So Pierce really didn't know what our play was...

[quaigs]

he just checked off into a new play because Romo did the same. Smart move on his part, but it blows the theory out of the water that they knew what the play was. From an interview with Bruce Johnson

pC: Week 1, you force a fumble and week 2 you have a huge pick 6. Talk about the pick 6 and how you played it and what you saw.

BJ: Basically during that whole play we were in a cover 3 coverage and Romo saw something in our defense and checked off. When he did that Antonio Pierce, the quarterback of our defense basically, checked off into a cover 2 and switched the whole defense around. I have to give props to him because if it wasn’t for him I probably would have been somewhere else that I wasn’t supposed to be, [laughter] so I give him a lot of props for that. When Pierce checked, it put me in a totally different mindset of how I had to play my coverage and what I had to do. Once I jammed the receiver and he was going in, I passed him off to the nickel back and once I was about to go to the other receiver I just see the ball up in the air and caught it and then all I was thinking was that I just have to get to the end zone before anyone touches me. That gave me a good opportunity to show my speed. Some people kind of questioned my speed around the combine so that was a great opportunity to show my speed. I was just making sure that I didn’t get caught before I got into the end zone.

http://www.procanes.com/

 

[TellerMorrow34]

It was a nice play by him but it was a bad throw by Romo and honestly a bad effort by Roy to even go up and at least attempt to get a hand on the ball.

 

[TheCount]

You don't need to know what the play is to audible. You set up a look, the offense sees a look and calls and audible, they are probably reacting to your look to you switch to something else.

 

[NextGenBoys]

I'm usually a fan of Shango and his vids, but his latest one he's saying how the Giants have Garrett figured out because of that play.

Please.

They made an adjustment and won because Romo didn't have any time to adjust again. If they had him "figured out" we sure as hell aren't ringing up 31 on them, and we sure as hell aren't marching down the field and scoring on our last drive.

 

[Jake0]

Garrett fooled them just as much if not more than the Giants D fooled them. More often than not our offense does a good job of mentally screwing with opposing defenses except when it decides to get a bit too cute like vs Washington last year. Our defense on the other hand..... never fools anybody, or even adjusts pre-snap.

If Pierce didn't know exactly what the play was, it doesn't matter. Fact of the matter is, they had a blitz called that was backed out of based on what Romo said at the line. Had they kept the play in-tact (Cowboys style baby?) the blitz likely would have been picked up and Romo would have gashed them. Instead Romo's having to think after the snap and hesistates, leading to a poor throw into coverage that had to be a perfect pass.

 

[AmericasTeam31]

After watching the "anatomy of a play" video on this site, it became clear to me that if Romo (who was off all night) leads Crayton to the sideline there is not a chance that ball is intercepted. He said in his postgame interview that the pass was intended for P.C. Watching the video, the pass would have been 2-3 yards behind Crayton. So Johnson was 2-3 yds trailing Crayton to the sidelines. I give ZERO credit to Pierce on the play and all the credit to Romo for a bad pass...

 

[Idgit]

It was a nice play by him but it was a bad throw by Romo and honestly a bad effort by Roy to even go up and at least attempt to get a hand on the ball.

There's another thread on the front page with an excellent breakdown of this play. Check it out. The pass looked awful, but it was actually intended for Crayton and BJ just did a great job of shading behind Roy and then passing him off and dropping into coverage underneath PC's route. Romo still has to see it, but with Roy in front and the DB doing a great job of hiding the coverage, it's a lot easier to see why Tony made the wrong read.

 

[DCBoysfan]

I think it was more of a matter of Peirce doing film work and us playing each other twice a year.

 

[Jake0]

Now that I think about it, if Pierce didn't actually know what the hell Romo was saying it makes the audible that much better. So rather than having a defense that just stands there pre-snap, you have a defense that has someone fake like he knows the play call, audibles out of a blitz right before the play clock hits 0 and the offense has to make instant adjustments on the spot. So maybe the MLB calls for the audible only if the play clock is about to hit 0. Maybe the defense already knows they're audibling out of the formation they start in but they're disguising the formation they plan on using with a base formation?

This is the NFL where a split-second can be the difference between a completion or a batted ball or a pick or a batted ball into a pick. Making someone think can delay a player's reaction time by a split second and give the competitive advantage needed for a big play. You gotta throw in a curve ball sometime. If you are exactly what your opponent sees on film with no quirks then I suppose you'll have the Dallas defense, highly talented but underachievers.

 

[dstew60105]

It was a nice play by him but it was a bad throw by Romo and honestly a bad effort by Roy to even go up and at least attempt to get a hand on the ball.

The pass was intended for Crayton.

 

[SilberBlau]

After watching the "anatomy of a play" video on this site, it became clear to me that if Romo (who was off all night) leads Crayton to the sideline there is not a chance that ball is intercepted. He said in his postgame interview that the pass was intended for P.C. Watching the video, the pass would have been 2-3 yards behind Crayton. So Johnson was 2-3 yds trailing Crayton to the sidelines. I give ZERO credit to Pierce on the play and all the credit to Romo for a bad pass...

that's right. The ball was well behind and too low, Crayton never had a chance to catch it. If Romo throws an accurate ball, Crayton goes for a first down and if he somehow beats Phillips he's going to score. The coverage by #24 Thomas wasn't very good, so that ball was very possible to make. If not for the bad pass, the audible by Pierce would've backfired big time.

 

[CATCH17]

After watching the "anatomy of a play" video on this site, it became clear to me that if Romo (who was off all night) leads Crayton to the sideline there is not a chance that ball is intercepted. He said in his postgame interview that the pass was intended for P.C. Watching the video, the pass would have been 2-3 yards behind Crayton. So Johnson was 2-3 yds trailing Crayton to the sidelines. I give ZERO credit to Pierce on the play and all the credit to Romo for a bad pass...

It was a tough throw though and a pre-meditated throw imo.

He had Witten on a flag route on the other side.

If he would have actually read the defense I think that is where he would've gone with the ball.


Also on our 1st series where he threw an incomplete pass to Bennett he had Roy Williams open in the middle of the field for a decent gainer.

 

[Seven]

It was a nice play by him but it was a bad throw by Romo and honestly a bad effort by Roy to even go up and at least attempt to get a hand on the ball.

IMO...............The milli-second prior to romo's release; I don't think Romo had fully committed to who he was throwin' to. It looked to me that Roy wasn't sure either. If that play was designed with two receivers posting out within 5 yards of each other................not wise, IMO.

 

[Clove]

After watching the "anatomy of a play" video on this site, it became clear to me that if Romo (who was off all night) leads Crayton to the sideline there is not a chance that ball is intercepted. He said in his postgame interview that the pass was intended for P.C. Watching the video, the pass would have been 2-3 yards behind Crayton. So Johnson was 2-3 yds trailing Crayton to the sidelines. I give ZERO credit to Pierce on the play and all the credit to Romo for a bad pass...

IMO, the only thing Romo could've done is either throw it away or not throw it there, because the guy was underneath, and had he lobbed it, it would've taken longer to get there, and the DB still could've dropped back in time to get to it, except maybe Crayton at that point could've become a defender on the corner.

This to me is preperation and film work. You have to know when they are in a zone vs man, and the scouting department has, IMO, sucked for several years now.