Dak Prescott working on deep ball

Batman1980

Batman1980

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OXNARD, Calif. -- Time after time during individual drills Sunday, Dak Prescott kept throwing deep.

A straight go route. A stop-and-go. A slant-and-go. An out-and-up. Any variation of the deep ball, Prescott kept firing it to his wide receivers. First it was Terrance Williams. Then Tavon Austin. Then Lance Lenoir. Williams again. Austin again.

Most of the time the passes were in good spots, leading the receivers into a position to make a play, but not the defensive backs.

Prescott's best delivery came on an out-and-up to Lenoir, who turned cornerback Anthony Brown around, but Lenoir couldn’t hang on to the pass as it came down from the sky.

“We’ve got some guys that can really stretch the field,” Prescott said. “We knew that coming into the offseason and then going into training camp that was part of our game we needed to strengthen and we needed to get better. And with having some guys that can stretch the field, it’s important that we all get on the same key there.”

The go route will not be a staple of the Dallas Cowboys' offense in 2018, but Prescott knows it has to be a part of it if the unit wants to be successful.

Everybody knows the Cowboys will want to give the ball to Ezekiel Elliott often. They will make their living on how well they run the ball. In Elliott’s first two seasons, the Cowboys have run the ball extremely well. He led the NFL in rushing as a rookie and averaged 98 yards per game in the 10 contests he played in 2017.

“Sometimes you’ve got to throw it and make the defense back up,” Prescott said. “It’s not a live-or-die thing, but we’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities when they give it to us because if not, they’re just going to sit on underneath routes. So we’ve got to let them know we can beat them over the top and let them know otherwise.”

Early in training camp, Prescott and the receivers struggled on deep balls. Passes were either too long or a little too short. The receivers did not do a good job of giving Prescott an avenue to get the ball to the outside, sticking too close to the sidelines.

But on the first drive of the first preseason game against the San Francisco 49ers, Prescott connected with rookie receiver Michael Gallup on a 30-yard touchdown.

To Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, a good deep-ball thrower must see the defense quickly and understand the route concept first. Then the quarterback must have his feet in good position to put the proper touch and accuracy on the throw.

“I think there’s a misnomer that good deep-ball throwers have to be guys with the strongest arms, that they throw it the farthest down the field,” Garrett said. “If you go back 100 years in football, '9' routes, straight go routes, are completed 42 yards down the field. That’s typically where they’re completed.”

Last season, Prescott ranked eighth in QBR (91.4) on passes that traveled 20 or more yards in the air, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. He completed 34.9 percent of those passes, which was 12th-best. Three of his 15 completions of throws 20 or more yards went for touchdowns, with all three coming in the fourth quarter.



In his first two seasons, he is sixth in QBR in passes of 20-plus air yards (96.1) and he has nine touchdown passes.

For years, Dez Bryant was the Cowboys’ big-play threat outside, although Williams averaged 15.8 yards per catch in the first four seasons of his career. At 5-foot-8, Austin and Cole Beasley don’t have the prototypical size of the outside receivers, but Prescott has not been shy in taking shots to both. Allen Hurns made plays down the field during his time with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he is more likely to make contested catches in traffic. Deonte Thompson might be the Cowboys’ fastest receiver, but he has been slowed by an Achilles injury in camp. Gallup, the third-round pick, has showed an ability to make plays in camp.

“Dak’s got to get that extra work with those guys,” offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said. “Just the whole idea of the deep ball, we want to stretch it and get it down the field. That’s really where the whole 9-ball concept works, when you’re really looking to get that ball. Not always the bull's-eye shot or the back-shoulder throw. To me, those are changeups or things you do when people defend it.

“Right now the real premium is on closing that cushion, getting on top and throw that ball to a spot.”

And that’s why Prescott kept throwing deep Sunday.

“The best deep-ball throwers I’ve been around, you spend time on it,” Garrett said. “Sometimes it feels like it’s an afterthought that we’re going to throw a go route, that it’s like the last route that we work on. But the best ones I’ve been around, they work on it a lot. There’s a real art to running those routes and a real art to throwing them.”
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Source - http://www.espn.com/blog/dallas-cow...cowboys-work-on-giving-defenses-deep-thoughts
 
Denim Chicken

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“Sometimes you’ve got to throw it and make the defense back up,” Prescott said. “It’s not a live-or-die thing, but we’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities when they give it to us because if not, they’re just going to sit on underneath routes. So we’ve got to let them know we can beat them over the top and let them know otherwise.”
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Seems like Dallas is working on exactly what fans have been (rightly) critical about.
 
erod

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Dak can make the deep sideline throws, so if teams are going to stack the box with a single high safety, then absolutely use this to the fullest.

Run both wide receivers deep and throw to the opposite site of where the safety shades.

What I really want to see is deep middle and seam routes. That's where Dak lacks confidence.
 
Redsfan_83

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Love Dac but should a pro qb be working on this in his 3rd year? Been said before I know, but this still bugs me.
 
CowboyRoy

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SportsGuru80 said:
A quarterback should always be working to improve his game....
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Dak is working on his deep ball chemistry with his new receivers and new routes. Hes not practicing his deep ball because he is bad at it. LOL

Pretty funny listening to the haters get it all wrong.

In fact, this proves the haters wrong once again. The deep ball was NOT a big part of the passing attack previously. IT wasnt a big part of the scheme and didnt have the receivers for it. NOW we do and its more of a focus for the offense.

Dallas NOT having a lot of deep ball success had nothing to do with Dak as many had claimed.
 
Batman1980

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CowboyRoy said:
Dak is working on his deep ball chemistry with his new receivers and new routes. Hes not practicing his deep ball because he is bad at it. LOL

Pretty funny listening to the haters get it all wrong.

In fact, this proves the haters wrong once again. The deep ball was NOT a big part of the passing attack previously. IT wasnt a big part of the scheme and didnt have the receivers for it. NOW we do and its more of a focus for the offense.

Dallas NOT having a lot of deep ball success had nothing to do with Dak as many had claimed.
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Witten and Bryant lack the long speed. Bryant also lacks the crisp route-running and hands needed to run yourself open and catch questionable passes. Williams lacks the initial burst at the start of the route to run off corners and lacks true deep speed to get open long consistently. Don't even get me started on whether Cole Beasley is fast. Butler's hands probably cost him more opportunities. Now we have Gallup, Hurns, Austin and Jarwin. Should see a lot more designed double moves to get receivers open over the top. We'll see just how often we can complete from 5-7 step drops with this vaunted OL.
 
Denim Chicken

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erod said:
What I really want to see is deep middle and seam routes. That's where Dak lacks confidence.
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So you keep saying. Though, I think he look pretty confident. Perhaps more a play-calling issue than a QB issue. Check out the deep middle completions marked in the videos below:

Gameover said:
Never meant he wasn't accurate or not capable of going deep. Dak and Aikman share the same strengths as passers.

Meaning: there best route is deep and over the middle.

2:30 is what I mean by he's Aikman. I maybe wrong, but that reminds me of Aik to Irv... maybe I'm clueless



@ 0:30 and 0:49... reminds me of Aikman. Sorry if you don't agree


3:49... Aikman throw
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Bullflop

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Anyone who's been checking out his passes on the videos lately has surely noticed how much the staff has him focusing on the long balls. Here's hoping it pays off when the regular season rolls around. Of course, they don't show how many aren't successful, so there's that to ponder as well. At any rate, let's hope our secondary offers enough capable coverage to challenge him to improve noticeably. ~crossing fingers~ ;)
 
CowboyRoy

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Bullflop said:
Anyone who's been checking out his passes on the videos lately has surely noticed how much the staff has him focusing on the long balls. Here's hoping it pays off when the regular season rolls around. Of course, they don't show how many aren't successful, so there's that to consider as well. At any rate, let's hope our secondary offers enough capable coverage to challenge him to improve noticeably. ~crosses fingers~ ;)
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The entire offense is working on the deep ball. Zeke is working on being out wide. Is that because he was bad at it before? Nope.
 
Bullflop

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CowboyRoy said:
The entire offense is working on the deep ball. Zeke is working on being out wide. Is that because he was bad at it before? Nope.
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You're preaching to the choir here. I've been a Dak fan from the outset of his career. That hasn't changed. There's always room for improvement, though. Thanks in advance for being more positive.
 
Denim Chicken

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CowboyRoy said:
They working in it for chemistry purposes and because it’s a bigger part of the offense now. Not because dak stunk at it.
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I never said he was. I said Dallas was working on an area where fans were critical (e.g. lack of deep passes).
 
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