Offensive Creativity

[cern]

Bill Belichick has been coaching since the 70s and that guy throws the kitchen sink at teams and if he wants to go old school he will do it with pace and hurrying up to the LOS.

If he came to that conclusion about how to run an offense then it’s probably what is best because he knows more about football then any human on the planet.

Belichik is arguably the best coach ever in the nfl.

 

[Melonfeud]

Careful or you might make El Chapo's "list"...........

'copy',,,that page outta' Pablo's Playbook page#1: "take my silver or take my lead" is about as cut-n-dried of a game plan to be played

 

[CATCH17]

Belichik is arguably the best coach ever in the nfl.

I think he is.. He’s not my favorite coach by any means but the guy started his career in 1975 and he’s seen just about everything this game can throw at someone and he has an answer for just about anything.

I wish there were more footage of watching him coach guys. It’s ashamed these coaches are so worried about things that we don’t get to see them do their job much.

 

[AdamJT13]

It’s no secret the Cowboys coaching staff likes these formations best:
1. “12 Personnel”- 1 RB, 2 TEs and 2 WRs. They run this formation over 50% of the time, regardless of opponent, regardless of who’s playing for us.

Witten was the only tight end on the field for 67 percent of our plays last season. We used one tight end 68 percent of the time, two tight ends 23 percent of the time and three tight ends 9 percent of the time. So we definitely did not use 12 personnel more than 50 percent of the time.

 

[Bobhaze]

Witten was the only tight end on the field for 67 percent of our plays last season. We used one tight end 68 percent of the time, two tight ends 23 percent of the time and three tight ends 9 percent of the time. So we definitely did not use 12 personnel more than 50 percent of the time.

I’m curious where you got you’re info. Maybe I’m wrong, but I used info from Bob Sturm’s blog, specifically his work called “Decoding Linehan”.

 

[Buzzbait]

I think the key word is “hope”. We can certainly hope Garrett and the offensive coaches show some more creativity than just “fight”.

"Fight" requires effort by the players.
"Creativity" requires effort by the Coach.
That's why JG only talks about "fight".

 

[Verdict]

After watching the outstanding series “All or Nothing”, I was struck by how much our coaching staff seemed to stick with the same offensive tendencies whether they continued to work or not. Garrett is often seen repeating the mantra “We just need to fight harder” when the team has a bad game. “Fight” is a great slogan, but in the NFL, fighting hard is not enough. You have to sometimes have some new wrinkles.

If fact what this team desperately needs from its coaching staff going into 2018 is creativity, especially on offense. I know it’s popular on these boards for fans to scream, “Just run the ball”, as if all we need to do for 60 straight plays is hand it to Zeke. The NFL is never that simple.

Looking back on the 2017 season, it was a tale of two seasons on offense. In the first 8 games of the season, we went 5-3 (should have been 6-2 or 7-1), averaged 28 points a game, which was 5th in the NFL, averaged 379 yds a game (8th in NFL). In the last 8 games, we averaged 16 points a game (28th in NFL) and 293 yds a game (26th).

First half of the season, we had Zeke and Tyron Smith, the last half we had Zeke for 2 games and Tyron for 3 and a half. Sure that hurt, but is this team going to fold anytime key starters are hurt? Is that just the way it’s going to be? We have to depend on injury good luck to remain a good offense?

Somehow Doug Pederson was able to get the beagles offense continue to hum all the way to a SB without its star QB and it’s starting LT. How? Through creativity and some risk taking in key moments.

When Nick Foles started the playoffs, conventional wisdom was that the beagles were toast and that Pederson would just have a few basic plays for Foles to run as a bus driver. Instead, we saw that offense roll out some unusual plays and creative formations that threw DCs into head scratching fits. All based on finding creative ways to make the offense less predictable and more edgy.

It’s no secret the Cowboys coaching staff likes these formations best:
1. “12 Personnel”- 1 RB, 2 TEs and 2 WRs. They run this formation over 50% of the time, regardless of opponent, regardless of who’s playing for us.
2. “11 Personnel” - 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs- second most common formation, most often used for passing situations. The RB can be used as a slot receiver in an empty set.
3. “22 Personnel”- 2 RBs, 2 TEs, 1 WR- a common formation for short yardage and goal line situations.

These are not the only formations of course, but my point is, the Cowboys are actually pretty predictable on offense. I don’t care how great your OL and skill people are, in 2018 NFL world you cannot just run the same stuff a la the 90s Cowboys. Those days are long gone.

With the addition of Tavon Austin and the new “committee” approach at WR, the Cowboys can be much less predictable by spreading the ball around between more options, and getting more creative with Zeke as well. Just asking your players to “fight harder” isn’t enough.

Thoughts?

I agree with that thought process. You would like to think the Cowboys are thinking he same thing.

We need to pass the ball more to the RBs. Zeke would be poison in the open field catching the ball in space. I would like to see Zeke and Austin in the backfield together with both as a threat to run the ball.

If they don't get Olewale, Zeke and Austin in the backfield together they are smoking crack.

 

[xwalker]

After watching the outstanding series “All or Nothing”, I was struck by how much our coaching staff seemed to stick with the same offensive tendencies whether they continued to work or not. Garrett is often seen repeating the mantra “We just need to fight harder” when the team has a bad game. “Fight” is a great slogan, but in the NFL, fighting hard is not enough. You have to sometimes have some new wrinkles.

If fact what this team desperately needs from its coaching staff going into 2018 is creativity, especially on offense. I know it’s popular on these boards for fans to scream, “Just run the ball”, as if all we need to do for 60 straight plays is hand it to Zeke. The NFL is never that simple.

Looking back on the 2017 season, it was a tale of two seasons on offense. In the first 8 games of the season, we went 5-3 (should have been 6-2 or 7-1), averaged 28 points a game, which was 5th in the NFL, averaged 379 yds a game (8th in NFL). In the last 8 games, we averaged 16 points a game (28th in NFL) and 293 yds a game (26th).

First half of the season, we had Zeke and Tyron Smith, the last half we had Zeke for 2 games and Tyron for 3 and a half. Sure that hurt, but is this team going to fold anytime key starters are hurt? Is that just the way it’s going to be? We have to depend on injury good luck to remain a good offense?

Somehow Doug Pederson was able to get the beagles offense continue to hum all the way to a SB without its star QB and it’s starting LT. How? Through creativity and some risk taking in key moments.

When Nick Foles started the playoffs, conventional wisdom was that the beagles were toast and that Pederson would just have a few basic plays for Foles to run as a bus driver. Instead, we saw that offense roll out some unusual plays and creative formations that threw DCs into head scratching fits. All based on finding creative ways to make the offense less predictable and more edgy.

It’s no secret the Cowboys coaching staff likes these formations best:
1. “12 Personnel”- 1 RB, 2 TEs and 2 WRs. They run this formation over 50% of the time, regardless of opponent, regardless of who’s playing for us.
2. “11 Personnel” - 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs- second most common formation, most often used for passing situations. The RB can be used as a slot receiver in an empty set.
3. “22 Personnel”- 2 RBs, 2 TEs, 1 WR- a common formation for short yardage and goal line situations.

These are not the only formations of course, but my point is, the Cowboys are actually pretty predictable on offense. I don’t care how great your OL and skill people are, in 2018 NFL world you cannot just run the same stuff a la the 90s Cowboys. Those days are long gone.

With the addition of Tavon Austin and the new “committee” approach at WR, the Cowboys can be much less predictable by spreading the ball around between more options, and getting more creative with Zeke as well. Just asking your players to “fight harder” isn’t enough.

Thoughts?

Think about it from OC Linehan's point of view.

Garrett forced him to play Witten 100% of the snaps. Witten lack of speed coupled with a lack of speed at WR was a problem.

Then he has Dez as the #1 WR who somebody decided needed a very high number of targets. I doubt if that was Linehan's decision. Probably Garrett again. Dez could only run a few routes effectively and needed a perfect throw just to have a chance to catch it. Any type of complicated play would end up confusing Dez more than the defense.

Beasley is very limited. His quickness works in the short area but CBs has such a length advantage that intermediate distance routes just don't work well for him unless they are a surprise to the defense. Beasley is not much of a RAC threat.

TWill struggles with short passes because he needs more time to "see" the ball in the air. He is not a deep pass catcher either. He must be used in the intermediate area.

Butler was only good on go routes. He had Dez type lack of route running prowess.

Any RB other than Zeke was speed limited.

They didn't have a speed threat to run jet sweeps or reverses. Switzer just wasn't that fast/elusive in those situations.

How does anyone get creative with those options?

Draw up a new play and then start reviewing each players role and likely half or more are not within their niche role. Then the play gets adjusted to fit the players at which point the play looses it's originally intended function.

Linehan didn't have the option to use 4 WRs, 1 RB because Garrett would not allow Witten to be taken off the field.

Just 1 decent NFL WR that could run all routes and not get confused would have drastically altered what types of plays Linehan could design.

An elite speed player at slot-WR or as the backup RB could open up many other options. Zeke is physically great and a decent receiver but I'm not sure he has the attention span to practice the nuances of more complicated route running and he can't play all the snaps.

The only way to function was to run the ball with an elite RB and elite OL. When the OL started to struggle then the wheels started to come off. Then Zeke was out and it was impossible to function in a structured manner.

The main thing they could have done is mix up shotgun equals likely pass and under center equals likely run. Running from shotgun does limit the RB and passing from under center puts limitations on the QB and the pass blocking; therefore, it's obvious why they have heavy tendencies in those formations. Nevertheless I think they could have fooled defenses by mixing it up a bit more.

They have now addressed their many limitations.
Hurns/Gallup are detailed route runners.

Austin has the speed that scares defenses and he'll operate in the underneath areas either in the flats as a RB or a short catch with big YAC if made a focus of the coverage scheme.

Thompson has the deep speed and deep catching ability like Butler had but he is not an idiot like Butler and has some ability to run other routes.

They'll likely run some 4 WR, 1 RB sets now based on match-up advantages.

They can run jet sweeps and reverses with Austin and maybe do some things with Thompson.

Beasley is still a niche player but if some of the new options can prevent him from seeing double coverage then he'll thrive.

TWill is still limited but it will be much easier to keep him in situations where he can function effectively because players like Hurns/Gallup don't have limitations from a schematic perspective.

Hopefully they've cleaned up the OLine issues also. They added Connor Williams who not only looks like an upgrade at LG but is an option at OT also. Imagine if Connor Williams was the LG in the Atlanta game. Once Green struggled Williams could have moved over to LT and even with zero practice would have been better than Byron Bell. A year of experience at RT for La'el should make him much better.

Summary: The new players might not be super stars but from a schematic perspective, it's a drastic improvement. The OC went from designing with Crayons to a High End computer and High End software tools.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Witten never coming off the field pigeonholed us. Even with 10 and 00 looks he was on the field. With Austin in the fold, new receivers, and no need to cater to what Dez and Witten did best I think people are going to be surprised by the passing game.

There has not been innovation in the run game in decades of the NFL.

 

[Buzzbait]

My thought every time this criticism is trotted out are “how much does it matter if we’re consistently inside the top 5 or 10 teams in the league in terms of offensive points production?”
Followed closely by “why are we preoccupied with intangible things like ‘creativity’ when there are tangible areas where the team falls short (like 3rd down success percentage or takeaways) all over the defense?”

Because some "creativity" would help BOOST that 3rd down success percentage, instead of just hoping the defense make's up for the lack of creativity by the offense.

 

[cowboy_ron]

After watching the outstanding series “All or Nothing”, I was struck by how much our coaching staff seemed to stick with the same offensive tendencies whether they continued to work or not. Garrett is often seen repeating the mantra “We just need to fight harder” when the team has a bad game. “Fight” is a great slogan, but in the NFL, fighting hard is not enough. You have to sometimes have some new wrinkles.

If fact what this team desperately needs from its coaching staff going into 2018 is creativity, especially on offense. I know it’s popular on these boards for fans to scream, “Just run the ball”, as if all we need to do for 60 straight plays is hand it to Zeke. The NFL is never that simple.

Looking back on the 2017 season, it was a tale of two seasons on offense. In the first 8 games of the season, we went 5-3 (should have been 6-2 or 7-1), averaged 28 points a game, which was 5th in the NFL, averaged 379 yds a game (8th in NFL). In the last 8 games, we averaged 16 points a game (28th in NFL) and 293 yds a game (26th).

First half of the season, we had Zeke and Tyron Smith, the last half we had Zeke for 2 games and Tyron for 3 and a half. Sure that hurt, but is this team going to fold anytime key starters are hurt? Is that just the way it’s going to be? We have to depend on injury good luck to remain a good offense?

Somehow Doug Pederson was able to get the beagles offense continue to hum all the way to a SB without its star QB and it’s starting LT. How? Through creativity and some risk taking in key moments.

When Nick Foles started the playoffs, conventional wisdom was that the beagles were toast and that Pederson would just have a few basic plays for Foles to run as a bus driver. Instead, we saw that offense roll out some unusual plays and creative formations that threw DCs into head scratching fits. All based on finding creative ways to make the offense less predictable and more edgy.

It’s no secret the Cowboys coaching staff likes these formations best:
1. “12 Personnel”- 1 RB, 2 TEs and 2 WRs. They run this formation over 50% of the time, regardless of opponent, regardless of who’s playing for us.
2. “11 Personnel” - 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs- second most common formation, most often used for passing situations. The RB can be used as a slot receiver in an empty set.
3. “22 Personnel”- 2 RBs, 2 TEs, 1 WR- a common formation for short yardage and goal line situations.

These are not the only formations of course, but my point is, the Cowboys are actually pretty predictable on offense. I don’t care how great your OL and skill people are, in 2018 NFL world you cannot just run the same stuff a la the 90s Cowboys. Those days are long gone.

With the addition of Tavon Austin and the new “committee” approach at WR, the Cowboys can be much less predictable by spreading the ball around between more options, and getting more creative with Zeke as well. Just asking your players to “fight harder” isn’t enough.

Thoughts?

Good post Bob.

 

[CowboyRoy]

After watching the outstanding series “All or Nothing”, I was struck by how much our coaching staff seemed to stick with the same offensive tendencies whether they continued to work or not. Garrett is often seen repeating the mantra “We just need to fight harder” when the team has a bad game. “Fight” is a great slogan, but in the NFL, fighting hard is not enough. You have to sometimes have some new wrinkles.

If fact what this team desperately needs from its coaching staff going into 2018 is creativity, especially on offense. I know it’s popular on these boards for fans to scream, “Just run the ball”, as if all we need to do for 60 straight plays is hand it to Zeke. The NFL is never that simple.

Looking back on the 2017 season, it was a tale of two seasons on offense. In the first 8 games of the season, we went 5-3 (should have been 6-2 or 7-1), averaged 28 points a game, which was 5th in the NFL, averaged 379 yds a game (8th in NFL). In the last 8 games, we averaged 16 points a game (28th in NFL) and 293 yds a game (26th).

First half of the season, we had Zeke and Tyron Smith, the last half we had Zeke for 2 games and Tyron for 3 and a half. Sure that hurt, but is this team going to fold anytime key starters are hurt? Is that just the way it’s going to be? We have to depend on injury good luck to remain a good offense?

Somehow Doug Pederson was able to get the beagles offense continue to hum all the way to a SB without its star QB and it’s starting LT. How? Through creativity and some risk taking in key moments.

When Nick Foles started the playoffs, conventional wisdom was that the beagles were toast and that Pederson would just have a few basic plays for Foles to run as a bus driver. Instead, we saw that offense roll out some unusual plays and creative formations that threw DCs into head scratching fits. All based on finding creative ways to make the offense less predictable and more edgy.

It’s no secret the Cowboys coaching staff likes these formations best:
1. “12 Personnel”- 1 RB, 2 TEs and 2 WRs. They run this formation over 50% of the time, regardless of opponent, regardless of who’s playing for us.
2. “11 Personnel” - 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs- second most common formation, most often used for passing situations. The RB can be used as a slot receiver in an empty set.
3. “22 Personnel”- 2 RBs, 2 TEs, 1 WR- a common formation for short yardage and goal line situations.

These are not the only formations of course, but my point is, the Cowboys are actually pretty predictable on offense. I don’t care how great your OL and skill people are, in 2018 NFL world you cannot just run the same stuff a la the 90s Cowboys. Those days are long gone.

With the addition of Tavon Austin and the new “committee” approach at WR, the Cowboys can be much less predictable by spreading the ball around between more options, and getting more creative with Zeke as well. Just asking your players to “fight harder” isn’t enough.

Thoughts?

Nailed it buddy. Great stuff. And Dak will continue to get better. The fact that he got his butt handed to him in the 2nd half of the season was the best thing that could have happened to him. He will be better because of it going forward.

 

[AdamJT13]

I’m curious where you got you’re info. Maybe I’m wrong, but I used info from Bob Sturm’s blog, specifically his work called “Decoding Linehan”.

They're the official game participation play-by-play lineups compiled by the NFL.

You can also look at the snap counts for our tight ends at Football Outsiders (taken from the NFL Gamebooks) -- Witten 1,050, Hanna 275, Swaim 173 and Jarwin 4. If you do the math, even if Hanna, Swaim and/or Jarwin never appeared on the field at the same time, and even if we never used three tight ends at all, we couldn't possibly have used two tight ends more than 42 percent of the time.

 

[Idgit]

Because some "creativity" would help BOOST that 3rd down success percentage, instead of just hoping the defense make's up for the lack of creativity by the offense.

Not sure what you’re suggesting. You want more creativity on defense now? As opposed to, like, better players?

 

[Bobhaze]

They're the official game participation play-by-play lineups compiled by the NFL.

You can also look at the snap counts for our tight ends at Football Outsiders (taken from the NFL Gamebooks) -- Witten 1,050, Hanna 275, Swaim 173 and Jarwin 4. If you do the math, even if Hanna, Swaim and/or Jarwin never appeared on the field at the same time, and even if we never used three tight ends at all, we couldn't possibly have used two tight ends more than 42 percent of the time.

I think I understand your point but that doesn’t necessarily add up regarding formations. The number of snaps does not indicate what formations those guys were in when they took snaps.

 

[Idgit]

I think I understand your point but that doesn’t necessarily add up regarding formations. The number of snaps does not indicate what formations those guys were in when they took snaps.

He’s saying the non-Witten TEs snaps, even in total, don’t represent more than 50% of the offensive plays. So even if they only lined up in 12 formation with any 2TE combination on the field, your percentage of more than 50% of the time can’t be accurate.

 

[Buzzbait]

I agree with that thought process. You would like to think the Cowboys are thinking he same thing.

We need to pass the ball more to the RBs. Zeke would be poison in the open field catching the ball in space. I would like to see Zeke and Austin in the backfield together with both as a threat to run the ball.

If they don't get Olewale, Zeke and Austin in the backfield together they are smoking crack.

I agree, there's no good reason to not use Zeke as a receiver on occasion just to stir the pot, but Garrett failed "NFL Creativity 101" at Princeton, and he usually doesn't utilize all the tools he has at his disposal anyway. He'd rather just run Zeke up the middle and forget the X's and O's and the creativity.
OH! And don't forget that dumb jet sweep that never works!

He's saving that jet sweep for Austin. That'll fool 'em! That's why they drafted Austin, he needed somebody for the jet sweep.

 

[Buzzbait]

Not sure what you’re suggesting. You want more creativity on defense now? As opposed to, like, better players?

No, on offense. AHHHH! I just got it. When you mentioned "3rd down success percentage" I thought that was in reference to the offense.
I just reread that and discovered you were referring to defense, not offense. Sorry for the confusion Idgit!

 

[lostar2009]

After watching the outstanding series “All or Nothing”, I was struck by how much our coaching staff seemed to stick with the same offensive tendencies whether they continued to work or not. Garrett is often seen repeating the mantra “We just need to fight harder” when the team has a bad game. “Fight” is a great slogan, but in the NFL, fighting hard is not enough. You have to sometimes have some new wrinkles.

If fact what this team desperately needs from its coaching staff going into 2018 is creativity, especially on offense. I know it’s popular on these boards for fans to scream, “Just run the ball”, as if all we need to do for 60 straight plays is hand it to Zeke. The NFL is never that simple.

Looking back on the 2017 season, it was a tale of two seasons on offense. In the first 8 games of the season, we went 5-3 (should have been 6-2 or 7-1), averaged 28 points a game, which was 5th in the NFL, averaged 379 yds a game (8th in NFL). In the last 8 games, we averaged 16 points a game (28th in NFL) and 293 yds a game (26th).

First half of the season, we had Zeke and Tyron Smith, the last half we had Zeke for 2 games and Tyron for 3 and a half. Sure that hurt, but is this team going to fold anytime key starters are hurt? Is that just the way it’s going to be? We have to depend on injury good luck to remain a good offense?

Somehow Doug Pederson was able to get the beagles offense continue to hum all the way to a SB without its star QB and it’s starting LT. How? Through creativity and some risk taking in key moments.

When Nick Foles started the playoffs, conventional wisdom was that the beagles were toast and that Pederson would just have a few basic plays for Foles to run as a bus driver. Instead, we saw that offense roll out some unusual plays and creative formations that threw DCs into head scratching fits. All based on finding creative ways to make the offense less predictable and more edgy.

It’s no secret the Cowboys coaching staff likes these formations best:
1. “12 Personnel”- 1 RB, 2 TEs and 2 WRs. They run this formation over 50% of the time, regardless of opponent, regardless of who’s playing for us.
2. “11 Personnel” - 1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WRs- second most common formation, most often used for passing situations. The RB can be used as a slot receiver in an empty set.
3. “22 Personnel”- 2 RBs, 2 TEs, 1 WR- a common formation for short yardage and goal line situations.

These are not the only formations of course, but my point is, the Cowboys are actually pretty predictable on offense. I don’t care how great your OL and skill people are, in 2018 NFL world you cannot just run the same stuff a la the 90s Cowboys. Those days are long gone.

With the addition of Tavon Austin and the new “committee” approach at WR, the Cowboys can be much less predictable by spreading the ball around between more options, and getting more creative with Zeke as well. Just asking your players to “fight harder” isn’t enough.

Thoughts?

Yup that the plan. JG comes up with one game plan and throw the players under the bus if it don't work, lol. But they need to do be better at adjusting.

 

[AdamJT13]

I think I understand your point but that doesn’t necessarily add up regarding formations. The number of snaps does not indicate what formations those guys were in when they took snaps.

"12 personnel" refers to who is on the field, not where they line up. It's any formation with two tight ends on the field.

And Sturm's blog even says we used one tight end about 69 percent of the time and "12" personnel about 14 percent of the time.

(sorry, not allowed to post the link, but it was posted on Jan. 2 if you want to find it)

So I'm not sure where you came up with more than 50 percent for "12" personnel.