Sturm - Xs and Os - Defensive Confusion

[Sturm1310]

http://beta.sportsdaydfw.com/dallas...08/sturm-xs-os-defensive-confusion-dooms-boys

Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer

Sturm: Xs and Os - Defensive Confusion Dooms the Boys
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New Orleans Saints tight end Josh Hill (89) spikes the ball after scoring on a 3-yard pass from Drew Brees past Dallas Cowboys strong safety Barry Church (42) and cornerback Brandon Carr (39) during the first half of an NFL football game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015, in New Orleans. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)

Late in the week, we finally get a chance to "look at the tape" as Jason Garrett likes to say and examine some plays that we cannot fully digest on TV. I can't promise that every week we will be able to do this, but honestly, this is my favorite exercise of the week because only here can you fully appreciate how advanced and complex the NFL game can be sometimes.

Here, we are not looking to call anyone out, and we surely want to leave open the possibility of our eyes deceiving us and more than anything, I want to admit that I don't have the benefit of the coaches telling me what coverage they were in. So, sometimes, this diagnosis will be "pretty sure" rather than "100% sure" even though I am trying to get it right. I will make calls and try to hunt down the right answer, but I will just admit right here that we will try our best to be accurate but invariably, I will see something wrong.

But, let's pick plays that are interesting but not played out by this point of the week and have some fun talking Xs and Os. Feel free to tweet me @SportsSturm when a game shows you a play that you would like broken down and I will attempt to include it in this post.


[content added by staff]

 

[xwalker]

http://beta.sportsdaydfw.com/dallas...08/sturm-xs-os-defensive-confusion-dooms-boys

This play seems more like a well executed pick play than confusion. It would be interesting to dive into the pick plays and when they're legal or not legal. The one that knocked Gachkar out is obviously illegal, but ones like below are legal. The Cowboys had issues with pick plays last season. They were the bane of Morris Claiborne's existence for a couple of years with Scandrick always berating him for screwing them up in past years.

What is the solution to pick plays like below? I recall another one on the left side that included their TE and WR #83. I think Carr and Jones were in coverage. It seems that the defenders need to play some type of zone on these plays. If the LB covers the inside and the CB covers the outside receiver that play does not work the same way. I realize that puts the LB in coverage on a WR, but there is some help if the pass go inside.

 

[DFWJC]

Really great explanation of the Michael carry on 3rd and 1.
Smith made his block but Leary got destroyed. Michael properly cut back, but Witten was out-manned the other way by a bigger guy.

 

[Sydla]

I can't help but think that on the first run play, if that had been Murray, he'd have just plowed forward trying to get that yard.

 

[DogFace]

This play seems more like a well executed pick play than confusion. It would be interesting to dive into the pick plays and when they're legal or not legal. The one that knocked Gachkar out is obviously illegal, but ones like below are legal. The Cowboys had issues with pick plays last season. They were the bane of Morris Claiborne's existence for a couple of years with Scandrick always berating him for screwing them up in past years.

What is the solution to pick plays like below? I recall another one on the left side that included their TE and WR #83. I think Carr and Jones were in coverage. It seems that the defenders need to play some type of zone on these plays. If the LB covers the inside and the CB covers the outside receiver that play does not work the same way. I realize that puts the LB in coverage on a WR, but there is some help if the pass go inside.

I absolutely agree. Why can't the pros figure this out?

Also, that tackle attempt by Church was pathetic. Just terrible.

 

[DallasInDC]

I absolutely agree. Why can't the pros figure this out?

Also, that tackle attempt by Church was pathetic. Just terrible.

Just looking at the play, the only real ay to defend it is for the corner to breakoff with slot receiver and the safety picking up the outside receiver. The biggest challenge is being able to react quick enough to defend it. It's a good play, I wish we would use it more with Dez and Beasley.

On Church'a tackle, he took the wrong angle which put him out of position and resulted in him having to lunge for the tackle.

 

[khiladi]

You can't pick after 1 yard at the line. That is the rule.

Teams like the Pats and Denver get away with a lot of BS. The subjectivity of it being a disruption of route versus being an actual pick lets the refs get away with a lot of BS.

That being said, knowing the way the refs let the picks slide many times for the Pats and Dallas inability to defend licks, it could be a long day unless the Cowboys generate ridiculous pressure..

 

[BigD5]

You can't pick after 1 yard at the line. That is the rule.

Teams like the Pats and Denver get away with a lot of BS. The subjectivity of it being a disruption of route versus being an actual pick lets the refs get away with a lot of BS.

That being said, knowing the way the refs let the picks slide many times for the Pats and Dallas inability to defend licks, it could be a long day unless the Cowboys generate ridiculous pressure..

As bad as those two teams are at it, Green Bay runs picks just about every play. How else do you explain their less talented wrs getting so wide open?

 

[khiladi]

It's absurd. That's why Seattle absolutely shut down Denver the year they set all sorts of records.

Their secondary fully healthy and that talented in man coverage, and physical were allowed to play.

If the rules weren't so catered to offense, coupled with the subjectivity involved which refs can let slide when they want, a lot of these offenses wouldn't put up such big numbers..

The Patriots passing game is predicated on it. Keep Brady on shotgun to give him time, run picks, or routes where WRs 'disrupt' the CBs coverage getting their WRs open in that horizontal, short passing game.

Teams that beat the Pats and fluster then is when Brady gets pressures. Last year in KC for example, at the beginning of the season when the OL was struggling, the Pats got destroyed. The Giants when they beat the Pats during the Spygate year totally dominated the line.

Brady is not a Rodgers where he can make throws in the run. And playing a soft zone coverage, Brady will pick it apart.

 

[khiladi]

I absolutely agree. Why can't the pros figure this out?

Also, that tackle attempt by Church was pathetic. Just terrible.

Because the rules make it very hard. The NFL wanted more offense and got it.

 

[xwalker]

I absolutely agree. Why can't the pros figure this out?

Also, that tackle attempt by Church was pathetic. Just terrible.

I assume you mean Church's tackle attempt in the final play, not in the Gif.

Yes, he should make that tackle; although, I will say those are more difficult than they look. His angle caused him to be a little behind the runner by the time he got to him which forced him to dive instead of running through him.

What makes it difficult is that if a Safety in that situation takes too much of an angle to get ahead of the runner, then the runner can cut back inside.

It would be great for the Safeties to always make those plays, but generally something really bad has happened if they're in that situation in the first place. I'm more concerned about the Cowboys cleaning up the issues that are causing the Safeties to repeatedly be in those situations the past 2 games.

 

[DFWJC]

As bad as those two teams are at it, Green Bay runs picks just about every play. How else do you explain their less talented wrs getting so wide open?

Yeah, they do pick.

But who are these less talented WRs you speak of?
Nelson?
Cobb?
even the young DeVante Adams is pretty talented

 

[Idgit]

Did I miss the part where Sturm explained that the defense was tired because of something Brandon Weeden did?

It's frustrating, because all these plays come down to execution problems with our players. And it's not like it's the same guys all the time. Some of them--like Leary--are good players who we ought to be able to count on, and they're taking turns getting beat and killing drives on offense or giving up first downs on defense.

The defensive confusion isn't what we ought to expect from a simple defense and a Marinelli team. The OL getting beat at crunch time just isn't ok. I know, when you lose, you always get examples of plays where the execution is not good, but with Romo and Dez and Hardy out, you just hope people can figure out how to step up and get it done, and they haven't been able to. This Saints game is especially frustrating for me defensively because there were so many chances where we could have just made one play and won the game there, and we weren't able to do it. The Patmon drop is probably the most frustrating one of all.

 

[DCBoysfan]

I love and hate these analysis, I love how they are done and hate the plays once you see them from the all-22, and see bad Dallas messed up.

 

[xwalker]

Really great explanation of the Michael carry on 3rd and 1.
Smith made his block but Leary got destroyed. Michael properly cut back, but Witten was out-manned the other way by a bigger guy.

I'm not certain that was intended to go between Leary and Smith. Leary does not appear to be attempting to reach block the DT.

It that was the design, then it's not a good one because you can see in the pre-snap alignment that Leary's man was slightly angled and too far towards the outside for a reach block to have anything more than than low probability of success.

 

[DallasInDC]

I assume you mean Church's tackle attempt in the final play, not in the Gif.

Yes, he should make that tackle; although, I will say those are more difficult than they look. His angle caused him to be a little behind the runner by the time he got to him which forced him to dive instead of running through him.

What makes it difficult is that if a Safety in that situation takes too much of an angle to get ahead of the runner, then the runner can cut back inside.

It would be great for the Safeties to always make those plays, but generally something really bad has happened if they're in that situation in the first place. I'm more concerned about the Cowboys cleaning up the issues that are causing the Safeties to repeatedly be in those situations the past 2 games.

But that is what you want to happen, if the safety fails to make the tackle it better to have the runner cut back into the field of play than to have them streak down the sideline. That way another teammate is likely to make the tackle.

 

[DallasInDC]

I love and hate these analysis, I love how they are done and hate the plays once you see them from the all-22, and see bad Dallas messed up.

but you got admit is a thing of beauty to watch when they play it perfect.

 

[mahoneybill]

Wow, illegal after 1 yard. Didn't know that, and will watch to see how many times this should be called going forward. To me when there's an obvious knockdown from one, even if inadvertent it should be called.

 

[Idgit]

Wow, illegal after 1 yard. Didn't know that, and will watch to see how many times this should be called going forward. To me when there's an obvious knockdown from one, even if inadvertent it should be called.

With plays like the picks, where they're obviously not getting called, I wish we'd just line up and run them over and over again and take advantage of it instead of getting victimized by it. Until it becomes obvious that officials are going to call the rules on the book already, we ought to benefit from it while it's hurting us on defense, at least. Watching Snead put his hands up like he's trying to catch a ball that's obviously not coming while he blocks the LB is maddening. How is an official fooled by that? It's kinda ridiculous.

 

[Sturm1310]

I'm not certain that was intended to go between Leary and Smith. Leary does not appear to be attempting to reach block the DT.

It that was the design, then it's not a good one because you can see in the pre-snap alignment that Leary's man was slightly angled and too far towards the outside for a reach block to have anything more than than low probability of success.

To be clear, no. it is not intended to take a particular gap. Stretch zone plays are designed to go all the way to the frontside, OR in a gap created by running it. But, also to be clear - Leary cannot give up his gap to that DT. He simply has to stay hip to hip and if he ever gets turned in like that, the play is extremely limited.