Our base is Crawford at RDE, Poe at DT, Hill at DT, Lawrence at DE and Smith at DPR. It's been that since the beginning of the season.
Whether we spent a lot of time in the nickel or not is irrelevant to what our base is. I'm not a fan of our base package. While it may make us stronger against the run, it does not benefit us against the pass. Griffen is a solid run defender, but also brings more against the pass than Crawford, especially at end. I'd prefer that Crawford stick to rotating inside with Hill, Poe and Woods.
I know that we have to rotate Lawrence, Smith and Griffen out to give them rest, but it's not to our advantage IMO to only use Griffen as a rotational end instead of a base starter.
What do base mean?
The Cowboy didn't use the 3-4 look until the Falcons 3rd series and that was with the Falcons in a 3 TE set.
The Cowboys had used the 4-2-5 with the DEs standing up on the previous 2 series which included 1st and 10 situations.
On the 1st snap of the Falcon's 4th series, the Falcons had 2 WRs, 1 TE and 1 H-back.
- The Cowboys played a 4-3 alignment with Aldon Smith as the Strong Side 4-3 OLB aligned over the slot WR.
- The DL was Griffen, Hill, Poe, Crawford all with their hand down.
Again I ask, what do base mean?
- The alignment most often used on 1st and 10?
- The alignment that they use on the highest percent of snaps?
- The alignment that they use against 2 WR sets?