Cowboys defer?

[Cowboysheelsreds053]

Only took 9 years? DUH!

 

[btcutter]

I was a little blown away with this decision Sunday. Finally!!!! nice job!

Dallas coaches should visit "this Zone" every week. We pretty much breakdown what they need to do every week.

 

[Dre11]

I still don't really understand the benefit of receiving. Even if you score first the idea of holding that 7 point lead (or 3) for 60 minutes is a little ridiculous. Where as the benefit of scoring to end the half and start the 3rd can create momentum that far outweighs receiving in the 1st. Maybe that scenario doesn't happen too often, but I'd rather play for that than the first score. Just makes very little sense.

It works both ways, some teams play better ahead, some play worse from behind. It's not an exact science to receiving or deferring

 

[Einstein]

Our D is better than our O right now, so JG deferred. When he feels our O is better than our D again he will take the ball.

 

[DogFace]

I still don't really understand the benefit of receiving. Even if you score first the idea of holding that 7 point lead (or 3) for 60 minutes is a little ridiculous. Where as the benefit of scoring to end the half and start the 3rd can create momentum that far outweighs receiving in the 1st. Maybe that scenario doesn't happen too often, but I'd rather play for that than the first score. Just makes very little sense.

I don’t know, seems to happen often enough. Maybe one of our smart guys on here can tell us how often it happens across the league.

 

[Melonfeud]

Yah never made it past 10 in school. Teacher said not to take my shoes off and count on ma toes

 

[noshame]

This is a relief. Now he has a reason to walk off the field before the half with time on the clock and TO's in his pocket

 

[Melonfeud]

Statistically, the difference is almost zero.

Over the past five seasons, home teams have won 56.27 percent of the time. They have won 56.32 percent of the time when kicking off to start the game and 56.22 percent of the time when receiving to start the game.

Thus, road teams have won 43.73 percent of the time -- 43.78 percent when they kick off to start the game and 43.68 percent when they receive to start the game.

So, deferring and kicking off to start the game makes you 0.1 percent more likely to win.

But I still prefer it.

Wow,what a neat& intriguingly interesting post

 

[blueblood70]

@blueblood70
Ya well ,while it's nice to know yer a man of obvious distinction and of the refinement required for one to truly appreciate my distinctly singular stamped proof mark of brilliance in all matters Deemed of pertinent comment requiring my insightful observations ,,,ya know, as a true& dear good friend of which you are to me,,,could you,maybe like, not be spreading this closely guarded secret of which is my brilliance around amongst wider circles?,,,I'd consider it a personal favour, ya know?


* yessir! K.C. is looking like their on a dominant run straight to Lombardi Land 2018

With that defense I’d say odds go down come crunch time and the playoffs. Time will tell but those kind of offenses paired with bad defenses usually fall short. I’ve many teams start out undefeated going even 6-0 and not even win their game one in playoffs. Keep the anointing oil in your pocket for now

 

[OmerV]

I’m not convinced it really matters
Having more processions increases you chances of scoring but many things have a bigger impact on the number of processions you get from turnovers to quick scores
Most teams do defer but just not convinced it really matters
In 16 we had a fine season and took the kick off every time
Lots of things much more important in a game that actually gives you a better chance to win
But some swear it matters and since we deferred last week and played well I suspect it becomes a trend this year

I agree for the most part, although a quick score doesn't actually impact the number of possessions. One possession is one possession whether the result is a quick score, a long drive, a punt etc ....

Some say it gives a team a boost if they can play defense and stop the first drive because then their defense has set the tone for the game. I don't quite get that because if their defense fails hasn't that allowed the other team's offense to set the tone? Or another way of saying that would be that their defense did set the tone, but it was a bad tone.

Of course, it can matter if your defense or offense is the stronger unit because one or the other may be more capable of setting a positive tone. I'm not sure a permanent tone is really set after one possession though.

It may also matter more if playing in an outdoor stadium and the wind is blowing such that it favors teams going a certain way. Sometimes teams prefer to have the wind at their back the last quarter so their passing game so in case they have to come back to win they aren't having to throw into the wind.

 

[conner01]

I agree for the most part, although a quick score doesn't actually impact the number of possessions. One possession is one possession whether the result is a quick score, a long drive, a punt etc ....

Some say it gives a team a boost if they can play defense and stop the first drive because then their defense has set the tone for the game. I don't quite get that because if their defense fails hasn't that allowed the other team's offense to set the tone? Or another way of saying that would be that their defense did set the tone, but it was a bad tone.

Of course, it can matter if your defense or offense is the stronger unit because one or the other may be more capable of setting a positive tone. I'm not sure a permanent tone is really set after one possession though.

It may also matter more if playing in an outdoor stadium and the wind is blowing such that it favors teams going a certain way. Sometimes teams prefer to have the wind at their back the last quarter so their passing game so in case they have to come back to win they aren't having to throw into the wind.

By quick scores I mean if teams are scoring quickly there are more processions in a game
If teams grind it out on 7 min drives there will be less in a game

 

[OmerV]

By quick scores I mean if teams are scoring quickly there are more processions in a game
If teams grind it out on 7 min drives there will be less in a game

Yes, but if a team scores quickly that means there are more possessions in the game for both teams, so that doesn't give either team an advantage in number of possessions.

 

[OmerV]

Dallas coaches should visit "this Zone" every week. We pretty much breakdown what they need to do every week.

God I hope they don't do that. If we think they are bad now, that would be infinitely worse.

 

[conner01]

Yes, but if a team scores quickly that means there are more possessions in the game for both teams, so that doesn't give either team an advantage in number of possessions.

That’s true
We tend to score slowly and force teams to score slowly
I believe last week each team had 9

 

[OmerV]

That’s true
We tend to score slowly and force teams to score slowly
I believe last week each team had 9

This made me curious, so I looked at last week's game to see how long scoring drives took. The Lions and Cowboys both had one 8+ minute scoring drive, with each ending in a FG. Otherwise scoring drives were 4 minutes or less.
Of course that doesn't tell us anything about the length of non scoring possessions, but most of the time those will be shorter since the don't get the team far enough down field to have a chance to score. But even some of the 3-4 minute drives took 9 or more plays.

This isn't really meant as a response to your post, just simply showing some info that relates to what we were discussing

 

[cern]

you first have to win the coin toss in order to be able to defer. given our inability to make halftime adjustments, does it really make a difference for us? I think not.

 

[McKDaddy]

If you play well, it makes very little difference. Much ado about nothing.

 

[conner01]

This made me curious, so I looked at last week's game to see how long scoring drives took. The Lions and Cowboys both had one 8+ minute scoring drive, with each ending in a FG. Otherwise scoring drives were 4 minutes or less.
Of course that doesn't tell us anything about the length of non scoring possessions, but most of the time those will be shorter since the don't get the team far enough down field to have a chance to score. But even some of the 3-4 minute drives took 9 or more plays.

This isn't really meant as a response to your post, just simply showing some info that relates to what we were discussing

We had more big plays last week than we have had
Hopefully that’s a trend
I love a nice 9 min drive when you have the lead but a slow drive with many plays is tough in today’s nfl
Penalties make them hard

 

[Big_D]

On the flip side of this I think the NFL should do away with the coin flip, home team kicks off and chooses the direction. Then every team would have an 8-8 split on kicking off and receiving. If it doesn't mean anything then why bother doing it in the first place?

 

[GenoT]

I prefer kicking off first.

Your defense gets to go out and put some hurt on people right off the bat, and you get the ball to start the 2nd half.