Jesse Holley breaks down Dez Bryant route

[FiveRings]

Does Holley speak on this show often?

 

[Big D]

I think it was an on the spot adjustment and adlib by both of them and it's a very good sign. IMO.

 

[speedkilz88]

Does Holley speak on this show often?

I think he was added to the post game show this year. They also added Marc Colombo.

 

[btcutter]

We got lucky on the play.

Romo got lucky and held the ball with the pump because the defender was in his face...forcing him to pump the ball instead of throwing the slant. After that it was good adjustment by both Romo and Dez.

I think Jessei is right about the route. Dez needs to run through Porter and prevent the potential INT. He got lucky that Romo made that play. I hope Garrett gets on them both on this play.

 

[FiveRings]

I think he was added to the post game show this year. They also added Marc Colombo.

Hmm, that's a strange ex-Cowboy dynamic

 

[sideon]

We got lucky on the play.

Romo got lucky and held the ball with the pump because the defender was in his face...forcing him to pump the ball instead of throwing the slant. After that it was good adjustment by both Romo and Dez.

I think Jessei is right about the route. Dez needs to run through Porter and prevent the potential INT. He got lucky that Romo made that play. I hope Garrett gets on them both on this play.

If he runs through him it's a potential OPI, Porter had a better angle on the ball so Dez needed to change it up so he could make the catch.

 

[BHendri5]

it seems that everyone has forgotten about the DE/LB that was coming in free on Romo as well as Porter jumping the route. Porter jumped the route so if Dez had still went to cross his face and Romo had gooten the pass by onrushing d-lineman Dez would not have gotten more than a yard or 2. The route would have been shorter. I say that the adjustment was great on both players part, the pump fake got the rushing DL to stop his rush and jump and it also froze Porter therfore Dez was able to adjust his slant angle which gave Romo time to hit him in that open spot.

Porter was blitzing and recognize it was going to be a slant and he stopped.

 

[Ultra Warrior]

Agree??

I agree with him. In real speed when I saw it, I thought it was a great fake on the pump, to get Dez separation by Romo. Looking over it again, it does look like Porter jumps the route, Dez doesn't get INSIDE, Romo pulls it back in ( thankfully ) & catches Dez afterwards ( with pressure coming, by the way ). Did not look like a designed play to me but given it WORKED, who knows, maybe they'll add this wrinkle into what Romo can call.

 

[Bluestang]

There are several points to take away from this:

1. Be wary of announcers/ex-players/etc breaking down plays without having first hand knowledge of what the actual play call was. As Bales wrote in his article this was a sight adjustment by Romo and Dez all the way. What was an initial run call, you can see Smith going to his right as the whole line is blocking to the power side of the formation. Romo sees Porter in bump and run technique with an outside shade. This signals two things to the QB/WR, the inside of the field is being given to them by the corner's outside shade and that the defense is allowing single coverage on Dez. That is where Romo makes the choice to go to Dez if he beats Porter on the release. Porter screws up by trying to jump the route (he's known for this) and Romo pulls it down and Dez also continues to run downfield. Dez saw it the same way and adjusted his route. The notion that Porter was supposed to blitz is incredibly risky seeing that there is no visible help to Dez's side, I'm doubting that he even was supposed to blitz initially. To me Porter looks like he freelanced and gambled badly by trying to jump the route.

2. Bales is wrong that this is new to the Cowboys offense, one can go back to when Roy Williams was on this team and watch us play the Texans and see that Romo executed the same type of play that scored a touchdown. What is new to this offense is the fact that Dez can read a defense and be on the same page as his QB.

 

[btcutter]

If he runs through him it's a potential OPI, Porter had a better angle on the ball so Dez needed to change it up so he could make the catch.

OPI would have been fine by me actually. Dez has to do everything he can to prevent an INT and potentially pick 6. That's his job as a WR.

The play may have worked but I think it was mostly due to luck. I agree with Holly that Dez needs to do better.

 

[CowboyStar88]

OPI would have been fine by me actually. Dez has to do everything he can to prevent an INT and potentially pick 6. That's his job as a WR.

The play may have worked but I think it was mostly due to luck. I agree with Holly that Dez needs to do better.

You are wrong. Dez made the right adjustment as did Romo. Man some of you just never give up. Porter jumped the route Romo froze the defender Dez kept on the Slant Romo hit him perfect. Read the tweets from tonight you will see that they dispel what Jesse was saying. Some of you took it hook line and sinker thinking all over again that Dez screwed up. SMH

 

[LarryCanadian]

I think Irvin indicated at half-time that he felt Dez made an error on the route, by not running through - although he wasn't as adamant about it as Holley was in the post game radio show - some guy even called in and asked Holley how he knew Dez and Romo didn't adjust - and Holley went on about how he had played in the NFL etc. Thought Holley was laying it on a bit thick, but then I watched my tape of the NFL Network package and Irvin indicated that is was dangerous to stop the route and that it was technically wrong for the receiver to do that....Interesting that Garrett and tweeters today are saying it was a good adjustment and not an error in this case- probably a bit of truth to both sides - Holley was right in one thing - in that it could have caused a pick if Romo releases it early as it looked like it was planned.....

 

[btcutter]

You are wrong. Dez made the right adjustment as did Romo. Man some of you just never give up. Porter jumped the route Romo froze the defender Dez kept on the Slant Romo hit him perfect. Read the tweets from tonight you will see that they dispel what Jesse was saying. Some of you took it hook line and sinker thinking all over again that Dez screwed up. SMH

It's quite possible that we are all wrong. We'll never know.

Garrett will never come out and say Dez was wrong. He is too smart to cause a stir in the media. Imaging what would happen....

I hope that Romo and Dez have such incredible chemistry to make these types of plays happen regularly. But as Irvin and Holly (NFL WRs...which none of us are) pointed out it's typically wrong for WRs to do what Dez did on that play.

 

[CowboyStar88]

After the game BB asked Dez about that play and Dez broke it down for him. I don't think if Drz screwed up he would sit there and got into depth about what he saw and claim that he was glad Romo saw the same thing. Why wouldn't Garrett call it out if his player made a bad play? He called out all the rookies last week after the Miami game.

 

[Clove]

I actually think it was a corner blitz. Or an attempted one. I don't think he guessed the route. Watch what Jenkins does immediately at the snap. He's not even looking at Dez. He just runs straight toward the QB. There's no way Dez could have crossed in front of him. Also, check out the corner on the other side of the field. He's running full speed backwards to help cover deep in case the blitz doesn't get there.

The only wrong analysis here is that Dez somehow made a mistake.

I totally agree. There was no way Dez would have crossed in front of him unless it was an immediate slant (meaning, no steps up the field at all , just a straight hard slant) but it looked like a half step hard slant, but the Corner would've taken that back for 6 because he was running in front of that slant before Dez could make it. There was no other place to go for Dez but behind the guy. Romo was very wise to pull that in.

In the past, Romo would've pulled the ball back, and bailed out to avoid the rush and find another option. But because Dez continued to the soft spot, he released it and made a huge play. I think it was genius on Romo first, and Dez second. I'm not sure if the corner was trying to corner blitz or jump the slant, but he succeeded none the less. Had Dez continued the slant, there would've been a definite collision there resulting in a Romo sack, incomplete pass, or a scramble for a different target.

 

[Clove]

I have to add one more thing by the way. None of us have a clue as to what Romo and Dez talks about in practice on route adjustments. For all we know, Romo probably says that if a corner jumps it, redirect and go up field and I'll pump it at him. It was obviously a sight adjustment between those two players, didn't even look like the blocking scheme on the play was designed for a pass anyways.

Their were plenty of times my QB and I had certain situations where we would break off the route, but sometimes the defender guesses right. Had he jumped in front of Dez which is definitely possible, and Romo had thrown and interception, we would've been all over Romo for throwing that ball.