Sports Illustrated all-22 breakdown

[dware94]

Nothing new here, but I think its safe to assume that our safety play is one of the major factors of our horrendous pass defense.
The play where Church decided to help Lee instead of drop back and double Calvin on the crossing route explains how smart our guys are. Of all people, Lee is the last guy that needs help with his assignment.


http://nfl.si.com/2013/10/29/the-all-22-megatron-blows-dallas-secondary-apart/?sct=nfl_t1t_a2

 

[Staubacher]

We have a serious coaching problem. Serious.

It starts with the HC.

 

[Nirvana]

We have a serious coaching problem. Serious.

It starts with the HC.

“It’s crazy, shoot, I mean, we got one-on-one coverage and were able to hit on it a lot,” Johnson said. “I don’t know what our percentages were, but we were able to hit on a lot of deep passes, intermediate, we were all over the place.”

...

Jerry Jones: I’m more worried about Reggie Bush than Megatron
Posted by Michael David Smith on October 26, 2013, 10:14 AM EDT

Getty Images
As Dallas prepares to head to Detroit, Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones saysCalvin Johnson is not the Lion who worries him most.

Asked on KRLD-FM whether he’s more concerned about his defense facing Johnson or Lions running back Reggie Bush, Jones answered that the Cowboys’ greatest problem on defense will be keeping Bush in check.

“Well, I think Bush,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “When I look at where we seem to have some vulnerability using the passes out of the backfield, I look at what San Diego did, I look at times what Philadelphia did, if they were able to do anything at all, coming out of that backfield. That seems defensively to be a rough area for us. We’ve worked on it a lot this week.”

...

Safe to say they "worked a lot" on the wrong thing, the wrong focus. And it starts with the GM. They were all focused on the wrong thing.

 

[jblaze2004]

Church is not a good coverage safety. We should of doubled calvin johnson the whole game and made someone else beat us. Instead we left carr on a island or played stupid zone. With no passrush we gave stafford way too much time

 

[perrykemp]

Church is not a good coverage safety. We should of doubled calvin johnson the whole game and made someone else beat us. Instead we left carr on a island or played stupid zone. With no passrush we gave stafford way too much time

Did you hear Darren Woodson on Mike and Mike this AM? He said what has been discussed at length here on CZ that the safety position in the NFL is changing like no other position on the field. Big hitting safeties or even safeties predominately focused on stopping the run are going the way of the Dodo bird....

He said the movement is towards essentially corners playing the safety position.

Church would have been an incredible safety in the 90s or even the much of the 2000's.... Unfortunately Church isn't the kind of safety that can be very successful in the evolution of today's game -- at least IMHO.

 

[Zimmy Lives]

Did you hear Darren Woodson on Mike and Mike this AM? He said what has been discussed at length here on CZ that the safety position in the NFL is changing like no other position on the field. Big hitting safeties or even safeties predominately focused on stopping the run are going the way of the Dodo bird....

He said the movement is towards essentially corners playing the safety position.

Church would have been an incredible safety in the 90s or even the much of the 2000's.... Unfortunately Church isn't the kind of safety that can be very successful in the evolution of today's game -- at least IMHO.

I think most would agree with you. Church, though, is the best this team has besides Wilcox. I believe that in time, maybe before the end of the season, Church will be replaced by Heath.

 

[WV Cowboy]

This time last week I would have told you that I didn't think any team would try to stop Calvin Johnson with single coverage, .. ever.

I would think they would do all they could to try and slow him down with double coverage, .. safety over the top, .. whatever. (I'm no football coach)

Simply put, make someone else beat you.

 

[EPL0c0]

Did you hear Darren Woodson on Mike and Mike this AM? He said what has been discussed at length here on CZ that the safety position in the NFL is changing like no other position on the field. Big hitting safeties or even safeties predominately focused on stopping the run are going the way of the Dodo bird....

He said the movement is towards essentially corners playing the safety position.

Church would have been an incredible safety in the 90s or even the much of the 2000's.... Unfortunately Church isn't the kind of safety that can be very successful in the evolution of today's game -- at least IMHO.

I will continue to say that one of the worst things that happened to this team was winning Super Bowl XXX. It happened without Jimmy. That's when Jerry's ego became self-aware. He thought "Hey, I did it on my own, I don't need Jimmy." And he's been forever trying to recreate that 1995 season team. 20yrs later though...

 

[JD_KaPow]

I don't see how anyone could watch this game and the Denver game and not think that safety is one of our greatest positions of need.

 

[birdwells1]

I will continue to say that one of the worst things that happened to this team was winning Super Bowl XXX. It happened without Jimmy. That's when Jerry's ego became self-aware. He thought "Hey, I did it on my own, I don't need Jimmy." And he's been forever trying to recreate that 1995 season team. 20yrs later though...

Barry Switzer to Jerry, "we did it our way babyyyyy!". I'll never forget that cooment.

 

[cowboysooner]

We are playing single high with 33 seconds left up 6?
We don't have enough dbs on this roster. We have 7 linebackers on the active roster yet play more than 2 about 10% of the time. We went into the Detroit game with essentially 2 reserves Webb and Hamilton for 5 db spots let alone if we ever needed to play a dime defense like maybe with 1 minute to go no timeouts 80 yards of field to cover.

Our special teams are good but at what cost? McCray is useless as a defender. Bosworth is a below average fullback 3 times per game. Tanner has played 10 plays of offense and made 1 good catch then made 2 catastrophic mistakes trying to "make a play".

Will Allen should have been kept and McCray should have been out of here. They are not that different from a coverage perspective but Lord help should McCray have to play safety.

We need to go to a 3 man walk around defensive front in that situation with 3 deep safeties. . Who cares if the run for 15 yards in the middle of the field. Poor Scandrick was left with responsibility for Bush in the flat and Duram both on the sideline. We have 2 deep or single high and it is a rookie that flunked out of Georgia. It was idiotic. We want them to catch the ball between the hashes for 20 yards or less.

 

[Staubacher]

“It’s crazy, shoot, I mean, we got one-on-one coverage and were able to hit on it a lot,” Johnson said. “I don’t know what our percentages were, but we were able to hit on a lot of deep passes, intermediate, we were all over the place.”

...

Jerry Jones: I’m more worried about Reggie Bush than Megatron
Posted by Michael David Smith on October 26, 2013, 10:14 AM EDT

Getty Images
As Dallas prepares to head to Detroit, Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones saysCalvin Johnson is not the Lion who worries him most.

Asked on KRLD-FM whether he’s more concerned about his defense facing Johnson or Lions running back Reggie Bush, Jones answered that the Cowboys’ greatest problem on defense will be keeping Bush in check.

“Well, I think Bush,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “When I look at where we seem to have some vulnerability using the passes out of the backfield, I look at what San Diego did, I look at times what Philadelphia did, if they were able to do anything at all, coming out of that backfield. That seems defensively to be a rough area for us. We’ve worked on it a lot this week.”

...

Safe to say they "worked a lot" on the wrong thing, the wrong focus. And it starts with the GM. They were all focused on the wrong thing.

Good points. Starts with Jerrah. Garrett just piles on the stupidity. Unreal how a lousy pass defense team would talk big all week about how they were gonna shut down Megatron. Jerrah did it and Hatcher did it.

 

[Nirvana]

Good points. Starts with Jerrah. Garrett just piles on the stupidity. Unreal how a lousy pass defense team would talk big all week about how they were gonna shut down Megatron. Jerrah did it and Hatcher did it.

RIght, the hype was a virtual "Carr island" all week. That has been sent to the grave.

 

[Staubacher]

RIght, the hype was a virtual "Carr island" all week. That has been sent to the grave.

Yup. And the biggest stupidity of it was telegraphing to the other team how we were gonna play defense.

 

[Jenky]

Did you hear Darren Woodson on Mike and Mike this AM? He said what has been discussed at length here on CZ that the safety position in the NFL is changing like no other position on the field. Big hitting safeties or even safeties predominately focused on stopping the run are going the way of the Dodo bird....

He said the movement is towards essentially corners playing the safety position.

Church would have been an incredible safety in the 90s or even the much of the 2000's.... Unfortunately Church isn't the kind of safety that can be very successful in the evolution of today's game -- at least IMHO.

This started happening years ago though. It's not really new.

 

[Future]

I think most would agree with you. Church, though, is the best this team has besides Wilcox. I believe that in time, maybe before the end of the season, Church will be replaced by Heath.

Agreed. I think long term, at least to the coaching staff, Heath, Johnson, and Wilcox have to be the top three...I would think anyways. The problem with that is I dont know who of those three can be a playmaker, at least when the ball is in the air.

As for Church, I think he can still have a role. Every team can use a thumper, and you can't overlook the turnovers he's causing.

 

[diehard2294]

Just another example of this organizations inability to evaluate talent properly

 

[sbark]

I can see making the pre-game stmt on more worried about Bush.........but by the 3rd qtr for the coaching staff not to have alternative coverage in case CJ goes wild is unimaginable.............to stay with the same basic coverage plan to the end of the game falls fully on the coaching staff..........at some point you go with Lets make Bush Beat us underneath...vrs give up the 20-40 yd chunks in the 4th qtr.

That comes down to the coaches putting the players in a position to succeed.........same with kneeling 3 times on the last drive.........it take a lot of variable out of the equation and keeps Tyron in a position to succeed, and limits the chances of failure.

 

[Future]

I can see making the pre-game stmt on more worried about Bush.........but by the 3rd qtr for the coaching staff not to have alternative coverage in case CJ goes wild is unimaginable.............to stay with the same basic coverage plan to the end of the game falls fully on the coaching staff..........at some point you go with Lets make Bush Beat us underneath...vrs give up the 20-40 yd chunks in the 4th qtr.

That comes down to the coaches putting the players in a position to succeed.........same with kneeling 3 times on the last drive.........it take a lot of variable out of the equation and keeps Tyron in a position to succeed, and limits the chances of failure.

In terms of defensive adjustments, the Lions only had 7 points through three quarters. Its not like they got torched and gave up scores the whole game. The players couldn't close this one out.

You give up 24 in the fourth quarter after only 7 all game, that's on the players, I don't care how you split it.

 

[WV Cowboy]

You give up 24 in the fourth quarter after only 7 all game, that's on the players, I don't care how you split it.

Unless coaching decisions start worrying about the clock too soon, .. wrong coaching decisions on how to run out the clock, wrong schemes/formations on how to play defense with less than a minute that puts players out of position.

I don't absolve the players, but they need the right decisions to be made, .. and I'm not sure they were.