My Last Words on Dallas-Detroit

[CooterBrown]

The video in the original post was the problem for the offense. Tony did stand in there and got blasted. And it affected his play for the rest of the game. He often threw it poorly off his back foot even when he did have time, and he threw it too quickly, sometimes to the wrong receiver, because he didn't feel he had time to go through all of the reads. I don't doubt Romo's courage or his commitment to winning, I think he has been behind a crappy oline so much in his career that one good shot to his ribs accelerates the clock in his head and makes him rush things. I think he does better in the 4th quarter because the adrenaline flow has lessened and he has slowed things back down in his head.

With Waters out, I think they will have to scrap that empty backfield set they have used.

 

[Corso]

Personal attack aside-

I question them having a winning offense because when they are needed to win it, they don't.

No straw-men- just matter of fact.

They haven't for years.

That is the truth. If they take over the rest of the season- Super-terrific. I hope that we will be sharing beers together celebrating their success and I will be telling you I was SO premature- thank you for you headiness.

I simply haven't seen any evidence that it's going in that direction in a long while.

We do have a losing defense- yardage-wise. Not so much scoring-wise, but they are nowhere near elite, for sure.

But the fact remains that this offense has a real tendency to be very inept for critical stretches of games. Long stretches.

And you want to move on from a problem that has not and will not go away? Oh. It's Friday. All problems go away by Friday.

That is head-in-the-sand thinking right there.

 

[Zekeats]

My last word: Disgusting

 

[honyock]

The OL is top 9 in the league. That is not mediocre. Now the DL is very mediocre.. I can agree with that. Don't crap on our oline though, they have played very good this year.

I agree that the oline has been much better this year. They really struggled against Detroit though, at least to my eye. Having Suh and Fairley on the other side didn't help any. Leary struggled badly, I thought it was his worst game of the year. They didn't handle the inside rush and they didn't handle the stunts well, all especially in the first half. When you your line can't handle a four man rush, with a lot of it coming from the inside, you're going to have trouble no matter the game plan or the qb.

They protected better in the second half, even though Bern was in replacing Waters for most of the half. The result was 20 points scored in the second half. That first half was a mess offensively, and I put it more on the line not blocking their line than anything else.

 

[mahoneybill]

All week long I have read and heard how Romo, lately, doesn't look like Romo. I listen to the Ticket in Dallas and Bob Sturm has went out of his way to berate Tony for being gun shy and not holding the ball longer. His point, if Romo held the ball a bit longer he could complete those passes he's now throwing away.

But...before I go on, here is Romo being "gun shy." I wonder how many of these hits Romo should take to satisfy Sturm and other critics?

Bob and others have said, "forget the QB rating," he's just not hanging in there.

Well here are some interesting stats from the Detroit-Dallas game.

Stafford "when not pressured" was 33-41 with a TD and a QB rating of 95.1
Romo "when not pressured was" 14-20 with 3 TD and QB rating of 139.6

Stafford "was pressured" on 7 throws in 48 attempts. That's "1 in ever 6.8 attempts."
Romo "was pressured" on 10 of 30 attempts. That's "1 in every 3 attempts."

Proving that QB pressures do matter:
When pressured Stafford was 1-7 for 6 yards
When pressured Romo was 1-10 for 1 yard.

Worse about Detroit's pressure, it nearly all came up the middle. That's the hardest to get away from. Suh and Farley alone hit or pressured Romo 6 times. What amazing is how Tony was not sacked?

Stats courtesy of PFF..

Nice analysis and post. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Tezz]

The Detroit DTs have been dominating everyone this season so it should've been expected coming into the game. If you are going to spread them out in shotgun almost every play the ball gotta get released fast.

 

[percyhoward]

It's hard to add anything more to that outstanding OP, but I'll try.

PFF has revised their pressure numbers for this game at least twice since I posted that info a few days ago. In the game, Stafford was pressured on 27% of his attempts, while Romo was pressured on 47% of his attempts.

When not pressured:
Romo 11 of 16 190 yd 3 td 0 int 148.4
Stafford 28 of 35 360 yd 1 td 1 int 107.1

Romo had mentioned that the atmosphere of the dome and Lions' pass rush in the game reminded him of the 09 playoffs in Minnesota. Here are the games where Romo has been pressured the most since 2009, according to PFF:

Percentage of Pressured Attempts
46.7% at Det 2013
46.5% at Cin 2012
45.7% at Min 2009
45.5% at SF 2011

 

[ftghb]

I agree that the oline has been much better this year. They really struggled against Detroit though, at least to my eye. Having Suh and Fairley on the other side didn't help any. Leary struggled badly, I thought it was his worst game of the year. They didn't handle the inside rush and they didn't handle the stunts well, all especially in the first half. When you your line can't handle a four man rush, with a lot of it coming from the inside, you're going to have trouble no matter the game plan or the qb.

They protected better in the second half, even though Bern was in replacing Waters for most of the half. The result was 20 points scored in the second half. That first half was a mess offensively, and I put it more on the line not blocking their line than anything else.

I'll never understand the focus and scrutiny on romo, especially after watching protection breakdown on nearly half of the offensive snaps. With absolutely no running game, the defense was allowed to just pin their ears back and rush the qb without even having to worry about maintaining gap assignments. (stunts generally are not run very often against teams who are running the ball effectively) Aside from the long tds to williams and bryant (which were really quick passes that were taken to the house by fast receivers), there was never a continuity or sustainability on any of their offensive possessions, and that really starts with the protection and the lack of a running game. (same issue i brought up in the philly game)

Ofc, this is all strictly within the context of the offensive gameplan and execution (4th 400 yd passer and a defense blown back to the stone age notwithstanding), and all espn/ any of the national media keeps stressing is how dez bryant is a problem. (I can't believe brian billick actually had the audacity to come back on radio yesterday and insinuate that this is one of dallas' main issues going forward). Trust me, dez bryant's blowups on the sidelines are near the very bottom of our list of problems.

 

[honyock]

I'll never understand the focus and scrutiny on romo, especially after watching protection breakdown on nearly half of the offensive snaps. With absolutely no running game, the defense was allowed to just pin their ears back and rush the qb without even having to worry about maintaining gap assignments. (stunts generally are not run very often against teams who are running the ball effectively) Aside from the long tds to williams and bryant (which were really quick passes that were taken to the house by fast receivers), there was never a continuity or sustainability on any of their offensive possessions, and that really starts with the protection and the lack of a running game. (same issue i brought up in the philly game)

Ofc, this is all strictly within the context of the offensive gameplan and execution (4th 400 yd passer and a defense blown back to the stone age notwithstanding), and all espn/ any of the national media keeps stressing is how dez bryant is a problem. (I can't believe brian billick actually had the audacity to come back on radio yesterday and insinuate that this is one of dallas' main issues going forward). Trust me, dez bryant's blowups on the sidelines are near the very bottom of our list of problems.

Yeah, I agree with you on both the Detroit and Philly games. They attacked the Cowboys in different ways, Philly much more with the blitz than the Lions. But both games there were numerous protection breakdowns mainly in the first half, the line straightened things out in the second half and the offense was much more productive in both games after halftime. We've got to get off that bad half/good half pattern on offense.

 

[dallasfan4lizife]

I challenge you to find 3 plays in Detroit where he held the ball 5-6 seconds. I'll give you a $100 if you can. I doubt you can find even one such play.

Otherwise your post = fail.

I reckon you invest in the NFL all 22 package.

And yeah he was gun shy. Dude would throw it after 2 seconds before anyone would get close to him. Wouldn't even try to scramble like the tony of old

 

[KB1122]

As a somewhat relevant note:

I think this game shows one weakness of passer rating. To some extent it over-punishes interceptions. I don't know how it's reasonable for someone to throw for 485 yards and have a lower rating than a guy who threw for less than 50 percent with 300 less yards. Obviously, Stafford did what it took to win.

 

[beevomav]

It's hard to add anything more to that outstanding OP, but I'll try.

PFF has revised their pressure numbers for this game at least twice since I posted that info a few days ago. In the game, Stafford was pressured on 27% of his attempts, while Romo was pressured on 47% of his attempts.

When not pressured:
Romo 11 of 16 190 yd 3 td 0 int 148.4
Stafford 28 of 35 360 yd 1 td 1 int 107.1

Romo had mentioned that the atmosphere of the dome and Lions' pass rush in the game reminded him of the 09 playoffs in Minnesota. Here are the games where Romo has been pressured the most since 2009, according to PFF:

Percentage of Pressured Attempts
46.7% at Det 2013
46.5% at Cin 2012
45.7% at Min 2009
45.5% at SF 2011

I didn't see the revised numbers, but my eyes told me he was under pressure all day. I also have only the freebie stats, but am going to sign up for the advanced stats,. Good get..

 

[cowboysooner]

3 of 14 when pressured will invite tons of blitzing. I expect to see us in 3 wides and I expect the nickel corner will be coming on a blitz pretty often.

 

[zack]

3 of 14 when pressured will invite tons of blitzing. I expect to see us in 3 wides and I expect the nickel corner will be coming on a blitz pretty often.

My last word on this game. I don't know how many times I've seen it. People say Romo plays great 3 quarters and the. messes up.
But when he did what he had to do to win in the 4th quarter, we got the same people saying that he didn't play a complete game. His completion percentage was off. His game wasn't pretty. You can't have it both ways people.

 

[noshame]

Well, it took us all week to absolve Romo of any blame, man it gets harder and harder doesn't it?

What if Romo just refuses to throw to his primary receiver if it's a tight window? Now who's fault is it that he gets pressured?

Yes, Tony does great under no pressure, but how many of those passes were under 10 yards? Lastly, just watch you're local high school QB, he'll do great with no pressure. The bottom line, Romo does not trust his arm enough to throw into tight coverage. Time to draft.

 

[ologan]

Alot of his sacks have come from him holding the ball 5-6 seconds instead of throwing it away.

Well, isn't that what Sturm wants him to do? hold the ball a little longer? Damned if you do....damned if you don't.

 

[percyhoward]

What if Romo just refuses to throw to his primary receiver if it's a tight window?

We're so focused on this one singular aspect of quarterback play, and on trying to make the loss Romo's fault, that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Here's another "what if," and a little perspective...

What if your QB throws for 186-226 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, with a rating over 100 in every single game?

Your team should finish 14-2.

In the last 160 games in the NFL when teams have done that, they are 139-21.

 

[noshame]

We're so focused on this one singular aspect of quarterback play, and on trying to make the loss Romo's fault, that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Here's another "what if," and a little perspective...

What if your QB throws for 186-226 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, with a rating over 100 in every single game?

Your team should finish 14-2.

In the last 160 games in the NFL when teams have done that, they are 139-21.

Well, that's kind of a big part tp focus on isn't it? Hey, no way is it all Romo's fault, but I don't want a QB who is any part of the fault. How many critical third down throws have been off the mark in the last three games. What were romo's stats in the first half? The defense was left out to dry in the first half.
If Romo's is not ice cold starting games, maybe the game is out of reach by the forth and we win.

 

[btcutter]

Well, that's kind of a big part tp focus on isn't it? Hey, no way is it all Romo's fault, but I don't want a QB who is any part of the fault. How many critical third down throws have been off the mark in the last three games. What were romo's stats in the first half? The defense was left out to dry in the first half.
If Romo's is not ice cold starting games, maybe the game is out of reach by the forth and we win.

Is there a QB or football play who NEVER makes a mistake...EVER? Our team had a 10 point lead with 4 min to go. 6 point lead with less than 90 sec to go. What else do you want from your QB? Some people will never be satisfied until they get reminded of Hutchinson, Carter, Hensen days......

 

[percyhoward]

Well, that's kind of a big part to focus on isn't it?

Whatever happened during the course of that performance, whatever we think we've seen on the all-22, it was still the kind of performance that historically has been good enough to win 14 of 16 games.

In that light, it's not a big part of anything. It's minutia.