It's funny how just a few weeks ago people were wondering how much
Romo's back was affecting his performance. All we're seeing now is Romo playing at an elite level. His play against NYG on Sunday was his best game of the season. His accuracy was sharp.
Look at the way he drops the TD pass to Escobar:
With Murray playing so well Romo doesn't need to carry the team. I noticed at least 3 occasions where Romo came to the line, looked at the defense (even with 8 in the box), and killed to a run play. He trusts the run game and now can be more selective when to attack the defense in the air. His play the 2nd half backs that up. He was 9 for 9 for 186 yards and a TD. Let me reiterate. Romo only threw
9 passes, which he completed all, in the second half.
His play making was also on display. We know about his patented spin move which he used on the Williams TD:
Another moment caught my eye. It happens quick so I made a diagram.
The MLB has his eyes on the QB. Romo turns and points to his right. This causes the MLB to take a step to his left. That opens a small window in which Romo connects with Escobar for a nice gain. 3 plays later Romo finds Escobar for the games first touchdown. Crafty play.
With all the single coverage
Bryant went to work in the second half. Bryant had 7 catches for 137 yards. Amukamara is a good player but he can't stop Bryant 1-on-1 for an extended period. I really like the way our offense forces teams to choose between stopping the run or the pass. NYG chose to stop Murray so Bryant had a big game.
Williams' best skill is his ability to get open when plays break down. He did it at Baylor with RGIII and now he's the guy Romo looks for in those situations. The TD pass above is just one example. Williams is a nice compliment to Bryant.
I'm glad we got to see
Escobar's "soft hands" on display. That TD catch was a nice example. Also love the toughness completing the catch while getting a shoulder square to the helmet. He also is showing improved run blocking. I noticed a couple of nice blocks and was pleasantly surprised to see it was Escobar after re-watching it.
Hanna is almost exclusively a blocking TE.
I mentioned in my last notes that
Murray should use both hands on the ball even if he has to concede a few yards. Maybe he took a look because that's the first thing I noticed on his first carry of the game. He's the kind of player that wants to fight for every yard but ball security is more important.
Murray continued his streak of 100 yard games rushing but it wasn't easy. In fact, it was probably his toughest game yet. His final stats were nice: 28 carries, 128 yards, and 1 TD. A majority of those yards came on 5 carries. If we take those 5 away Murray's line looks like this: 23 carries for 48 yards. Those 5 big runs were for 80 yards.
Murray's first big run:
What did NYG do make things difficult? I'm glad you asked. There were two guys that did work on their run defense, JPP and Hankins.
We know about JPP's pass rushing ability but his run defense was on full display.
Here's an example:
He gave Smith trouble in the run game. He got two plays like this against Smith and then a couple against Witten. JPP also got two sacks. I blame Romo on the first for not getting the ball out sooner but on the second he beat Smith with a similar move.
Hankins (#95) is the kind of defensive tackle that would help any team in the run game. Leary and Smith try to move him here:
What's impressive is that he isn't just a big body, he can make plays on the move. Here's a play against Frederick:
They played against each other in college so it was a fun match to watch. In the gif above Hankins gets the better of
Frederick shedding and making the stop. He did that a couple of times to Frederick and a couple of times to
Leary. Hankins was impressive. He will be a guy to watch for when we play against NYG moving forward. FYI, Dallas chose Escobar while NYG selected Hankins a couple of picks later.
Speaking of the offensive line, let's talk about
Parnell. I thought he played as expected. Stronger in the run game than the pass. Dallas helped him out on occasion, a chip from a TE or from a RB, but once they realized he could handle Kiwanuka they left him alone. Kiwanuka was able to get by him with speed more than I'd like to see but Romo did a good job climbing the pocket to help out his RT.
Parnell's play in the run game was mostly positive. There was a play when NYG ran a stunt on Martin and Parnell. Martin does a good job passing his defender and picking up Parnell's but Parnell doesn't pick up Martin's defender. It could be from inexperience working with Martin but you expect communication to be there.
This play also stood out:
Martin does his job by getting an arm on the defender to slow him down enough so Parnell can secure the block. Martin then continues to the second level to block the LB. Parnell for whatever can't secure the block and that defender gets the tackle. It's a shame because if Parnell would have gotten the block because Dunbar would have had a really nice cutback lane:
Those were a couple of negative plays I noticed but overall he played well. I'm a little worried about him going against a good pass rusher like Kerrigan on Monday. That will be a nice test for him.
Watching
Martin play I honestly forget he's a rookie sometimes. Some people mentioned he played well against NYG but in my opinion that's how he's played all season. He has a strong punch and uses a wide base. Once he gets his hands on a defender there's not much they can do. He moves and executes his blocks with ease. The only negative note I have from this game was on a stretch play where the DT saw the play coming and swam around Martin. The play didn't count because Leary was caught holding.
Speaking of, we had 3 offensive line penalties that were drive killers. Penalties are never good but ones on offense are especially consequential because T.O.P is a major reason why our defense has played the way they have this season. We need to limit possessions for the other team.
It's always fun to see how
Marinelli plans for the opponent. Against, NYG he called few blitzes and integrated more zone coverage than usual. I only counted 7 blitzes out of the 59 or 60 plays NYG ran. Our run defense showed up against Williams. We held him to 18 carries for 51 yards.
Crawford and
Mincey played well against NYG. Crawford had a few stops in the run game and had a couple of pressures. Mincey had 4 pressures and couple of QB hits.
Crawford pressure:
Mincey pressure:
We know our sack totals are abysmal but that's not the only stat. We get pressure on the QB and that affects their throws. Against, NYG I counted 8 plays in which we got absolutely no pressure on Eli and 8 plays where we did. His stat lines on each:
- No-Pressure: 6/8 76 yds 1 TD
- Pressure: 2/8 18 yds 1 TD
Maybe
Lawrence can be the guy that can convert pressures into sacks.
T.McClain made a few plays. He beat the center for a stop and then a few plays later he went unblocked and put that nasty hit on the RB. It should have been a fumble:
The linebacker play was a bit sloppy. I'm a big supporter of
Durant but I counted 4 missed tackles. He was still flying every where but he wasn't finishing plays.
Rolando had his poorest performance of the season. Not to say it was bad but it was poor for his standards. He uncharacteristically had 2 missed tackles and lacked explosiveness. I wonder if his groin is becoming more of a problem.
Moore had another pass breakup.
Scandrick continues to be aggressive attacking screen plays. There was a play that
Wilcox lined up over the TE. At the snap the TE beats Wilcox and if Eli had look his direction it would have been a sure TD. Luckily he was looking to his left and settled for a shorter pass.
BONUS GIFs
I'll end this post on a humorous note. As I was watching the coaches film, Martin had a couple of plays which cracked me up. Maybe it's just me but these two gifs make me like him even more.
Martin waiting for Randle to get down so he can introduce the defender to his shoulder:
It looks like Martin wanted to take a seat:
Hope you enjoyed the post!
