Key to the Game. Run the Rock.

[Chocolate Lab]

Do people really not understand how play-calling works? Garrett doesn't force any passes to specific receivers.

But the pre-snap reads can have Tony go to, say, Sam Hurd even when he's being covered by Champ Bailey.

I'm curious to see if this comes up tomorrow with Nnamdi.

 

[FLcowboy]

I'm not 100% sure that there pass defense is worth a plugged nickel. It's kind of like Indy in 2006. They had the 32nd rush defense, but the #1 passing defense. It wasn't their secondary was any good, it's that you could run on them all day long so there was no need to pass against them. Same thing applies here.

They allow 4.4 yards per run on the ground. That comes with playing 5 games against teams that rank 30th, 31st, and 32nd in rushing yards per attempt.

The teams they played that don't have horrible running games?

• Broncos - 215 yards rushing
  Giants - 220 yards rushing
  Philly - 67 yards despite getting 4.8 yards per attempt
  Jets - 316 yards rushing
  Bengals- 177 yards

Dallas averages more yards per attempt than any team on that bulleted list. Only the Jets run for more yards per game than we do by any significant margin.

You can run, run, run all day long on these fools. No reason to go pass heavy. Line up in our power 22 formation and cram it down their throat.

We have a very good chance at putting up numbers like we did against New York earlier this year.

Dallas did a good job running against the Commanders, and yet couldn't score a touchdown running the ball. The only touchdown came of 9 straight passes.

 

[Stautner]

I'm not against running I would just like to get Romo going early in the game. Not have his 1st passes coming on 3rd and long situations. I don't think you have to run to set up the pass. I think we can mix things up between run and pass. In the skins game we did run very well problem is we would make mistakes and all we accomplished was running the clock down on ourselves and keeping a weak team in the ball game. I do agree with Aikman that is not Dallas game.

I agree about getting Romo going early without the pressure of converting on 3rd down. It's always better to start with a pass when the defense can't pin back it's ears and come after the QB.

As for the run and pass, I agree we don't have to use the run to set up the pass, or the pass to set up the run for that matter. The way I view it is you use whatever works to set up the other. My problem with Garrett is that when something works he becomes enamored with it and ignores the opportunities it sets up.

In the Washington game we had success running and he became enamored with it. We still mixed in a few passes, but we didn't use the play action, which would have been the perfect choice after establishing such a strong running game, and we didn't mix in a play action pass on downs like 2nd and 1 or 2 where the defense would be gearing up to stop the run, and where if a pass off a play action didn't work we still had another down left. Pefect opportunity, perfect set up.

In other games it has been the other way around. Early success passing seems to lead to forgetting about the run as the game goes on.

 

[Derinyar]

Exactly. Balance is the key to any good offensive team.

Executing is the key to any good offensive team. The plays will work if run right. So the Colts are a bad offensive team because they run the ball less than 40% of the time? If you call and execute the right plays then the balance isn't all that important, you just have to run enough to keep the defense at least a little honest, but short passing can be just as effective in that as running can be.