News: Garrett Explains Why Weeden, Offense Didn’t Take More Down-Field Shots

[Corso]

The defense had no reason to be "completely gassed" until they had already allowed 32 points and blown our 14-point lead.

True. They weren't out there in the 1st half like the Eagles D were against us and they were still bringing the heat till the very end.

 

[Idgit]

True. They weren't out there in the 1st half like the Eagles D were against us and they were still bringing the heat till the very end.

We sucked early and often on defense on Sunday. We weren't getting pressure, and we weren't covering up for our LBs. Our LBs weren't getting off blocks, and our secondary couldn't slow Jones and didn't make the plays that were there to be made in the red zone. It didn't have anything to do with being tired. It had to do with not executing well all game.

 

[Corso]

We sucked early and often on defense on Sunday. We weren't getting pressure, and we weren't covering up for our LBs. Our LBs weren't getting off blocks, and our secondary couldn't slow Jones and didn't make the plays that were there to be made in the red zone. It didn't have anything to do with being tired. It had to do with not executing well all game.

Certainly a lot of it has to do with the ineptitude of the talent that the team had available on the DL.
Russell was an unmitigated disaster and combined with (as you just stated) the LB's, including Lee, not having a good day (and let's not get into Wilcox's lack of fundamentals...), well...
Marinelli has some work in front of him and you just know the entire team is counting the seconds until Week 5.

I expect to see some crisper tackling and smarter contains in assignments this coming week (Mincey alone will help in that department. Who knows how much, but the less we get to see Russell standing on the field looking clueless as people are running by, the better) and, Cthulhu help us, we're going to need it.

 

[Rogerthat12]

Certainly a lot of it has to do with the ineptitude of the talent that the team had available on the DL.

Some look right over this fact but gloss over the pitiful offensive effort in the second half because it is a back up, quite hypocritical.

 

[Corso]

Some look right over this fact but gloss over the pitiful offensive effort in the second half because it is a back up, quite hypocritical.

Believe me, I've said more than once the offense did the defense ZERO favors in the second half.
But the DL was what it was. There were guys out there that were borderline practice squad guys weeks before.
One guy comes back next week. Good.
And then, hopefully the Big Infusion happens and the D can start to mold into what it can possibly become.
At least able to hold it's own...

 

[Idgit]

Some look right over this fact but gloss over the pitiful offensive effort in the second half because it is a back up, quite hypocritical.

The issues on defense were at every level, though. Not just along the DL. And we still had 3 of the 4 regular starters out on the DL itself, so the absence of Mincey was not really what was debatable. If we wanted to say that we shouldn't expect Russell to be Mincey, I'd agree with that. If we're saying our DL as a whole gets a pass for breaking containment on both ends and getting zero pressure outside of blitzing LBs the whole game at every position, well, I'd disagree.

Just as I don't give the whole offense a pass for sucking in the second half. If you get stupid penalties, give up sacks, and mess up your run blocking, you're going to have a pitiful offensive effort. Whether your backup QB who's just not very good is checking down or not.

 

[Rogerthat12]

Believe me, I've said more than once the offense did the defense ZERO favors in the second half.
But the DL was what it was. There were guys out there that were borderline practice squad guys weeks before.
One guy comes back next week. Good.
And then, hopefully the Big Infusion happens and the D can start to mold into what it can possibly become.
At least able to hold it's own...

Exactly, the problem is both on defense and offense we are missing impact players.

This defense is undermanned just like the offense and it showed.

The offense played well early then made critical decision errors resulting 10 points for Atlanta in the first half, if these decisions were not made, it is doubtful they score 10 points.

The defense certainly failed but an offense that gives away points and fails to score is also problematic.

 

[Corso]

The issues on defense were at every level, though. Not just along the DL. And we still had 3 of the 4 regular starters out on the DL itself, so the absence of Mincey was not really what was debatable. If we wanted to say that we shouldn't expect Russell to be Mincey, I'd agree with that. If we're saying our DL as a whole gets a pass for breaking containment on both ends and getting zero pressure outside of blitzing LBs the whole game at every position, well, I'd disagree.

Just as I don't give the whole offense a pass for sucking in the second half. If you get stupid penalties, give up sacks, and mess up your run blocking, you're going to have a pitiful offensive effort. Whether your backup QB who's just not very good is checking down or not.

But you have to admit to a domino effect that the DL was rippling down to the back end of the defense.

 

[burmafrd]

Ask Mike Singletary how the "truth" is better.
Players and coaches have a brotherhood. Behind closed doors you can fight, curse, and rip each other a new one....but to the public you have each other's backs.

To lead men you need them to be willing to follow you. No one is following someone who throws his people under the bus.

They owe you nothing.

having met a few REAL LEADERS you have no concept at all. The one thing all REAL LEADERS never do is LIE to their people.

 

[Corso]

Exactly, the problem is both on defense and offense we are missing impact players.

This defense is undermanned just like the offense and it showed.

The offense played well early then made critical decision errors resulting 10 points for Atlanta in the first half, if these decisions were not made, it is doubtful they score 10 points.

The defense certainly failed but an offense that gives away points and fails to score is also problematic.

Shoot- fails to get more than 3 first downs in an entire half!

 

[Corso]

having met a few REAL LEADERS you have no concept at all. The one thing all REAL LEADERS never do is LIE to their people.

Yes Sir.

 

[Idgit]

But you have to admit to a domino effect that the DL was rippling down to the back end of the defense.

Sure. Russell was actually a part of the problem, too. But mainly we just had people not doing their jobs well enough. I expect Crawford and Lawrence to make plays, for example, if Gregory and Mincey are out. But DL issues aside, the LBs weren't getting off of blocks the way they used to. Wilcox wasn't wrapping up on tackles. Mo/Wilber missed an opportunity for a red zone turnover. It wasn't all happening just because Mr. Mince was stupid enough to head butt a teammate and knock himself for a loop.

 

[Corso]

Sure. Russell was actually a part of the problem, too. But mainly we just had people not doing their jobs well enough. I expect Crawford and Lawrence to make plays, for example, if Gregory and Mincey are out. But DL issues aside, the LBs weren't getting off of blocks the way they used to. Wilcox wasn't wrapping up on tackles. Mo/Wilber missed an opportunity for a red zone turnover. It wasn't all happening just because Mr. Mince was stupid enough to head butt a teammate and knock himself for a loop.

You're right. I'm not arguing that.
But it certainly did have an effect and that can still domino to players into thinking about more than their assignments because they see the bleeding happening play after play and then their play is affected and that is what it was looking like to me...

No doubt, the LB's had a terrible day. No dispute. The DL also didn't do a whole lot to contain Atlanta's OL from imposing their will and that made the LB's jobs harder too.
The DL got just about zero pressure which put Wilcox in a position to make more cruddy plays, instead of them pressuring Ryan and having him get sacked, throwing an errant pass, or throwing it away, he had time to make comfortable passes that put his receivers in positions that were advantageous to what the defense was doing. Wilcox is not good enough to overcome that. He has never been good enough to overcome that outside an occasional play here and there...

...

It's all Chaos Theory anyways. Nobody can truly, truly even say if Dez caught that ball in Green Bay- the Cowboys win.
Who knows what would have happened after that? A million things. Good and bad.

It's all about cause and effect in the moment and I believe that the lack of talent/experience on the DLine created a ton of problems that couldn't be overcome on the defensive side without an immaculate performance by the LB's and it wasn't to be.
It didn't have to be...
But it was.

So it is now Written. So it is now Done.

 

[Zordon]

Sure. Russell was actually a part of the problem, too. But mainly we just had people not doing their jobs well enough. I expect Crawford and Lawrence to make plays, for example, if Gregory and Mincey are out. But DL issues aside, the LBs weren't getting off of blocks the way they used to. Wilcox wasn't wrapping up on tackles. Mo/Wilber missed an opportunity for a red zone turnover. It wasn't all happening just because Mr. Mince was stupid enough to head butt a teammate and knock himself for a loop.

Regardless of all of this, the offense had the ball at midfield after the defense made a stop coming out of halftime. They had great field position and an excellent opportunity to bury the Falcons. What did they do with it? Yet another false start from one of our leaders and conservative playcalling. I knew right then and there we were going to lose that game. That was the turning point IMO. It didn't help that the falcons defense came out of halftime like wild hyenas (I really wonder what Quinn said to his team at halftime) but I would have loved a shot downfield early on that possession to put the dagger in them. Cowboys coming away empty handed there gave them life.

 

[Rogerthat12]

The issues on defense were at every level, though. Not just along the DL. And we still had 3 of the 4 regular starters out on the DL itself, so the absence of Mincey was not really what was debatable. If we wanted to say that we shouldn't expect Russell to be Mincey, I'd agree with that. If we're saying our DL as a whole gets a pass for breaking containment on both ends and getting zero pressure outside of blitzing LBs the whole game at every position, well, I'd disagree.

Just as I don't give the whole offense a pass for sucking in the second half. If you get stupid penalties, give up sacks, and mess up your run blocking, you're going to have a pitiful offensive effort. Whether your backup QB who's just not very good is checking down or not.

The impact pass rushers are all out, Mincy would have taken advantage of the matchup with their RT but he was not available.

We got nothing much from Lawrence, Crawford at DE was a poor move. The defense certainly played poor and it progressed as we could not score anymore.

No one is giving the defense a pass, it is just not good enough to win or carry the team if the offense does not win time of possession.

Time of possession alone is not enough, they must not turn the ball over and continue to score points to win the game.

Some teams do not need to win ToP because they have elite qb's who score consistently and rarely turn the ball over with defenses whom are better than ours.

Last year, we won on the recipe of winning time of possession and controlling the clock while scoring which assisted a struggling defense.

During the 2014 NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys led all teams in the NFL with a % of Possession of 54.69%. The Philadelphia Eagles were last in the league in % of Possession with 44.38%.

It is no surprise that the games we lost last year, we also lost ToP.

This year, in our first two wins we did the same thing 40 minutes to 20 minutes keeping the other offense off the field and limiting the defensive series and exposure.

When we are facing elite offenses, we struggle because they can score points on this defense and if you lose ToP as well, you lose.

Not every team needs to win this way but our team does not have an elite defense, our coming help should make it better but it is not elite, maybe we expected more than they could deliver.

 

[Idgit]

The impact pass rushers are all out, Mincy would have taken advantage of the matchup with their RT but he was not available.

We got nothing much from Lawrence, Crawford at DE was a poor move. The defense certainly played poor and it progressed as we could not score anymore.

No one is giving the defense a pass, it is just not good enough to win or carry the team if the offense does not win time of possession.

Time of possession alone is not enough, they must not turn the ball over and continue to score points to win the game.

Some teams do not need to win ToP because they have elite qb's who score consistently and rarely turn the ball over with defenses whom are better than ours.

Last year, we won on the recipe of winning time of possession and controlling the clock while scoring which assisted a struggling defense.

During the 2014 NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys led all teams in the NFL with a % of Possession of 54.69%. The Philadelphia Eagles were last in the league in % of Possession with 44.38%.

It is no surprise that the games we lost last year, we also lost ToP.

This year, in our first two wins we did the same thing 40 minutes to 20 minutes keeping the other offense off the field and limiting the defensive series and exposure.

When we are facing elite offenses, we struggle because they can score points on this defense and if you lose ToP as well, you lose.

Not every team needs to win this way but our team does not have an elite defense, our coming help should make it better but it is not elite, maybe we expected more than they could deliver.

ToP does matter, but it's also a stat that encourages people to confuse cause and effect. Teams often win the ToP because they're winning the games rather than the other way around. What really matters is the rate you score points at in terms of the numbers of plays you get.

 

[Idgit]

Regardless of all of this, the offense had the ball at midfield after the defense made a stop coming out of halftime. They had great field position and an excellent opportunity to bury the Falcons. What did they do with it? Yet another false start from one of our leaders and conservative playcalling. I knew right then and there we were going to lose that game. That was the turning point IMO. It didn't help that the falcons defense came out of halftime like wild hyenas (I really wonder what Quinn said to his team at halftime) but I would have loved a shot downfield early on that possession to put the dagger in them. Cowboys coming away empty handed there gave them life.

There was no chance to take that shot. We had the false start, Witten. The negative run, and then the holding call. I suppose we could have taken the shot on 1st and 15, but even then, they were bracketing Williams in passing situations and that leaves us throwing downfield to Butler or Beasley or one of the TEs.

Simpler to just expect your team to run block properly and run it to stay ahead of the chains.

 

[Rogerthat12]

We sucked early and often on defense on Sunday. We weren't getting pressure, and we weren't covering up for our LBs. Our LBs weren't getting off blocks, and our secondary couldn't slow Jones and didn't make the plays that were there to be made in the red zone. It didn't have anything to do with being tired. It had to do with not executing well all game.

The defense held Atlanta to 7 points until Weeden threw a pick and Garrett made a clock decision that led to 10 points.

These points are probably not scored if these decisions were not made, so 7 points is bad defense in the first half against an elite WR and solid QB?

You are in denial, second half, yes, first half you are being dishonest.

 

[Rogerthat12]

ToP does matter, but it's also a stat that encourages people to confuse cause and effect. Teams often win the ToP because they're winning the games rather than the other way around. What really matters is the rate you score points at in terms of the numbers of plays you get.

For Dallas, ToP and scoring matters along with avoiding turnovers.

I agree ToP alone is not enough!

 

[Idgit]

The defense held Atlanta to 7 points until Weeden threw a pick and Garrett made a clock decision that led to 10 points.

These points are probably not scored if these decisions were not made, so 7 points is bad defense in the first half against an elite WR and solid QB?

You are in denial, second half, yes, first half you are being dishonest.

Weeden's pick was a stupid decision, no doubt.

The timeout at that point on the field when you weren't sure you were going to score on the first play given you knew it was a run and if you didn't trust your backup's clock management I have no problem with. If you can't trust your defense to keep them from going 66 yards in 40 seconds, then the issue isn't with where you're calling time outs.

Either way, the defense coughed up 17 in that first half. It's not a far cry from being exactly half of the 39 they coughed up, overall.