I guess the 2 sacks he's referring to are the ones to start the game and the one a little over halfway through the 2nd quarter.
The first one is kind of hard for me to pin on Free to any great extent, if even at all.
The Bengals brought 5 rushers and they had Michael Johnson give the impression of a rush before chucking Witten at the line and dropping off into the flat. Johnson had the attention of Tyron which basically left 5 rushers to be accounted for by the 4 linemen. Free and Frederick both picked up their DL right off the snap. They're actually the only two guys who are still holding their blocks when Romo goes down. Parnell was losing his battle but Mack was just awful and was beaten right off the snap. Literally didn't do a thing to even slow his guy down. His man was about 1/2 of a step behind the unblocked blitzing linebacker. You basically have the DE and DT and two linebackers blitzing from the right. Dallas only had Frederick, Free and Parnell on the line to account for those 4 guys. What's Free supposed to do? Not block Atkins so he can pick up the LB who's coming in? What is Parnell supposed to do? Ignore the outside blitzer to pick up the guy coming right between himself and Free?
IMO, the problem on the first sack wasn't primarily what was going on up front. That blitzer wasn't identified presnap and quite frankly there's no way I say Free should be responsible for that. He was driven back but he had his man locked up and appeared to be giving enough room for Romo to navigate through and step up if the rush hadn't gotten their first. Parnell too was in a tough spot as the guy he picked up blitzed from his position lined up on the slot receiver. He didn't do that well and would have been beaten had the play progressed but he can't block both blitzers on his own and there was room for Romo to step up if he sees that guy coming. The combo of Free getting pushed in and Parnell jumping out to take that outside rusher opened a lane almost as wide as the hashmarks. It was well drawn up and executed even better. It wasn't recognized presnap and part of that falls on someone out there but a lot of that is just good play by the Bengals.
Ultimately it wouldn't have mattered even if they had picked it up because Bernadeau did an absolutely horrible job. He comes out of his stance, shuffles back a bit and then tries to play catch up as the DT runs right around him. I'm not sure he did anything to slow him down. It was horrendous. I hope Broaddus "outstanding" claim isn't considering this play and the rest of the game he was outstanding because if there are many more plays like this, I would disagree outright. This play was so awful it's almost hard to imagine that Mack would be outstanding at any point in the game. It's on par with the half-hearted shoulder thrust he tried in the Bucs game last year that resulted in Romo being slaughtered.
The problem with this play was that the Bengals had flawless execution and Dallas didn't see the blitz. The most glaring eyesore is clearly Bernadette's inability to do anything that would slow down his man. Free and Frederick did well enough and while Parnell was beaten, it was nowhere near as bad as Bernadeau given the assignment he had.
The second sack I would split between Free and Parnell. Parnell was beaten around the edge by Johnson, forcing Romo to step up into the guy who had beaten Free to the inside. As soon as Romo completes his drop he has to head back upfield. He never had time to set up a throw and was flushed right into the guy that Free was struggling with. They both get a little bit of this one, IMO.
