Cowboys 20, Texans 17: Five Quick Thoughts As Cowboys Win Fourth Straight Game

[waving monkey]

Five quick observations on Dallas's victory over the Houston Texan's

1. Orlando Scandrick, Baller: For the second week in a row Scandrick jumped an outside route and it paid off this week with an interception. Scandrick has been on fire since his return from suspension. The only real question is, will this new-found tendency to jump routes come back to bite him because he's gambling? Or is it the result of film study and just making great plays? My money is on the latter.


2. The Defense: For the majority of the game Dallas's defense was phenomenal. Early in the game Brandon Carr was playing coverage about as well as I've seen during his time in Dallas, and Tyrone Crawford and Henry Melton were causing disruption along the lines. The catalyst for this defensive performance, as it has been all year, was Rolando McClain. When he went out with what is sounding like a groin injury, the defense began to crumble. Of course this wasn't helped out by...

3. The Coaching: So far this season Rod Marinelli has done a great job coaching, turning a not so talented group into, if not filet mignon, at least a decent strip steak. But he's had to reach deep into his bag of tricks to do so, and it bit him some today. On Arian Foster's first TD run, the Texans clearly saw something in the defense (Fitzpatrick pulled up and went to talk to Foster, they pointed to the left side of the field). The play, sure enough, went to the left with the Cowboys line crashing hard the other way. This left Foster one on one with the safety (Church), who mised the tackle in space. Touchdown Texans.

There were a few other questionable coaching decisions. It's easy to question play calling anytime you're trying to run down the clock and it doesn't work, but to only run once on that final drive of regulation was a bad decision. It was exacerbated by a horrible intentional grounding call by the refs, but the coaches should have never allowed the refs to have that kind of impact. Murray has been the bell cow all season, roll with him.

linkg a not so talented group into, if not filet mignon, at least a decent strip steak. But he's had to reach deep into his bag of tricks to do so, and it bit him some today. On Arian Foster's first TD run, the Texans clearly saw something in the defense (Fitzpatrick pulled up and went to talk to Foster, they pointed to the left side of the field). The play, sure enough, went to the left with the Cowboys line crashing hard the other way. This left Foster one on one with the safety (Church), who mised the tackle in space. Touchdown Texans.

There were a few other questionable coaching decisions. It's easy to question play calling anytime you're trying to run down the clock and it doesn't work, but to only run once on that final drive of regulation was a bad decision. It was exacerbated by a horrible intentional grounding call by the refs, but the coaches should have never allowed the refs to have that kind of impact. Murray has been the bell cow all season, roll with him.



link/http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2014...quick-thoughts-as-cowboys-win-fourth-straight

 

[JBell]

3. The Coaching: So far this season Rod Marinelli has done a great job coaching, turning a not so talented group into, if not filet mignon, at least a decent strip steak. But he's had to reach deep into his bag of tricks to do so, and it bit him some today. On Arian Foster's first TD run, the Texans clearly saw something in the defense (Fitzpatrick pulled up and went to talk to Foster, they pointed to the left side of the field). The play, sure enough, went to the left with the Cowboys line crashing hard the other way. This left Foster one on one with the safety (Church), who mised the tackle in space. Touchdown Texans.

I was in shock at how unbalanced the Cowboys defense was on Foster's first TD run. (and the run directly before his TD)

Dallas' D was overloading the right side of the line when the Texans were in a relatively balanced formation.

All the Texans had to do was run left and it was going to be a huge gain since most of the Dallas defense was on the right side of the Center. I'd like to hear Marinelli's explanation for that one.

It looked something like this:

(ok I'm exaggerating a little, but I'm sure someone with all-22 can show you how ridiculous it looked)

 

[viman96]

Need to change title to Texans

 

[perrykemp]

2. The Defense: For the majority of the game Dallas's defense was phenomenal. Early in the game Brandon Carr was playing coverage about as well as I've seen during his time in Dallas, and Tyrone Crawford and Henry Melton were causing disruption along the lines. The catalyst for this defensive performance, as it has been all year, was Rolando McClain. When he went out with what is sounding like a groin injury, the defense began to crumble. Of course this wasn't helped out by...

Was the NFL record for the least number of sacks by a defense? They have 5 so far in 5 games so they are on pace for 16.

Kinda crazy when you think about it -- because it doesn't <feel> like the pass rusher is <that> terrible...

 

[xwalker]

I just reviewed Foster's TD run. It didn't look like your drawing.

The Texans were in 3 Wide with 2 WRs right, 1 WR left and the TE next to the LT. The Cowboys basically a had a balanced 4 man line with the exception that Wilber was in the LDE spot in a standing position. Hitchens was directly in between the DTs and Durant was inline with the LT. Church and a CB were on the run side (offensive left). The RDE crashed down inside and Durant also came up to the line in an inside type position leaving only Church to defend the outside edge. Normally if the RDE crashes down inside the LB on that side has outside run contain, but that didn't happen on this play. Hitchen came across the field but was blocked and held by an OLineman. This should have been called as the OLineman pulled his Jersey.

I was in shock at how unbalanced the Cowboys defense was on Foster's first TD run. (and the run directly before his TD)

Dallas' D was overloading the right side of the line when the Texans were in a relatively balanced formation.

All the Texans had to do was run left and it was going to be a huge gain since most of the Dallas defense was on the right side of the Center. I'd like to hear Marinelli's explanation for that one.

It looked something like this:

(ok I'm exaggerating a little, but I'm sure someone with all-22 can show you how ridiculous it looked)

 

[JBell]

I just reviewed Foster's TD run. It didn't look like your drawing.

The Texans were in 3 Wide with 2 WRs right, 1 WR left and the TE next to the LT. The Cowboys basically a had a balanced 4 man line with the exception that Wilber was in the LDE spot in a standing position. Hitchens was directly in between the DTs and Durant was inline with the LT. Church and a CB were on the run side (offensive left). The RDE crashed down inside and Durant also came up to the line in an inside type position leaving only Church to defend the outside edge. Normally if the RDE crashes down inside the LB on that side has outside run contain, but that didn't happen on this play. Hitchen came across the field but was blocked and held by an OLineman. This should have been called as the OLineman pulled his Jersey.

Thanks for the breakdown.

The 1 tech also crashed inside IIRC along with the RDE and Durant as you mentioned which is why it appeared to be so unbalanced after the snap. That put way too much pressure on Church to make a play. Good RB's will make safeties miss in the open field more times than not.

 

[xwalker]

Thanks for the breakdown.

The 1 tech also crashed inside IIRC along with the RDE and Durant as you mentioned which is why it appeared to be so unbalanced after the snap. That put way too much pressure on Church to make a play. Good RB's will make safeties miss in the open field more times than not.

The previous play was similar. It seems to me that the RDE and Durant were not on the same page. If one goes inside, the other should be protecting the outside edge.

This defense allows the DE, especially the RDE to abandon outside run contain more often than most defensive schemes. It puts more pressure on the LB to protect the outside edge than in some other schemes where the DE has more run contain responsibility.