It's not aggressive/conservative

[StanleySpadowski]

The conservative gameplans/aggressive gameplans aren't really the issue. The real issue with this team is the predictibility on both sides of the ball.

Offensively the run, run, pass scenario in the red zone doesn't have any opposing DCs losing sleep. If Dallas has the ball between the 45s, guess what, a "trick" play is coming. Serously, sitting on your couch, how many of you can guess the play call with a fairly high degree of accuracy? And we're just rabid fans, not someone who's paid to watch hours upon hours of tape and report tendencies.

Defensively, I believe that predictibility plays a huge role in the defense's problems in the final minutes. Teams have 50+ minutes to figure out what the defense is going to do and they then exploit it. Dallas has been burnt late rushing three or rushing eight, it doesn't matter, it seems that teams know what to expect.

 

[Portland Fanatic]

The conservative gameplans/aggressive gameplans aren't really the issue. The real issue with this team is the predictibility on both sides of the ball.

Offensively the run, run, pass scenario in the red zone doesn't have any opposing DCs losing sleep. If Dallas has the ball between the 45s, guess what, a "trick" play is coming. Serously, sitting on your couch, how many of you can guess the play call with a fairly high degree of accuracy? And we're just rabid fans, not someone who's paid to watch hours upon hours of tape and report tendencies.

Defensively, I believe that predictibility plays a huge role in the defense's problems in the final minutes. Teams have 50+ minutes to figure out what the defense is going to do and they then exploit it. Dallas has been burnt late rushing three or rushing eight, it doesn't matter, it seems that teams know what to expect.

For the most part I agree...after the Skins game it was definately about having a conservative game plan, but since then I personally think it's about lack of creativity, exception Iggles.

I liked the way we came out of the shoot with the Giants...then the turnovers slowed us down big time....this is very understandable. The fact we cut lose in OT made me really happy.

Your point in the redzone is right on!!! Run run pass....C'mon!!!

In addition to this....Drew is not a roll out QB, so WHY are we going against his strength with the game on the line...why? Look at tap...Witten is WIDE open...Drew is unable to throw it...not natural for him....again WHY?

Flea flicker with rookie in the rain with game on the line????? WHY??????????

Even Troy was saying in the booth "This is not a time to get CUTE"!

USE WITTEN AND KEYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[StanleySpadowski]

I don't care if they do "get cute", just not in a predictible manner.

Witness the failed fake punt. Gutsy call, against the grain, but why split McBriar out and give the opponent the ability to predict a sneak by Crayton.


I'd love to see something new from the offense. Maybe the next they get inside the ten, go four wides and Witten with no back and have Bledsoe run a QB draw. It's not something that the Cardinals gameplanned for.


When and how Dallas blitzes is still my biggest complaint with the defense, no matter how well they're playing for most of the game. I'd like to see Ware taken out of the DE position in the nickel and move to a roving LB who could blitz wherever the weakness is while letting Canty/Spears/Ellis and Glover try to beat their man heads up.

 

[Derinyar]

Predictibility isn't bad. What we are lacking is execution right now. In the Red Zone on offense and in the last few minutes on defense we aren't executing right. Lets face it in the 90's everyone knew which play was coming in the red zone and couldn't stop it. Everyone falls into patterns, its human nature, the trick is to get the job done when they know whats coming. Thats where we are falling short.

 

[StanleySpadowski]

Times have changed. There isn't a team in the NFL right now that can line up and say "This is what we're going to do, try and stop us".

Expansion has diluted the talent pool and Free Agency has given us something of parity when it comes to talent level.

 

[InmanRoshi]

Times have changed. There isn't a team in the NFL right now that can line up and say "This is what we're going to do, try and stop us".

Expansion has diluted the talent pool and Free Agency has given us something of parity when it comes to talent level.

You mean like changing up a defense front on defense between the 3-4 and a 4-3? Or maybe sometimes playing your strong safety up in the box, and other times dropping him back in coverage?

You mean like using multiple formations on offense, like 2 TE 1RB, 2 WR 1 TE 1 FB? 3 WR 1 RB? Or maybe splitting an athletic tight end out wide like a WR?

Or maybe running trick plays. Like running a reverse and a flea flicker in the same game?

Yeah, you never see us doing anything like that.

 

[Manster68]

You know, Lombardi's gameplans were pretty predictable too.

Itis just that teams couldn't stop them.

 

[Kilyin]

You mean like changing up a defense front on defense between the 3-4 and a 4-3? Or maybe sometimes playing your strong safety up in the box, and other times dropping him back in coverage?

You mean like using multiple formations on offense, like 2 TE 1RB, 2 WR 1 TE 1 FB? 3 WR 1 RB? Or maybe splitting an athletic tight end out wide like a WR?

Or maybe running trick plays. Like running a reverse and a flea flicker in the same game?

Yeah, you never see us doing anything like that.

Flea Flicker in the rain to a rookie RB. BRILLIANT.

Running the reverse, when we never fake reverse for a playaction. BRILLIANT.

Running three times and punting. BRILLIANT.

What happened to the formation where Keyshawn blocks in the backfield? It only held the Eagles defense to 0 sacks. Let's abandon it. BRILLIANT.

 

[Richmond Cowboy]

Drew is not a roll out QB, so WHY are we going against his strength with the game on the line

Perhaps because the defense will not PREDICT such a play...

 

[wileedog]

Times have changed. There isn't a team in the NFL right now that can line up and say "This is what we're going to do, try and stop us".

Pittsbugh is pretty darn close. The run almost twice as much as they throw.

 

[StanleySpadowski]

You mean like changing up a defense front on defense between the 3-4 and a 4-3? Or maybe sometimes playing your strong safety up in the box, and other times dropping him back in coverage?

You mean like using multiple formations on offense, like 2 TE 1RB, 2 WR 1 TE 1 FB? 3 WR 1 RB? Or maybe splitting an athletic tight end out wide like a WR?

Or maybe running trick plays. Like running a reverse and a flea flicker in the same game?

Yeah, you never see us doing anything like that.

First off, every team in the NFL uses multiple formations on offense. Dallas uses fewer than most.

Secondly, I haven't seen Dallas switch between the 3-4 and 4-3. They do drop Ware to RDE in the nickel, but when was the last time they lined up in a true 4-3?

And lastly, just because they use the "trick" plays doesn't mean they aren't predictible. They run a reverse to the right with a WR, seems to me it's usually second down in Dallas' territory, they run a flea-flicker somewhere around the 50 and they run a halfback pass around the 25-30.

Did you happen to see the Rams run a reverse on the five yard line for a TD. No one saw that coming.

 

[StanleySpadowski]

Pittsbugh is pretty darn close. The run almost twice as much as they throw.

Pittsburgh is pretty close, but they're able to run so effectively because teams must respect their passing game. It didn't work so well for them when Maddox had to play against JAX.

 

[Portland Fanatic]

Perhaps because the defense will not PREDICT such a play...

LOL....true enough, but at least give us a play where we don't put Drew in an awkward position. He is not very good at rolling out... He saw Witten wide open, but could not get him the ball because he could not adjust from the sprint he was in.

 

[Kilyin]

LOL....true enough, but at least give us a play where we don't put Drew in an awkward position. He is not very good at rolling out... He saw Witten wide open, but could not get him the ball because he could not adjust from the sprint he was in.

That and Polite just stood there and watched him get annihilated.

 

[InmanRoshi]

First off, every team in the NFL uses multiple formations on offense. Dallas uses fewer than most.

Complete and utter nonsense. We used virtually every offensive set known to man against Seattle, including a split backfield which is almost unheard of in the NFL these days.

Secondly, I haven't seen Dallas switch between the 3-4 and 4-3. They do drop Ware to RDE in the nickel, but when was the last time they lined up in a true 4-3?

Plenty. You're not watching close enough. They played a 4-3 almost exclusively against Philly.

And lastly, just because they use the "trick" plays doesn't mean they aren't predictible. They run a reverse to the right with a WR, seems to me it's usually second down in Dallas' territory, they run a flea-flicker somewhere around the 50 and they run a halfback pass around the 25-30.

Well, according to the football geniuses around here, it was the worst time to call a trick play, so it must have been predictable.

 

[InmanRoshi]

Flea Flicker in the rain to a rookie RB. BRILLIANT.

Only complaining becuase it didn't work. Typical generic, fan bellyaching after a loss.

Running the reverse, when we never fake reverse for a playaction.

Yeah, it was pretty brillant. It was a nice play went for a 1st down.

Running three times and punting. BRILLIANT.

We were averaging 4.2 yards per carry. It wasn't the running game that was causing stalled drives and punts, it was the passing game. The running game was the only thing that was moving the ball.

What happened to the formation where Keyshawn blocks in the backfield? It only held the Eagles defense to 0 sacks. Let's abandon it. BRILLIANT.

Its effective against the blitz. Which Johnson and Coughlin do a lot of. Seattle wasn't beating us with a blitz. They were playing back in coverage. If you log on to NFL.com and look at the stats, you'll see where all 4 sacks all came by their starting defensive linemen. They weren't sending more people than we could block, they were just outmuscling us with 4 down linemen. Fisher - 2 sacks. Wistrom - 1 sack. Darby - 1 sack. Tubbs - 1 sack. Not a single sack by a linebacker or safety.

I guess your solution for a team playing back lots of people back in coverage is to send one less WR out on routes. BRILLANT.

Again, not that I expect you to do something as labor intensive as log onto nfl.com and do a little elbow grease when there's a good ole knee jerk whine and cry fest to participate in.

 

[Kilyin]

Yeah, it was pretty brillant. It was a nice play went for a 1st down.

Usually it's Keyshawn for a small gain. This time it was Price (who has speed) and it worked. It wasn't capitalized on though.

Its effective against the blitz. Which Johnson and Coughlin do a lot of. Seattle wasn't beating us with a blitz. They were playing back in coverage. If you log on to NFL.com and look at the stats, you'll see where all 4 sacks all came by their starting defensive linemen.

So that makes Keyshawn as a chipper/release a bad idea? Obviously, we needed some help stopping the pressure, I'm not arguing where it came from. Drew could've gotten rid of the ball quicker too, but that's not exactly anything new.

 

[InmanRoshi]

So that makes Keyshawn as a chipper/release a bad idea? Obviously, we needed some help stopping the pressure, I'm not arguing where it came from. Drew could've gotten rid of the ball quicker too, but that's not exactly anything new.

I dunno, I generally think most teams would like for their WR's to run routes. Crazy thinking, I know.

All keeping Keyshawn into block does is keep one less person from running a route, and allowing Seattle to double and triple cover those that are running routes. And they were already dropping back 7 mosf of the time. So you have 3 guys running routes against 7 defenders. And THEN you expect Drew to get rid of it sooner. LMAO.

 

[Kilyin]

I dunno, I generally think most teams would like for their WR's to run routes. Crazy thinking, I know.

Blocking when needed and/or releasing on a delayed route is what he did against the Eagles when called on. What's the point of running a route when your Quarterback is laying in the dirt? Sometimes you have to adjust to the defense and pressure. Crazy thinking, I know.

 

[Richmond Cowboy]

Where were all these budding coaching geniuses before the internet era?