Cover 32: Dez Bryant's Red Zone Dominance

[NeonDeion21]

With all the negativity that has been spewed about the Dallas Cowboys and their disappointing loss this week against the Chargers, I decided to take a break from the All-22 review and discuss something that should be encouraging to Cowboy fans. And that topic today is just how dominant Dez Bryant has become in the red zone.

When Tony Romo throws to Dez Bryant, his quarterback rating is 128.5. That is good for the fourth highest in the league. The only three receivers that rate higher are Demaryius Thomas (DEN), Wes Welker (DEN), and Nate Washington (TEN). And this isn’t something new for Dez. In 2012, Bryant finished 3rd in wide receiver rating, behind Thomas (DEN) and Eric Decker (DEN), (Notice anything here with all the Denver wide receivers? That Peyton Manning guy is pretty good,) and in 2011 Dez finished 8th. So far in 2013, Tony Romo is 23 of 35 (65.7%) for 282 yards and four touchdowns and zero interceptions. And yet, I still don’t think he is being used enough and apparently neither does Jerry Jones.

Jones was quoted this week as saying that the Cowboys need to throw Bryant the ball more. He said “The same kind of throw you throw to him in the end zone the other day that he made that catch. He can make that catch with two people on him. You throw him the ball when he’s double-covered. He’s been thrown to when he’s double-covered. You can do that.” What Jerry Jones means is that you can throw the ball to Bryant when a safety is playing over top of Dez, and not necessarily this:

Read the rest at: http://cover32.com/cowboys/?p=751

 

[The Natural]

Those red zone stats are telling. Look at the guys with 12 or more TD's in the redzone the last 2 years, and then look at how many times Dez gets targeted compared to them..I just find it funny how every other team seems to find a way to get the ball their best player in the redzone

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[Nova]

Dez Bryant has the air dominance of an F-22 Raptor.


If we're in a goal to go situation and we're not taking at least one shot at Bryant, we're doing it wrong.

 

[Future]

If I get first and goal inside the 5, I'm taking at least 3 shots to Dez on fade routes....if not 3, then 4 lol

 

[Hoov]

Nice post Neon.

 

[Idgit]

Those red zone stats are telling. Look at the guys with 12 or more TD's in the redzone the last 2 years, and then look at how many times Dez gets targeted compared to them..I just find it funny how every other team seems to find a way to get the ball their best player in the redzone

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They are pretty telling. Thought it's possible that part of that is Tony doing a nice job of not going to Dez in those situations where the TD is unlikely. There's probably a reason why his TD%/Target numbers are so much higher than the other guys. Give him another 20% more targets in bad situations, and the TD%/Target number is going to go down, too.

And, thanks for posting this, Neon.

 

[Risen Star]

It's like he's playing against children. I don't think I've ever seen a better jump ball receiver.

 

[tico]

I noticed Romo looks for Witten 1st then rather just throwing up to Dez some can go get it.

 

[mugsybows]

If I get first and goal inside the 5, I'm taking at least 3 shots to Dez on fade routes....if not 3, then 4 lol

This all day!

 

[percyhoward]

Romo has still never thrown an interception on a pass intended for Dez anywhere on the opponent's side of the field.

 

[Oh_Canada]

Bingo-maybe Tony needs to start paying attention to what's staring him straight in the face and throw it to Dez.

It's not like this team is a red zone machine.

 

[Future]

Bingo-maybe Tony needs to start paying attention to what's staring him straight in the face and throw it to Dez.

It's not like this team is a red zone machine.

I think you could say the same thing about JG...

Unfortunately, I think Romo suffers from some of the same problems as Red. The whole, overthink and try to get too cute in the redzone thing. Just chuck it to your playmakers and get your 7.

 

[JohnsKey19]

1st & Goal...
Assuming both Romo and Dez diagnose single-coverage pre-snap, that should be a near automatic jump ball. Yes, Dez is that good.

 

[AbeBeta]

Those red zone stats are telling. Look at the guys with 12 or more TD's in the redzone the last 2 years, and then look at how many times Dez gets targeted compared to them..I just find it funny how every other team seems to find a way to get the ball their best player in the redzone

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i don't think it is "funny" at all. I think it is somewhat obvious that Dez only, sometime last year, really started to understand what he was doing. So more than half of the games in this period are ones where you really couldn't trust Dez 100%. Pretty sure that is why his targets were lower

 

[Ender]

Bingo-maybe Tony needs to start paying attention to what's staring him straight in the face and throw it to Dez.

It's not like this team is a red zone machine.

Exactly, that why if you throw it to a rookie receiver in the red zone and he fumbles or runs the wrong route the QB should shoulder some of the blame. You have to be smart enough to take advantage of these mismatches...

 

[The Natural]

i don't think it is "funny" at all. I think it is somewhat obvious that Dez only, sometime last year, really started to understand what he was doing. So more than half of the games in this period are ones where you really couldn't trust Dez 100%. Pretty sure that is why his targets were lower

Stop it. You have <20 yards to go, you throw it up to the guy and give him a chance to make a play. There's nothing to not trust in such a close proximity to the endzone. Enough with the excuses

 

[Staubacher]

Romo has still never thrown an interception on a pass intended for Dez anywhere on the opponent's side of the field.

Yeah that might be because he isn't just flinging it up into heavy coverage like Jerrah wants.

 

[Zman5]

We threw 3 times in a row to freakin' Sam Hurd in the red zone. Why can't we do that with Dez?

 

[percyhoward]

Yeah that might be because he isn't just flinging it up into heavy coverage like Jerrah wants.

Jerry has caught on to something that we've been discussing here for a while now. After the Chiefs game, I posted Dez's career numbers in goal-to-go (10 TD and 0 INT). Obviously, Dez has to be your first consideration any time you're inside the 10-yard line. That's now up to 11 TD and no INT, and that doesn't even count Dez's short TD against the Chargers, which technically wasn't goal-to-go.

IOW, that's my point. If you haven't thrown an INT to your #1 receiver in opponent's territory -- ever -- that's telling you that you need to target him there even more.

 

[Nova]

We threw 3 times in a row to freakin' Sam Hurd in the red zone. Why can't we do that with Dez?

Sam Hurd dealt everyone drugs beforehand. They weren't in the right frame of mind.