Good post. The entire game I thought WOW were we outclassed. In addition to our linemen 'tells' they used our best trait against us and that is pursuit. They gave us enough of a headfake that got our DL and LBers going the wrong way quickly off the snap. Then their OL just kept pushing us in that direction. They juked us at the line and we didn't have the size or strength up front to reverse direction to stop the running play. Simple but genius and it didn't take much to fool our LBers. We use to do that very same thing when we would run the counter draw to DeMarco. It was very effective but I haven't seen it lately.
Using pursuit and the fact we're a largely 1 gapping penetration defense, with mediocre talent inside and weak on depth. Haha yeah, outclassed.
I actually didn't know about the RB tipping direction with headfake, but it certainly makes a lot of sense. Penetrating DL that's not great, OL that's been pretty great, pursuit style, let them erase themselves out of the play just by running a simple zone cut n go. I knew they largely just used our DL momentum against them, but that is just another level of preparation.
You just know he sat down with his co-workers and was like, "what do we have on Dallas?"
"Cover 3, Cover 1 heavy. Lot of press man. DL plays mostly 1 gap, relies on pursuit and penetration. Good LBs but young, some talent at end but best player has had shoulder issues, middling DT talent with weak depth. SS as box can miss tackles and take questionable angles"
They had a pretty great OL for most of the season, and could definitely run the ball if gameplan was friendly to it.
That's a great example of knowing what you have, knowing your opponent, and diagnosing it quickly when you only have a week to prepare your guys. Not only higher level schemes, but lower level level like DL tendencies and how they diagnose pursuit on running plays. That's a lot of detail.
And they put together a great plan. It seems so simple when you think about it, right? But, that's what good coaches (people who are talented at their craft in general) tend to do, make the elegant seem obvious.
It's one thing to say it, it's another to get grown men to run it successfully and dominate a team that's typically been good against the run.
Belichek'esque. Hopefully Moore can show even a bit of that kind of preparation with some seasoning.