Evidence of Conservative Play Calling... Breakdown of 2nd & Short Plays

[BulletBob]

Thing is you don't know how many plays were called to go deep. Bledsoe mentioned they called Glenn number a couple of times on deep ball in the 1st half and he was not open and he was forced to go else where with the ball. When people start talking about play calling it would make more sense if they really knew what plays were coming into the huddle to begin with.

OK, Dooms. But clearly, we all know what plays were called on 2nd & short/medium (see above). They were all conservative, and all were almost identical.

We'd have to look at the game tape, but unless Bledsoe was calling an audible, we ran conservative plays every time we got into 2nd & short. With all of our receiving weapons, we should have run at least one play-action pass.

I know it's arm-chair QB'ing, but an aggressive team uses 2nd & short to exploit a defense expecting the run. We didn't even try. Not once.

It's simply additional evidence of a ball-control, low-risk, conservative approach. You cannot win football games that way if you turn the ball over, commit penalties, and your defense does not play as stout as you think it will.

 

[wileedog]

I seriously do not think this is a well coached team. Lets be honest here, if this was BPs first coaching gig we would all be ready to run him out of town. He gets a pass because he won two Super Bowls once upon a time a long time ago. I have had enough of his act.

Given where this team was 4 years ago and where it is now, I think anybody who wanted to run him out of town would be an idiot, regardless of his previous resume.

 

[Doomsday101]

OK, Dooms. But clearly, we all know what plays were called on 2nd & short/medium (see above). They were all conservative, and all were almost identical.

We'd have to look at the game tape, but unless Bledsoe was calling an audible, we ran conservative plays every time we got into 2nd & short. With all of our receiving weapons, we should have run at least one play-action pass.

I know it's arm-chair QB'ing, but an aggressive team uses 2nd & short to exploit a defense expecting the run. We didn't even try. Not once.

It's simply additional evidence of a ball-control, low-risk, conservative approach. You cannot win football games that way if you turn the ball over, commit penalties, and your defense does not play as stout as you think it will.

I don't disagree with that but I was responding to "yeah and I'll bet half of those 60% were dumpoffs or things of that conservative nature

how many long balls did we throw all game? a couple? what were the results? a huge gain by Terry Glenn, and a touchdown by Terrell Owens... hmmmmmmmm"

People calling for the deep balls and the fact is they don't know what plays were being called. Most pass plays have more than 1 option to it and just chunking the ball down field is stupid if the QB sees they have the right coverage to prevent the play.

 

[Dough Boy]

A real reporter would have these facts, and take Parcell to task on the apparent lack of ability to alter the plan of attack. And why, would you continually attack there strength....

Instead, we will get the typical Dallas press,

1) What did you think of TO
2) Are you going to bench Drew
3) Did you think about pluggin Romo into the mix
4) Is this your last season if you have more losses...
etc...

 

[gbrittain]

Given where this team was 4 years ago and where it is now, I think anybody who wanted to run him out of town would be an idiot, regardless of his previous resume.

Now do not misunderstand. He has done some really good things since he got here and I was on cloud nine when I got the news that BP was coming to big D. I am talking game day. In my opinion he sucks.

This team does not put offensive or defensive pressure on any one. We are the ultimate bend dont break team.

 

[BulletBob]

A real reporter would have these facts, and take Parcell to task on the apparent lack of ability to alter the plan of attack. And why, would you continually attack there strength....

Instead, we will get the typical Dallas press,

1) What did you think of TO
2) Are you going to bench Drew
3) Did you think about pluggin Romo into the mix
4) Is this your last season if you have more losses...
etc...

Agree 100%.

I would also love to hear at least one reporter ask him what he was thinking when he called the 3rd & 14 run off tackle.

Oh, but we wouldn't want to gain any insight into his coaching approach/decision making would we?

Let's make sure all of the questions come straight out of a "Young and the Restless" episode.

 

[landryscorner]

thank you bullet that was what i said on my post also, conservative playcalling will doom us if we dont change, why can't a 2nd and 7 be turned into a play calling skinnypost to glenn or to, would of been much better than JJ running into a brick wall, lets face it BP want to test the tackles...HEy!! its not working ok, quit beating a dead horse, how many pitchouts did JJ have, none, or screens...geez what a joke the playcalling was

 

[Stautner]

It's always funny to me how with some fans it's always the coaches fault when the team fails and the players talent that is the difference when the team wins.

Especially in a game like this where it is so obvious that on field execution was the problem.

Play calling and other factors obviously contributed as they do in every game, but player execution was clearly the big problem Sunday.

 

[Frosty]

Given where this team was 4 years ago and where it is now, I think anybody who wanted to run him out of town would be an idiot, regardless of his previous resume.

What has BIll Parcels Done for the Cowboys,,, alot of hype but have the Cowboys made it to the playoffs wit his players. he got them once with campo players, wow and got smacked hard.


All BP done has maintained the Cowboys so they did not fall behind, the NFC East has grown to a strong division, The Giants, Commanders and Philly all are solid teams,
I for one, have thought and continue to think the Cowboys are being out coached.

 

[gbrittain]

It's always funny to me how with some fans it's always the coaches fault when the team fails and the players talent that is the difference when the team wins.

Especially in a game like this where it is so obvious that on field execution was the problem.

Play calling and other factors obviously contributed as they do in every game, but player execution was clearly the big problem Sunday.

I do not think anyone is laying all the blame on coaching. If you dont believe me look at all the Bledsoe threads.

Bottom line is the players did not execute well and the coaches did not coach well.

 

[StanleySpadowski]

I somewhat disagree with the complaints of a "conservative" offense. I think the problem has more to do with the predictibility of the playcalling.

I believe that plenty of people here can guess the play that's coming with a 75% accuracy rate or more just from being fans. Imagine how that accuracy rate would go up even higher if we had a team of scouts working for us reviewing tendencies like NFL teams do.

The only thing that surprised me at all was that Dallas didn't run the standard flea flicker when that had the ball around midfield.

 

[superpunk]

OK, Dooms. But clearly, we all know what plays were called on 2nd & short/medium (see above). They were all conservative, and all were almost identical.

We'd have to look at the game tape, but unless Bledsoe was calling an audible, we ran conservative plays every time we got into 2nd & short. With all of our receiving weapons, we should have run at least one play-action pass.

I know it's arm-chair QB'ing, but an aggressive team uses 2nd & short to exploit a defense expecting the run. We didn't even try. Not once.

It's simply additional evidence of a ball-control, low-risk, conservative approach. You cannot win football games that way if you turn the ball over, commit penalties, and your defense does not play as stout as you think it will.

Did you watch the game to see that? Or read the drive chart? Because there's a good chance on quite a few of those Bledsoe was killing the pass play to check it to run.

 

[Stautner]

I do not think anyone is laying all the blame on coaching. If you dont believe me look at all the Bledsoe threads.

Bottom line is the players did not execute well and the coaches did not coach well.

Some are blaming the coaches - look at the ones who blame the play calling ....

The fact is that you are right about it being a little of both, but the other fact is that we had a number of opportunities to score and/or keep promising drives alive that were killed by penalties and poor QB play. All the coaches can do is help put the players in that position (obviously player execution is a big factor in that as well), but the players have to execute at crunch time, and we didn't.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

To those of you who were content with the play calling, please consider that on every second down with less than 8 yards to the first down marker, we ran Julius Jones. Every time. Without exception.

80% of those carries were up the gut.

From the NFL play-by-play breakdown:

2-6-DAL24 (8:07) J.Jones up the middle to DAL 27 for 3 yards (M.Stroud).
2-2-DAL39 (14:23) J.Jones up the middle to DAL 39 for no gain (P.Spicer).
2-2-JAC25 (5:32) J.Jones up the middle to JAX 26 for -1 yards (D.Smith).
2-5-JAC11 (2:37) J.Jones up the middle to JAX 10 for 1 yard (M.Peterson).
2-1-DAL22 (7:23) J.Jones right end to DAL 20 for -2 yards (R.Mathis).

It was a no-brainer for the Jax defense when we were in 2nd & short-medium range. Key on JJ - run.

Now, with all the weapons we have in our arsenal, you don't run at least one play-action pass?

You run the same play 4 times in a row, and shake it up on the 5th attempt by running right instead of middle?

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results.

I agree and that's something I've pointed out to early. However, at that point Bledsoe was playing awful. It's a bit of a double edge sword, do you want to rely on your struggling QB or just get the first down?

I think they should've mixed things up a tad bit more, but I can see why they proceeded with caution.

From an offensive standpoint, I didn't have too much of an issue with the gameplan or playcalling. Yeah, it could've been a bit better, but it also would've played out much different if Bledsoe had just been average.


YAKUZA

 

[landryscorner]

It's always funny to me how with some fans it's always the coaches fault when the team fails and the players talent that is the difference when the team wins.

Especially in a game like this where it is so obvious that on field execution was the problem.

Play calling and other factors obviously contributed as they do in every game, but player execution was clearly the big problem Sunday.

..the thing about playcalling my friend is that...during the game a team has a chance to change the playcalling according to there opponents weakness' did the cowboys do that emm "no" and they hardly do, yes there was players that messed up we already mentioned that, bledsoe did force balls in there but he wouldnt of had to if we wouldn't of ran so many dang times on second down without nothing to show for it

 

[gbrittain]

Some are blaming the coaches - look at the ones who blame the play calling ....

The fact is that you are right about it being a little of both, but the other fact is that we had a number of opportunities to score and/or keep promising drives alive that were killed by penalties and poor QB play. All the coaches can do is help put the players in that position (obviously player execution is a big factor in that as well), but the players have to execute at crunch time, and we didn't.

I will not disagree with you one bit that the players did not execute, but like I said earlier I will not give the coaches a pass either. A loss like that had many helping hands.

 

[joseephuss]

Excection is what BP was looking for, and frankly we didnt do that all game. And Knowing the way we did play, we would have play actioned and either one or two things were gonna happen

1) offensive Penalty

2) bledsoe throws a bad pass

either way we just had poor execution. Play calling had nothing to do with the players just sucking out there. Sorry

Don't be sorry.

Play calling has something to do with any game. Coaches can suck just like players can suck. Sure exection plays a larger part in the success of any single play, but the play call also has an effect.

I will give you an extreme example. A team lines up with 5 wide receivers, but the defensive coaches call for their goal line defense. I think any fan of that defense would question the call to use that scheme against a 5 receiver set. The chances of the goal line defense to execute well enough to cover those receivers is more difficult than if the defense used their nickel, dime or even base schem to do the job.

I don't mind estabilishing the run or being a predominatley rush oriented team. That is not conservative to me. It is good football philosophy. I do mind when they don't utilize enough play action passes. They didn't have to "open up" the offense in all of those second down plays listed in the original post. Passes don't always have to be deep, but a good play action pass can open up easy passes underneath for the QB and receivers or tight end. They would still have to execute, but it sure seems like it would be an easier play to execute than running at the strenght of that defense every single second down opportunity.

 

[gbrittain]

Don't be sorry.

Play calling has something to do with any game. Coaches can suck just like players can suck. Sure exection plays a larger part in the success of any single play, but the play call also has an effect.

I will give you an extreme example. A team lines up with 5 wide receivers, but the defensive coaches call for their goal line defense. I think any fan of that defense would question the call to use that scheme against a 5 receiver set. The chances of the goal line defense to execute well enough to cover those receivers is more difficult than if the defense used their nickel, dime or even base schem to do the job.

I don't mind estabilishing the run or being a predominatley rush oriented team. That is not conservative to me. It is good football philosophy. I do mind when they don't utilize enough play action passes. They didn't have to "open up" the offense in all of those second down plays listed in the original post. Passes don't always have to be deep, but a good play action pass can open up easy passes underneath for the QB and receivers or tight end. They would still have to execute, but it sure seems like it would be an easier play to execute than running at the strenght of that defense every single second down opportunity.

Very very good post.

 

[Stautner]

I will not disagree with you one bit that the players did not execute, but like I said earlier I will not give the coaches a pass either. A loss like that had many helping hands.

And I don't give the coaches a pass. But the fact is that even when we win we don't do everything right. Coaches make bad calls in games we win, and players make bad plays. All we can ask is to be in a position to succeed, and in this game we were. What cost us was the penalties that took away a TD and another long pass, and Bledsoe's misreads and poor throws. I don't believe we made an unnatural number of coaching mistakes - the scoring opportunities were there - but we did make an unnatural number of those kind of execution mistakes, and that made the difference.

 

[ZeroClub]

Given how erratic Bledsoe was yesterday, is it reasonable to conclude that things would have been better with even more passing?

I'm not convinced.