Sturm: Xs and Os - Kickoff TD, Cassel Decisions

[Sturm1310]

Sturm: Xs and Os - The Kick Return TD and the Interceptions
This Story is About...

• BOB STURM

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.

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http://beta.sportsdaydfw.com/dallas...0/29/sturm-xs-os-kick-return-td-interceptions


Content added by staff

 

[DCBoysfan]

Good stuff as usual.

 

[Zimmy Lives]

My thoughts...

• Hardy did have a right to be in that huddle (Special Teams) on the sideline, especially after he destroyed the poor Giant on the Harris TD extra point.
• Cassel will be much more careful with the ball. At least he knows he needs to be if they hope to win.
• Wilbur plays football (Special Teams anyway) like a bull fighter.

 

[CyberB0b]

I'm pretty sure this ball came out really late. It should have been thrown before the break. It was about 3 steps too late, IMO. The ball placement was bad, too.

Definitely a bad route, though. Not sure if it was supposed to be an out or a comeback. I think it was supposed to be an out route, but the ball was thrown so poorly, he had to round off and come back to the ball.

 

[Idgit]

I'm pretty sure this ball came out really late. It should have been thrown before the break. It was about 3 steps too late, IMO. The ball placement was bad, too.

Definitely a bad route, though. Not sure if it was supposed to be an out or a comeback. I think it was supposed to be an out route, but the ball was thrown so poorly, he had to round off and come back to the ball.

Cassel was referring to that play as 'the comeback' in his presser this week, fwiw. I agree that it was a late throw to a weak break.

 

[cowboys2233]

Cassel was referring to that play as 'the comeback' in his presser this week, fwiw. I agree that it was a late throw to a weak break.

And then Williams fell down and went boom -- what the heck was that? I'm going to run a piss poor pattern and fall down? Was that how it was drawn up?

 

[cowboys2233]

I'm pretty sure this ball came out really late. It should have been thrown before the break. It was about 3 steps too late, IMO. The ball placement was bad, too.

Definitely a bad route, though. Not sure if it was supposed to be an out or a comeback. I think it was supposed to be an out route, but the ball was thrown so poorly, he had to round off and come back to the ball.

I'm pretty sure it came out too early -- because had he actually looked at the left side of the field instead of just pretending he was, Beasley was about to come wide open. But no, he looks that way for a split second and goes back to where he was going all along, to a covered Williams.

 

[cowboys2233]

I'm pretty sure this ball came out really late. It should have been thrown before the break. It was about 3 steps too late, IMO. The ball placement was bad, too.

Definitely a bad route, though. Not sure if it was supposed to be an out or a comeback. I think it was supposed to be an out route, but the ball was thrown so poorly, he had to round off and come back to the ball.

I didn't get a chance to watch the game so this is my first time seeing this play. Williams is such a little ***** -- how can he just get pushed around the way he does and still walk around the locker room with his head up? That is such weak stuff. This guy is dead to me.

 

[big dog cowboy]

That is some good stuff there as usual Bob.

It's clear that as poorly as we played, outside of a couple of plays, we almost beat the Giants without Romo and Dez.

 

[cowboys2233]

I'm pretty sure this ball came out really late. It should have been thrown before the break. It was about 3 steps too late, IMO. The ball placement was bad, too.

Definitely a bad route, though. Not sure if it was supposed to be an out or a comeback. I think it was supposed to be an out route, but the ball was thrown so poorly, he had to round off and come back to the ball.

Oh, and he had single coverage down the left sideline. Williams should have pretty much been the last option on this play. Some of you believe Cassell "sees" the field better than Weeden. I'm not sure about that. I think both of them are completely blind. This right here is the difference -- Romo would have made them pay dearly for that loose coverage on Beasley. Would have dropped it in, Beasley makes one move on the safety and we've got six points.

In other words, had Romo been playing, that single play would have been a net difference of 12 points.

 

[31smackdown]

I still don't know why McCray jumped inside on the return. Hitchens has that gap covered already. Sure Hanna is down too far, when he is supposed to cover back over, but that is cleanup work. So you basically have 2 mistakes on one play, which will get you burned almost every time.

I think Cassel will improve as he gets more time with these receivers, looks at his film and becomes more situation aware. He was being aggressive with receivers that are not consistent when he didn't need to be. The deep throw was just off to begin with and also hung up in the wind a bit, making it worse, but it was the right throw. As I suspected, the offense looks like a real offense again with Cassel back there, even with the worts. Everything was thrown with good timing.

 

[31smackdown]

Oh, and he had single coverage down the left sideline. Williams should have pretty much been the last option on this play. Some of you believe Cassell "sees" the field better than Weeden. I'm not sure about that. I think both of them are completely blind. This right here is the difference -- Romo would have made them pay dearly for that loose coverage on Beasley. Would have dropped it in, Beasley makes one move on the safety and we've got six points.

In other words, had Romo been playing, that single play would have been a net difference of 12 points.

I would not be surprised if Romo goes to Cole there, but I don't know that it's bad decision in this play to go to Williams, who has position. The single on the left sideline is playing way off with safety help. Cassel looks left first and see that and the LB underneath Beasely. At that point he either holds it until the second window or goes to his next read. Cassel gets pressure from Free's guy and may move his arm angle a little wide to avoid the pass from being knocked down causing the pass to go more outside then intended. Weeden would have checked down to McFadden for 3 yards after pretending to look left.

 

[gmoney112]

I've watched the gif of hardy destroying the guy on the extra point 10 times and still laughing.

 

[xwalker]

Sturm: Xs and Os - The Kick Return TD and the Interceptions
This Story is About...

• BOB STURM

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.

=====

http://beta.sportsdaydfw.com/dallas...0/29/sturm-xs-os-kick-return-td-interceptions


Content added by staff

Excellent work.

1. It seems odd that McCray was at L4 which he has not played all season. Maybe this was partially on the ST coach for the lineup.

It seems that either Wilber or McCray were at fault but not both. If McCray fills on the opposite side then Wilber is actually in good position in case the returner goes outside.

2. I have a hard time seeing how Williams could prevent the INT. He didn't stop on the route but just due to the nature of how it was covered the defender had already started his momentum back towards the ball and the sideline when Williams came out of this break. IMO Williams did the right thing but the defender already had a step on him. If Williams tried to go more towards the sideline he would just be running into the defender who is right on him.

The real problem on that play was that the pass rusher got his hand up in the perfect spot right at the very last minute and Cassel appeared to alter his throw because of it. Doug Free allowed the defender to push him into Cassel. Cassel's arm was probably already in motion when the defender's hand came up so throwing the ball away was probably impossible.

3. On the end-zone INT, there was an up close replay view from the Broadcast. If you watch that in slow motion you can see that the defender (not the one with the INT but the one covering Williams) raked his arm across Williams's face mask which appeared to momentarily block Williams vision and prevent him from having a chance to make a play to prevent the INT. It should have been a penalty, IMO.

4. The INT on the pass to Butler was an INT even if it was single coverage because the primary defender on Butler made the INT. If a WR was at fault I think it was on this play. We've heard many times from announcers like Aikman how the WR is supposed to square off that route instead of drifting up-field.

Obviously, the QB was also at fault for not taking the easier throw, but if the WR run a square in then the INT might not have happened.

5. On the throw to Hanna, I thought certain before the snap that McFadden was the most likely option to get open and make the required YAC and obviously after the snap he definitely should have been the target.

The bottom line, IMO in regards to the QBs:
They took a very conservative QB (Weed) and coached him to be conservative.

They took a QB known for taking some risks (Cassel) and coached/game-planned for him to be aggressive (Jerry might have insisted that they be more aggressive).

In reality they should have coached/game-planned Cassel to be conservative or coached/game-planned Weed to be aggressive.

 

[Aven8]

That is some good stuff there as usual Bob.

It's clear that as poorly as we played, outside of a couple of plays, we almost beat the Giants without Romo and Dez.

Which is why I see no reason we can't win the next 3 with Dez.

 

[Aven8]

I'm not sure Darren doesn't score on that 4th down play. He had a lot of room to get going there!

 

[cowboys2233]

I would not be surprised if Romo goes to Cole there, but I don't know that it's bad decision in this play to go to Williams, who has position. The single on the left sideline is playing way off with safety help. Cassel looks left first and see that and the LB underneath Beasely. At that point he either holds it until the second window or goes to his next read. Cassel gets pressure from Free's guy and may move his arm angle a little wide to avoid the pass from being knocked down causing the pass to go more outside then intended. Weeden would have checked down to McFadden for 3 yards after pretending to look left.

Yes, you're probably right about Weeden. But that doesn't excuse the fact that there were three options that were better than Williams on that play -- Beasley, the WR down the left sideline and Witten breaking out into the flat. He had NO pressure, except for a slight brush from Free's guy. If he slid a little to the left (Romo would have spun for added style points), he had all day to wait for Beasley to get even more wide open than he already was. That little look to the left wasn't adequate and looked suspiciously like a guy who was planning on throwing right all along.

 

[xwalker]

For whoever claimed that Jones is not fast check out Jones in this video. He blows by everyone else.

 

[DandyDon52]

I think weeden and in his first game cassel tend to just throw to the first read, or who the play is supposed to go to.
They then throw it regardless of coverage etc. They also look at that player the whole time.
Cassel might get better at looking to the next guy and so forth with more game experience.

It looks easier than it is, as they think they may be hit at any moment.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Which is why I see no reason we can't win the next 3 with Dez.

Not sure I'm going quite that far. But I know we can't afford to give away points like last week and if we could get some turnovers from our defense then we certainly have a chance.