That package, known as "S11" in this space - Shotgun, 1 RB (Murray), 1 TE (Witten), and 3 WR (Bryant, Robinson, Austin) - took 78% of the snaps on Sunday as the Cowboys were forced to scrap everything they had worked on and simply were going to try to dig back into the game.
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But, beyond that, it was the same 11 players running the same approximately half-dozen plays for the entire night. 6-8 is the normal number of different plays a team installs for its 2-minute offense. Since Jason Garrett has been the offensive coordinator the Cowboys are exclusively in S11 for their 2-min drill. S11 is certainly the most-used package in his offense, but also has consistently been one of the more inefficient packages as the yards per attempt are painfully low. All the Eagles must do is "pin their ears back" and go get Romo. By the way, the Eagles didn't even have to blitz. Just 4 times in the game did the Eagles send more than their front 4. All that work in picking up blitzes that DeMarco Murray and Phillip Tanner had to prepare for were hardly even seen during the game.
According to our data that goes back every snap since 2008, Dallas has run the "S11" package over 35 times on 6 occasions. They are now 0-6 in those game (39 snaps vs Baltimore '08, 37 at Philadelphia '08, 37 at Green Bay '09, 36 vs New York Giants '10, 48 vs Jacksonville '10, and 38 at Philadelphia '11).
The reasons for the issues with the Cowboys 2-minute drill span this entire 4 season study. The unit has never been able to exploit defenses in the passing game with this strategy. Instead, Tony Romo has demonstrated a great ability to accumulate numbers and wins through the traditional "under-center" offense. His production in this regard is actually quite impressive and compares favorably to many of the best in the sport. However, what must frustrate Romo and Garrett to no end is the way that New England, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Green Bay, and many other teams have devoured the NFL in the shotgun/3WR offenses by spreading out a defense and isolating poor coverage players in space and simply picking them apart. This was the rationale behind assembling a cast of skill players but it has never materialized.
Again that showed on Sunday. The sling-it-around offense is not something they excel at. 38 snaps in S11 with some very talented players on the field, and yet in 34 pass attempts, they are only able to rack up 174 yards. 5.11 yards per attempt in the shotgun is nowhere close to acceptable. In fact, if you subtract the 1 big play from the results - the 70-yard pass to Laurent Robinson for the Touchdown in the 4th Quarter - then you simply get 3.15 yards per attempt for the other 33 plays. Beyond putrid.
ray:
