footballoutsiders: Word of Muth: Base Weak

CCBoy

Well-Known Member
Messages
53,028
Reaction score
25,008
Word of Muth: Base Weak
by Ben Muth


http://footballoutsiders.com/word-muth/2010/word-muth-base-weak



It's a good thing Jerry Jones is keeping the roof closed at the new Cowboys Stadium, because the sky is falling in Dallas. After dropping their most recent game, the Cowboys are just 1-3. It isn't looking too likely that America's team will play at home in this year's Super Bowl, as many predicted in the preseason.

Dallas didn't ever have a lead on Tennessee Sunday, and the offensive line didn't help the team's effort early in the game. The Cowboys made some adjustments up front and played much better in the second half. Unfortunately, they had dug themselves in too deep to come back. Now Cowboys fans have to hope that the same thing won't be true for their 2010 season.

The biggest news up front from this Sunday has to be Leonard Davis getting benched in favor of Montrae Holland. Anytime the offensive line unit struggles in a game, like the Cowboys' did in the first half, something has to change. So I was anxious to see whether or not Davis really played that poorly, or whether he was simply the scapegoat for a struggling group. Davis deserved to get the hook.

When I watched the Cowboys game against the Texans, I thought Davis played well, but it seemed like he could struggle against quicker defensive tackles. Turns out, Jason Jones was that quicker defensive tackle. Jones seemed to be playing in a different gear than Davis in that first half.

The two sacks certainly stand out as low points, but even in the running game, Jones was firing off the ball and into Davis before he could get his first step in the ground and establish any kind of power. Jones was just too much for Davis to handle.

The first sack Davis gave up was a predictor of his later struggles. It was third-and-10 on the Cowboys first drive of the game. Dallas was in a man protection we'll call Base Weak. (Most teams call this protection by a number. I've heard everything from 21 to 84, but since most teams have a different number, and this is a really common protection scheme, we'll just call it Base Weak.)....
 
Here are the BTB comments on article:

Football Outsiders: Cowboys Halftime Adjustments Helped Stabilize O-Line
by One.Cool.Customer on Oct 14, 2010 1:10 PM CDT in Dallas Cowboys News

http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2010...wboys-halftime-adjustments-helped-stabilize-o


Doug Free: Constantly going against DeMarcus Ware in training seems to be paying off.

The fine folks at Football Outsiders are running a new weekly column, entitled "Word of Muth," in which former Stanford (and all-Pac10) left tackle Ben Muth breaks down offensive line play. This week, it's the Cowboys' turn once again.

Muth makes the following observations about the O-line performance against the Titans:

•Leonard Davis deserved to get pulled. His ongoing struggles against quicker defensive tackles became particularly evident against the Titans' Jason Jones.

•Marc Colombo also struggled in pass protection but stayed in the game partly because of his run blocking, and partly - according to Muth - because of who his backup would have been.

•Muth saw evidence that the Cowboys halftime adjustments (keeping the backs in to block longer as well as going to full-slide protection) significantly improved the O-line performance.

•Free had the training wheels taken off, as the extra protection was moved over to Colombo's side in the second half. Doug Free passed the test.
If we go by the old maxim that for the O-line, 'no news is good news', then the left side did quite well, while the right side struggled mightily. Muth's analysis is much more detailed (and includes cool diagrams!).
 
Back
Top