The Blue Print to paint the Big Blue Black and Blue

[jday]

Webster and Phillips are great. Only problem is, that's all they have. Boley is back and no one's sure exactly how he's going to play after missing so much time, even then a LB on Witten or Bnasty is a mismatch. Antonio Pierce can not cover.

They don't have enough weapons in their secondary to challenge us, point blank. This is a major mismatch that no one is talking about in the media but I think we'll see Romo have a huge game.

How many yards did Randle El pick up in the slot?

Webster was great on moss in single coverage, is he going to be as good on a receiver 5 inches taller? Moss is tiny and he had Campbell throwing to him. Roy is a large WR and has Romo. Webster won't get beat often but when he does it'll be big.

Crayton will have a huge game in the slot, barber will spend more time on the field for pass protection and he'll catch a few great screens. Felix will have a good run, choice will come in and catch some passes. Roy won't have a HUGE game but he'll get his fair share.

Our run defense will be fine. The Giants are arguably the best running team in the NFL, we're going to give up some yards. There's a reason why they are the best and people are delusional if they think any team in the NFL is going to be able to just completely shut down the Giants running attack. What will happen though is Eli will not be able to throw. His only out will be able to hand the ball off because that's all he will have. Commanders secondary was awful last game and Eli still looked mediocre. Once we are ahead by 7+ Eli will be forced to throw and the game will turn into a rout.

Neither Jacobs or Bradshaw are Cadillac, we got great penetration against the Bucs it was just in the wrong places. Cadillacs first cut is insane and there's a reason why he dominates when he's healthy, Ward is also a 1,000 yard back. Jacobs will have a subpar day, as I honestly think Bradshaw will start to the majority of the carries when Jacobs struggles.

It will be a close game, if we can get up 10 in a decent amount of time it will turn into a rout.

I'm predicting 34-24

Great post!

But I don't see us dominating. I also wouldn't describe the Giants running game as the best, particularly now that Ward is with the Bucs. I've never thought very much of Jacobs, but Bradshaw does scare me. As I've said before, the key to Jacobs is getting penetration and, at least, slowing his acceleration. If you can do that, he's not difficult to bring down, at least, for the Cowboys (it'd take four of me to get Jacobs to take a knee and I'm 6'2" 220).

Don't count on the Cowboys coming out of the gate firing on all cylinders. In the regular season, if memory serves, they typically can collect a few field goals and a touchdown in the first half, but their 2nd half performance is generally where they create separation from their opponents, in terms of the score.

Great point about Webster. That's pretty much what I was saying; he may win most of the battles, but he won't win all of them. That's my definition of a shut down corner - he shut's down one side of the field alla Deion Sanders.

 

[jday]

Nice read.

I'd only argue that Webster is in fact a lock down CB(he is the best Cb in the division) and Terrell Thomas is NOT on Jenkins and Scandrick's level.

Jenkins can be beaten but he attacks the ball as his reversed Pick and near pick showed last week. Scandrick may not be the same type ballhawk but plays with better technique and is more physical.

The Giants have a good all-around D but Dallas enough weapons to get people open and make big plays eventually.

As I said above, my definition of lockdown or shut down corner is a player who plays perfect and pretty much shuts down one side of the field. Webster will not do that against Roy Williams.

 

[skinsscalper]

See, NFL.com list Kehl as the starter. I just checked the team website and Chase Blackburn is the starter. Furthermore, Michael Boley not even mentioned on their depth chart. I'm going from the information I have access to online.

Boley went on IR during training camp IIRC.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Look up his stats on football outsiders or any other site that does CB metrics. He is top notch.

Also check how well he played Santana Moss last week. The guy is stellar.

Hmm, FO's opinion doesn't seem to carry any weight with you when it comes to Newman...

 

[sonnyboy]

Great thread guys.

Not much to be excited about in facing that defense.

One thing I do like is that they don't blitz much. That makes it a little safer to go play action pass.

I'm not as big a fan of play action pass as most. It has it's drawbacks and I feel the better your QB is at seeing the whole field quickly, the less useful it is.

When you go play action, you're QB usually turns his back to the defense for over a second.
A lot can happen in that much time. QB gets his look of the defense at the snap and then has to turn.

If the defense blitzes the right player, your QB won't see him til it's too late and that's a bad thing.
Also when the QB turns to back to face the defense, a lot has changed with the defenders in coverage and he has to catch up to the action.

I see field recognition as Romo's best asset and I don't like him taking his eyes off the defense. Let him fully utilize something he does well.

But with this game I feel a lot of play action pass is neccessary provided of course we are running the ball ok.
We need to give that DL that moment of pause as often as possible. Same thing with the LB who'll often be dropping into coverage.

 

[jday]

Great thread guys.

Not much to be excited about in facing that defense.

One thing I do like is that they don't blitz much. That makes it a little safer to go play action pass.

I'm not as big a fan of play action pass as most. It has it's drawbacks and I feel the better your QB is at seeing the whole field quickly, the less useful it is.

When you go play action, you're QB usually turns his back to the defense for over a second.
A lot can happen in that much time. QB gets his look of the defense at the snap and then has to turn.

If the defense blitzes the right player, your QB won't see him til it's too late and that's a bad thing.
Also when the QB turns to back to face the defense, a lot has changed with the defenders in coverage and he has to catch up to the action.

I see field recognition as Romo's best asset and I don't like him taking his eyes off the defense. Let him fully utilize something he does well.

But with this game I feel a lot of play action pass is neccessary provided of course we are running the ball ok.
We need to give that DL that moment of pause as often as possible. Same thing with the LB who'll often be dropping into coverage.

The trouble is, they don't blitz alot because they don't have to. You can't double up on every lineman, and, at least, 3 of those would draw the double team on any other given DL (Tuck, Osi, and Cofield) in the NFC.

I don't see the play action being used in excess, but I certainly could be wrong. I would like to see some screen's, though, that has it's draw back's, as well, since it requires getting your bigguns to run up the field to give the receiver open space, and well, too much of that and the bigguns will run out of gas eventually. Probably a combination of play action, screens and taking advantage of the passing mismatches straight up will be more or less what we see.

 

[Doomsday101]

The trouble is, they don't blitz alot because they don't have to. You can't double up on every lineman, and, at least, 3 of those would draw the double team on any other given DL (Tuck, Osi, and Cofield) in the NFC.

I don't see the play action being used in excess, but I certainly could be wrong. I would like to see some screen's, though, that has it's draw back's, as well, since it requires getting your bigguns to run up the field to give the receiver open space, and well, too much of that and the bigguns will run out of gas eventually. Probably a combination of play action, screens and taking advantage of the passing mismatches straight up will be more or less what we see.

The other thing is defense now days seem to read screens quickly and are athletic enough to get back towards the ball carrier to disrupt the play. No doubt you catch the defense in the right situation screens can be very effective.

 

[skinsscalper]

Boley went on IR during training camp IIRC.

Oops must have been thinking about someone else. Another post in Fan Zone shows Boley as being reinstated after a 1 game suspension for banned substance abuse. It does state, however, that Boley has an issue with his hip.

 

[cowboys2233]

Let's face it, the only real difference between this year and last is at MLB and safety. Obviously, Brooking is bigger than Zach Thomas, but the Cowboys are going to need to man up as an entire unit if we hope to see something different than the crap we saw last year when Jacobs worked us.

Stopping the run is going to be JOB 1 -- if we can't do that, we won't be able to get after Eli because we'll be back on our heels.

 

[followthestar]

Keep 8 in the box, use quite a few run blitzes, and challenge their WRs at the line. With pressure, Eli will have to get rid of the ball quickly - he isn't good enough IMO to do that on a regular basis and we'll get some picks. But foremost is stopping the run and forcing Eli to win it - again, he isn't good enough IMO.

Don't worry about the big play early - they'll play conservatively unless they fall behind early. Stop the run, stop the run, stop the run. Trust in our CBs (Newman and Scandrick) to match up one on one.

Offensively, I would take a few shots deep on first down play-action, run several pitch-outs and sweeps to the edges, and call some naked screens to Felix and let him work his magic. Regular screens will be sniffed out IMO, so forget pulling blockers for him - just get the ball to Felix in space and he'll do the rest...

 

[WoodysGirl]

Oops must have been thinking about someone else. Another post in Fan Zone shows Boley as being reinstated after a 1 game suspension for banned substance abuse. It does state, however, that Boley has an issue with his hip.

You're correct..

http://cowboyszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161760

 

[jday]

You're correct..

http://cowboyszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161760

Even at 100%, none of the Giant's, including Boley can run with our TE's. Just my opinion, though.