Kellen Moore on running the ball outside the tackles

[plasticman]

Running down the middle is meant to accomplish more than gaining yards. It wears down a defense.

Running outside can get you a good play on occasion but the Cowboys shouldn't make regular use of it. In order to be consistently successful running outside you must have a blocking TE, physical WR's and fast guards.

 

[Omegasupreme]

It was a great play but I think people losing their minds over it a little. That TD was an inch away from a tackle for loss.

I agree with Moore - running outside is auxiliary, although we should find ways to do it more. need teams to respect our use of the entire field a bit more.

West Coast offenses like a Kyle Shanahan use “outside” positioning and breadth to create running lanes all over. It’s an Alex Gibbs inspired staple which many WCOs use. Don Coryell,where Kellen gets his rather antiquated and feckless theory of offense (past 20 years how many true Coryell offenses have won the SB?), proposed the straight ahead power runs (mainly with Chuck Muncie) to draw the defense in and open the depth coverage. Kellen doesn’t seem to link the runs to play action like Coryell originally designed but his run calls are not designed for space and lateral movement like Callahan did or Bill Walsh designed. It’s almost like the run plays are throwaway baits for the defense, sometimes.
I think every play designed and called should have deception of some sort (which is why it’s called a “scheme”) and every play should have an anticipation that it could score.
I don’t think Kellen believes either of those.
But then he and I both share the same designation that neither of us had been an OC for a team with a winning record for a season.

 

[Thomas82]

This quote underscores just how little this man understands about running the football. Running outside in the NFL is almost NEVER about speed or outrunning the defenders to get yards.. It's about outflanking them with your receivers and tight ends and pulling your guards and maybe the center to lead the way for your backs. Every team in the NFL has at least one 4.4 linebacker and several sub 4.4 DBs.. so no you're not going to outrun them many times.. But you CAN seal them off from your ball carrier if your tight ends and receivers execute blocks. On Pollard's 58 yarder we pulled both Tyron and Biadasz who both got a hat on a hat and Noah Brown (or was that Lamb?) kicked his man out .. It was not speed that created that opening.. It was the fact that we got blocking on the outside. The Saints had two defenders with outside leverage so Pollard had to cut it back in and when he did it created a lane for Biadasz to kick on guy out and Brown stayed on the other one. Meanwhile Tyron turned back in and wiped out the remaining inside pursuer. That created the alley that Pollard hit at 100 mph and clearly surprised #43 by how quick he came out the other side.. The point being, that play wasn't made because we outran the defense.. It was made because we blocked. We definitely need to be doing more of that. So if that play proved to Moore that we can then I'm all for it!!!!

All facts!!

 

[Proof]

Or just maybe he just said that because he didn’t want to publicly acknowledge that our tight ends suck at blocking consistently. But I’m sure you know more than the coordinator of the #1 offense in the NFL

pretty sure he played rb in high school if i remember correctly. surely deserves some gravitas

 

[Proof]

Boring is what boring does. Moore is a boring, unimaginative person.

i’m not sure i’ve ever heard these words together

 

[john van brocklin]

Yes!!!
It's driving me crazy!!!

 

[CouchCoach]

It also takes an O-line that can run block. They haven't been doing well at that lately. I'd rather see 70% passing than 50% running into a wall.

That OL can't pass block any better than they run block but I agree, with this QB and WR's and receiving TE's, not blockers, might as well go air raid.

 

[RonnieT24]

That OL can't pass block any better than they run block but I agree, with this QB and WR's and receiving TE's, not blockers, might as well go air raid.

Bad blocking makes it hard to do anything on offense whether it be running or passing. The reasons you can't just go full air raid is that since you can't pass block teams can just pin their ears back and come after your QB who is starting to show signs of seeing ghosts and getting happy feet back there.

 

[gimmesix]

Am rewatching the game and while I'm not taking an exact count, following Pollard's TD run, four of our next six runs were outside runs and each of them picked up at least four yards. Even running injured Elliott to the outside on a short-yardage play resulted in an easy first down. It's silly to not to use outside runs like that when the defense is playing tight between the tackles to stop the inside runs.

 

[SixFiveCowboy]

This quote underscores just how little this man understands about running the football. Running outside in the NFL is almost NEVER about speed or outrunning the defenders to get yards.. It's about outflanking them with your receivers and tight ends and pulling your guards and maybe the center to lead the way for your backs. Every team in the NFL has at least one 4.4 linebacker and several sub 4.4 DBs.. so no you're not going to outrun them many times.. But you CAN seal them off from your ball carrier if your tight ends and receivers execute blocks. On Pollard's 58 yarder we pulled both Tyron and Biadasz who both got a hat on a hat and Noah Brown (or was that Lamb?) kicked his man out .. It was not speed that created that opening.. It was the fact that we got blocking on the outside. The Saints had two defenders with outside leverage so Pollard had to cut it back in and when he did it created a lane for Biadasz to kick on guy out and Brown stayed on the other one. Meanwhile Tyron turned back in and wiped out the remaining inside pursuer. That created the alley that Pollard hit at 100 mph and clearly surprised #43 by how quick he came out the other side.. The point being, that play wasn't made because we outran the defense.. It was made because we blocked. We definitely need to be doing more of that. So if that play proved to Moore that we can then I'm all for it!!!!

Excellent post!!!!! You can clearly also see that he has the most unimaginable inside run plays ever it's almost like he just kept Jason's portion of the playbook because you don't see any traps, counters, or outside zone really from his plays. If he's calling them then Philbin needs to be called up to the big office because they are being blocked terribly. I understand we wanted Williams out the line up but let's be honest here Biadaz, and McGovern are getting their behinds whipped up front with Allen staring them right in the face. The teams that has knocked this team off it's early axis has been teams with strong DT presence and play. Well Moore needs to figure this out because at the end of the day you have to have a counter punch to teams with dominant DT's. How about you get those big boys running side to side some versus letting them flat tee off on our our weaker components in the interior minus Big Zach of course.

 

[Xeven]

Garret left a taint on great players and coaches.

 

[StuckMojo]

Am rewatching the game and while I'm not taking an exact count, following Pollard's TD run, four of our next six runs were outside runs and each of them picked up at least four yards. Even running injured Elliott to the outside on a short-yardage play resulted in an easy first down. It's silly to not to use outside runs like that when the defense is playing tight between the tackles to stop the inside runs.

I noticed this too. Moore has been way to predictable in the run game the last 6 or 7 games. You need to keep D guessing no matter the RB.

 

[glimmerman]

Those plays work with a healthy Elliot the best. He can make that one guy miss or break his tackle. Pollard got around but was almost tackled. Maybe Pollard has took it to that level. But Dallas rarely runs it so it caught them off guard. I bet wft will be studying this play. And they have a better front 7. But it’s worth trying for sure..

 

[RonnieT24]

Those plays work with a healthy Elliot the best. He can make that one guy miss or break his tackle. Pollard got around but was almost tackled. Maybe Pollard has took it to that level. But Dallas rarely runs it so it caught them off guard. I bet wft will be studying this play. And they have a better front 7. But it’s worth trying for sure..

What folks keeps missing on that play was that it wasn't outrunning anybody that made it happen.. it was guys getting out and blocking. The alley created by the WR kick out block in tandem with Tyron and Schultz sealing off the inside and finally Biadasz kicking out another defender was beautiful. Pollard saw it and hit like he was shot out of a cannon. He was barely touched though.. THAT is what we have been missing in our outside running game. To be fair the safety had little trouble catching Pollard but for some reason refused to actually try to tackle, instead choosing to escort him 30 yards to the end zone. It was a weird deal but maybe Pollard's speed messed with his head because he was clearly confused about what he should do.. Apparently "push him out of bounds" took too long to bubble to the top of his list of options. I would love to see us run more of that.. Maybe the reason our TEs and WRs suck at it so bad usually is because we do it so infrequently. Hell for all I know they never even practice it. It certainly looks that way at times.

 

[Pantone282C]

It was a great play but I think people losing their minds over it a little. That TD was an inch away from a tackle for loss.

I agree with Moore - running outside is auxiliary, although we should find ways to do it more. need teams to respect our use of the entire field a bit more.

Teams have found a way to successfully run outside against the Cowboys.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

Bottom line is he knows Zeke cant get outside.

Bs.

 

[SteveTheCowboy]

What folks keeps missing on that play was that it wasn't outrunning anybody that made it happen.. it was guys getting out and blocking. The alley created by the WR kick out block in tandem with Tyron and Schultz sealing off the inside and finally Biadasz kicking out another defender was beautiful. Pollard saw it and hit like he was shot out of a cannon. He was barely touched though.. THAT is what we have been missing in our outside running game. To be fair the safety had little trouble catching Pollard but for some reason refused to actually try to tackle, instead choosing to escort him 30 yards to the end zone. It was a weird deal but maybe Pollard's speed messed with his head because he was clearly confused about what he should do.. Apparently "push him out of bounds" took too long to bubble to the top of his list of options. I would love to see us run more of that.. Maybe the reason our TEs and WRs suck at it so bad usually is because we do it so infrequently. Hell for all I know they never even practice it. It certainly looks that way at times.

Yes! Instead of clogging the middle with our own guys...tell em to get moving and hit someone. Zeke and especially Tony will find it and bust em.

 

[RonnieT24]

Teams have found a way to successfully run outside against the Cowboys.

I think that will become considerably more difficult with Tank and Gregory back at the ends and Parsons chasing sideline to sideline.

 

[CATCH17]

Running down the middle is meant to accomplish more than gaining yards. It wears down a defense.

Running outside can get you a good play on occasion but the Cowboys shouldn't make regular use of it. In order to be consistently successful running outside you must have a blocking TE, physical WR's and fast guards.

I’ll tell you what doesn’t wear down a defense. Going 3 & out and being terrible on 3rd down which we are.

Which brings me back to Zeke. Bring him in when the offense gets going but he doesn’t get the team going at all. He’s just a waste of a play and not wearing anyone down. He’s giving our opponents a breather and hurting the defense.

 

[fansince68]

This quote underscores just how little this man understands about running the football. Running outside in the NFL is almost NEVER about speed or outrunning the defenders to get yards.. It's about outflanking them with your receivers and tight ends and pulling your guards and maybe the center to lead the way for your backs. Every team in the NFL has at least one 4.4 linebacker and several sub 4.4 DBs.. so no you're not going to outrun them many times.. But you CAN seal them off from your ball carrier if your tight ends and receivers execute blocks. On Pollard's 58 yarder we pulled both Tyron and Biadasz who both got a hat on a hat and Noah Brown (or was that Lamb?) kicked his man out .. It was not speed that created that opening.. It was the fact that we got blocking on the outside. The Saints had two defenders with outside leverage so Pollard had to cut it back in and when he did it created a lane for Biadasz to kick on guy out and Brown stayed on the other one. Meanwhile Tyron turned back in and wiped out the remaining inside pursuer. That created the alley that Pollard hit at 100 mph and clearly surprised #43 by how quick he came out the other side.. The point being, that play wasn't made because we outran the defense.. It was made because we blocked. We definitely need to be doing more of that. So if that play proved to Moore that we can then I'm all for it!!!!

Good post......would we have had the same result if Zeke had run that play.