Our Running Plays vs. Skins (all 8 of them)

[percyhoward]

We had 11 rushes, including a QB scramble and 2 reverses to Owens. So just 8 RB plays, all by Barber.

1 2nd and 3 DAL 17: off RT for 5 yards on a delayed handoff. Positive yards, effective play running to the right.

2 2nd and 10 DAL 35: off LT for no gain. Lined up as a fullback, Curtis gets knocked back at the point of attack by McIntosh, who stops Barber for no gain

3 2nd and 5 DAL 41: up the middle for -1. Another delayed handoff, but "FB" Curtis goes flying through the LOS before Barber even has the ball in his hands. LB takes a path through Curtis' wake and nails Barber for a loss.

4 1st and 10 DAL 9: pitch left for 1 yard. Procter completely misses his block.

5 2nd and 10 DAL 27: up the middle for 3 yards. Procter's guy makes the tackle again.

6 1st and 10 WAS 39: up the middle for 3 more. If Witten holds his block just a little longer, could have been more.

7 1st and 10 WAS 25: around right end for 15 yards. Only the second run to the right all day. It would be the last. Davis and Colombo open a huge hole for Barber's only big gain of the day. We scored on the next play.

The next 9 plays from scrimmage after the TD would all be passes, with one TO run. They would net 29 yards.

8 2nd and 2 DAL 27: off LT for no gain. This was the first play after we let the play clock almost run out on us, and had to burn the time out. Curtis at FB was supposed to lead Barber to the left, but was met in the backfield by McIntosh and knocked backwards again.

The injuries at LG and FB killed us in this game. So did our insistence on running left behind Procter. Curtis had a terrible game two weeks ago vs. Philly, then bounced back in GB. Yesterday, he was back to his old self, even throwing in a fumble for good measure.

We ran 58 plays from scrimmage against the Skins, and only 2 plays were runs to the right side, behind Colombo and Davis.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

Idk what Garrett was thinking yesterday

no Felix

only 8 runs by Barber

only 2 to the right side

wth?

 

[BourbonBalz]

I read on the Cowboy's offcial site that 10-14 more running plays were called but Tony audibled out of them due to the defensive alignment of the Skins. I can understand calling some audibles, but not enough to where our running backs only get 8 carries all game. Not very bright. We get in trouble when we get way too pass happy. Romo needs to stop worrying about keeping T.O., Witten, or anyone else happy and just play ball and make the right decisions. He also HAS to cut out the damn interceptions. They're killing us.

On another point, does anyone else think we sometimes play way too soft as an entire team. I mean defensively, offensively, special teams, etc. I don't mean all the time (we were definitely physical against Green Bay), but occasionally. When we play with too much finesse, we either get beat or struggle to win. We need to just knock he crap out of the opposing team every weekend. We're the biggest team in the league on both offense and defense. We should play like it.

 

[landryscorner]

Just remember Tony does have a headset also, so don't think it's just him, coaches up top probably saw something too, just putting it out there

 

[Yeagermeister]

Just remember Tony does have a headset also, so don't think it's just him, coaches up top probably saw something too, just putting it out there

The headset isn't on the whole time.

That just confirms what I have said all day.....get rid of Proctor.

Hopefully Cricket comes back soon.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

Proctor needs to be benched... I think Holland should start.

 

[Deep_South]

Yep, they could have told Tony at any time to stop the audibles and run anyway. But, they didn't. The problem is, we use the pass to set up the run and we weren't able to do that successfully. The audibles have to end up with completions often enough to encourage the other team to change what they are doing, but that wasn't happening. I guess we didn't have enough plays putting T.O. in motion, which stops them from banging on him while he is trying to get free at the LOS. Hopefully, next time a team does this to us we have the motion plays to fight back.

The goal of every defense is to stop the run first, so if we just don't run when at all when the defense lines up a certain way, they win by default. They've stopped the run without having to tackle anyone. We have to have the plays to stop this, or that is all we will see the rest of the year. They will just line up like they have 8 in the box, then go wherever they want to after the ball is snapped.

 

[StylisticS]

Wake up Curtis and block somebody. McIntosh owned you yesterday.

 

[GOLDENCHILD1688]

Proctor needs to be benched... I think Holland should start.

QOUTED FOR EMPHASIS

 

[cowboyz]

i think on plays 2 and 3. if you watch proctor. you'll see he doesn't block the lb that's right in front of him, allowing him to penetrate too far into the backfield.

not curtis' fault imo.

meanwhile proctor goes looking for someone to block.

only bad plays i saw from curtis were some missed pass blocking assignments

davis also missed one of the blocks. i think it's the last running play.

 

[Boysboy]

It was just an overall bad game plan by our coaches and players. It happens. The season is a marathon. We'll learn from this. End of story.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

We had 11 rushes, including a QB scramble and 2 reverses to Owens. So just 8 RB plays, all by Barber.

1 2nd and 3 DAL 17: off RT for 5 yards on a delayed handoff. Positive yards, effective play running to the right.

2 2nd and 10 DAL 35: off LT for no gain. Lined up as a fullback, Curtis gets knocked back at the point of attack by McIntosh, who stops Barber for no gain

3 2nd and 5 DAL 41: up the middle for -1. Another delayed handoff, but "FB" Curtis goes flying through the LOS before Barber even has the ball in his hands. LB takes a path through Curtis' wake and nails Barber for a loss.

4 1st and 10 DAL 9: pitch left for 1 yard. Procter completely misses his block.

5 2nd and 10 DAL 27: up the middle for 3 yards. Procter's guy makes the tackle again.

6 1st and 10 WAS 39: up the middle for 3 more. If Witten holds his block just a little longer, could have been more.

7 1st and 10 WAS 25: around right end for 15 yards. Only the second run to the right all day. It would be the last. Davis and Colombo open a huge hole for Barber's only big gain of the day. We scored on the next play.

The next 9 plays from scrimmage after the TD would all be passes, with one TO run. They would net 29 yards.

8 2nd and 2 DAL 27: off LT for no gain. This was the first play after we let the play clock almost run out on us, and had to burn the time out. Curtis at FB was supposed to lead Barber to the left, but was met in the backfield by McIntosh and knocked backwards again.

The injuries at LG and FB killed us in this game. So did our insistence on running left behind Procter. Curtis had a terrible game two weeks ago vs. Philly, then bounced back in GB. Yesterday, he was back to his old self, even throwing in a fumble for good measure.

We ran 58 plays from scrimmage against the Skins, and only 2 plays were runs to the right side, behind Colombo and Davis.

*Nods* Like I said a piss poor game plan. Even if he'd only gained 50-60 yards on 15-18 carries you still have to do it in order to keep that defense honest.

 

[TheCount]

Nice thread.

Mickey was defending the lack of runs on Talkin' Cowboys, saying they are were basically all loses so why bother running and that the Cowboys have never been a team to beat another team by running on them.

 

[RainMan]

Nice thread.

Mickey was defending the lack of runs on Talkin' Cowboys, saying they are were basically all loses so why bother running and that the Cowboys have never been a team to beat another team by running on them.

There's no doubting we're a passing team first. We pass to set up the run, not the other way around. But Barber is a big part of our team in that he provides the physicality to even out the finesse nature of our pass-first mentality. Take him out of the equation, and we're fairly soft offensively.

As for the run not working, so why run? Well, the pass wasn't doing much good either. Should we have just punted on first down?

 

[AdamJT13]

Mickey was defending the lack of runs on Talkin' Cowboys, saying they are were basically all loses so why bother running

Only one of Barber's carries was a loss. Half of them gained at least 3 yards.

Some people just don't understand what a normal distribution of yardage on rushing plays is in the NFL. Almost 45 percent of all rushing attempts gain 2 yards or less. About two-thirds of them gain 4 yards or less. People think about 4-yards-per-carry being approximately the NFL average, and they think most of your carries should gain 3-5 yards, but it just doesn't happen that way. It's typically a bunch of short runs, a few "average" runs and an occasional longer run to boost your yards-per-carry.

Look at the yardage distribution of Barber's eight carries -- minus-1, 0, 0, 1, 3, 3, 5 and 15. That's hardly much different from what you'd expect on any eight carries. If one of those shorter carries had gone for 5 or 6 yards, it would be just about normal.

You can't let one or two more unsuccessful runs than you'd prefer deter you from running the ball almost completely. Whether you're running it well or not is almost irrelevant, you just run it to help your passing game. If you don't, it makes it easier for the opposing defense to focus on your passing game, which is what really matters.

 

[bedlamvr]

I was supprised by the lack of running . Other teams have had sucess running on the Skins .

I think you really had to test that right end more . The Giants really made us pay in week 1 I think most of their runs were off RT, if nothing else it would have kept our defense honest . There was never even a time the Cowboys were so behind that meant they should have given up on the run

 

[percyhoward]

Look at the yardage distribution of Barber's eight carries -- minus-1, 0, 0, 1, 3, 3, 5 and 15. That's hardly much different from what you'd expect on any eight carries.

I agree with the basic idea that you can't be deterred from running just because of some early failures. But half of Barber's carries were for 1 yard or less. At Green Bay, he rushed 15 times in the first half and never had even one carry of 1 yard or less.

vs WAS
1 rush for a loss
2 rushes for no gain
1 rush for 1 yard
0 rushes for 2 yards
4 rushes for 3+ yards

at GB (first half, 15 carries for 80 yards)
0 rushes for a loss
0 rushes for no gain
0 rushes for 1 yard
6 rushes for 2 yards
9 rushes for 3+ yards

By no conceivable measure were we anywhere near as successful running the ball vs Wash as we were at GB. BUT, the problem wasn't only that we didn't run enough, it was that we didn't (for whatever reason) run to the right enough.

At GB, where Barber had 15 carries for 80 yards in the first half, here's where his runs went...
LEFT or MIDDLE: 4 rushes, 10 yards
RIGHT: 11 rushes, 70 yards

Compare that to last Sunday vs Skins (whole game)
LEFT or MIDDLE: 6 rushes, 4 yards
RIGHT: 2 rushes, 20 yards

 

[khiladi]

At GB, where Barber had 15 carries for 80 yards in the first half, here's where his runs went...
LEFT or MIDDLE: 4 rushes, 10 yards
RIGHT: 11 rushes, 70 yards

Compare that to last Sunday vs Skins (whole game)
LEFT or MIDDLE: 6 rushes, 4 yards
RIGHT: 2 rushes, 20 yards

Can we now start Holland please, because this whole Proctor experiment has gone incredibly wrong? It amounts to leaving in Bledsoe all this time, while Romo was ready to start..

 

[DaBoys4Life]

Can we now start Holland please, because this whole Proctor experiment has gone incredibly wrong? It amounts to leaving in Bledsoe all this time, while Romo was ready to start..

proctor :chainsaw:

 

[TheCount]

Only one of Barber's carries was a loss. Half of them gained at least 3 yards.

Some people just don't understand what a normal distribution of yardage on rushing plays is in the NFL. Almost 45 percent of all rushing attempts gain 2 yards or less. About two-thirds of them gain 4 yards or less. People think about 4-yards-per-carry being approximately the NFL average, and they think most of your carries should gain 3-5 yards, but it just doesn't happen that way. It's typically a bunch of short runs, a few "average" runs and an occasional longer run to boost your yards-per-carry.

Look at the yardage distribution of Barber's eight carries -- minus-1, 0, 0, 1, 3, 3, 5 and 15. That's hardly much different from what you'd expect on any eight carries. If one of those shorter carries had gone for 5 or 6 yards, it would be just about normal.

You can't let one or two more unsuccessful runs than you'd prefer deter you from running the ball almost completely. Whether you're running it well or not is almost irrelevant, you just run it to help your passing game. If you don't, it makes it easier for the opposing defense to focus on your passing game, which is what really matters.

Preach Adam, Preach!