often played tighter coverage in similar situations with good results.
