kmd24
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I decided to rewatch the game to focus on Marc Colombo and Jay Ratliff to see if my initial impressions were correct. During the game, I thought that Colombo was having a hard time and that Ratliff was getting almost no penetration.
Turns out that Colombo looked pretty good most of the game. We ran several wide receiver screens to his side, and he displayed good movement and agility on all of them. On one of them (Austin's TD IIRC), he got a little caught up at the line and didn't get to the spot quite as quickly as he would have liked, but he still got his hands on the defensive back.
Unfortunately, there were several plays that he just got outright beat on. The first was Clemons' sack on the opening drive. The initial pressure came from the middle (Tracy White), but Clemons blew by Colombo and recorded the sack. If Colombo holds his man, Romo might have had a fighting chance. Colombo also was beat on the second sack of the game. He was beat couple more times by Juqua Parker (right at the snap on an incompletion to Deon Anderon and once more, though I didn't record the exact play). I had really hoped he would help in short yardage, but he never really got any push in those situations, and on Choice's touchdown, he was beat across his face by the defensive end. If it had been Barber instead of Choice, I think Colombo's missed block probably results in a loss of one on the play, but Choice was already past the DE and across the goal line by the time the tackle was made.
Colombo was active and nasty. His technique looked good, but his feet were slow on those plays he was beat. Not sure if that's rust or just the way it's always been with Colombo, but I am kind of leaning towards the latter. Bottom line, I think he played fine, but any boost we got from having him start was purely emotional and not from what he did on the field. From what I've seen, I think Free would have done a somewhat better job in pass protection.
Ratliff was contained very well. About 2/3 of the time he was double-teamed by Nick Cole and either Herreman or Jean-Gilles. Cole stood Rat up solo several times as well. There was only one play I saw where Rat got significant penetration, and that was Spencer's sack. Rat pushed Cole about 8 yards into the pocket, then was there to meet Spencer to help clean up when McNabb stepped up into the pocket.
Interestingly, Rat got a lot of rest in the game. We played a good bit of 4 man pass rush, with Hatcher, and (I think) Bowen playing a lot of DT in Rat's place. I didn't tally the snaps, but I'd say it was fifteen to twenty plays that Rat wasn't on the field.
Not that meaningful an analysis in the long run, but I just thought it might be worth sharing.
Turns out that Colombo looked pretty good most of the game. We ran several wide receiver screens to his side, and he displayed good movement and agility on all of them. On one of them (Austin's TD IIRC), he got a little caught up at the line and didn't get to the spot quite as quickly as he would have liked, but he still got his hands on the defensive back.
Unfortunately, there were several plays that he just got outright beat on. The first was Clemons' sack on the opening drive. The initial pressure came from the middle (Tracy White), but Clemons blew by Colombo and recorded the sack. If Colombo holds his man, Romo might have had a fighting chance. Colombo also was beat on the second sack of the game. He was beat couple more times by Juqua Parker (right at the snap on an incompletion to Deon Anderon and once more, though I didn't record the exact play). I had really hoped he would help in short yardage, but he never really got any push in those situations, and on Choice's touchdown, he was beat across his face by the defensive end. If it had been Barber instead of Choice, I think Colombo's missed block probably results in a loss of one on the play, but Choice was already past the DE and across the goal line by the time the tackle was made.
Colombo was active and nasty. His technique looked good, but his feet were slow on those plays he was beat. Not sure if that's rust or just the way it's always been with Colombo, but I am kind of leaning towards the latter. Bottom line, I think he played fine, but any boost we got from having him start was purely emotional and not from what he did on the field. From what I've seen, I think Free would have done a somewhat better job in pass protection.
Ratliff was contained very well. About 2/3 of the time he was double-teamed by Nick Cole and either Herreman or Jean-Gilles. Cole stood Rat up solo several times as well. There was only one play I saw where Rat got significant penetration, and that was Spencer's sack. Rat pushed Cole about 8 yards into the pocket, then was there to meet Spencer to help clean up when McNabb stepped up into the pocket.
Interestingly, Rat got a lot of rest in the game. We played a good bit of 4 man pass rush, with Hatcher, and (I think) Bowen playing a lot of DT in Rat's place. I didn't tally the snaps, but I'd say it was fifteen to twenty plays that Rat wasn't on the field.
Not that meaningful an analysis in the long run, but I just thought it might be worth sharing.
