jday
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Hat tip to @gimmesix
For the laymen, a cascade effect is similar to a domino effect. Typically, this effect is used to describe ecosystem failures; though it is also used to explain a myriad of different scientific phenomenon. For example, let’s say in a controlled environment you have created a self-preserving ecosystem. What that essentially means is that you don’t have to do anything for this ecosystem to persist…it is principally on autopilot; theoretically, no further interference on your part is needed for it to continue indefinitely.
Let’s say that in this self-made ecosystem, you have an insect that acts as the primary source of food for the animals in that system. The plants and trees in this ecosystem are reliant on the animal’s fertilizer and water from the atmosphere. And obviously, the oxygen and by extension the atmosphere in this ecosystem is dependent on the plants and trees. What happens should the aforementioned insects become extinct for any reason?
A cascade effect.
Soon the animals will die off due to lack of nourishment. The plants and trees will eventually die off due to lack of fertilizer. And oxygen and by extension atmosphere will, in a manner of speaking, evaporate due to the lack of photosynthesis (the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water, the byproduct of which is oxygen) taking place in the plants and trees.
No more ecosystem.
That is why for many scientist seeing an animal species go extinct can be a huge red flag for the occupants of earth, in general. Was this animal a necessary cog in the wheel that makes the world continue to rotate? Could this animal’s extinction be the first of many steps towards a devastating and life-ending worldwide collapse? The underlying definition to cascade effect is that once it starts, there is typically no stopping it from reaching its ultimate goal which is utter and complete destruction of the system the cascade began in.
On a much smaller scale, a similar phenomenon occurs in football on every play and over the course of every game. This effect can ultimately decide how both a play and the game, in general, culminates. Understanding how this influences the conclusion of plays and games grants us a unique point-of-view on how different positions work together to achieve essentially the same task and why overall talent comparisons can sometimes be extremely misleading…especially when attempting to project how an entire team will compete with that collection of talent or lack thereof.
While cascade effects can be found in every play and throughout every game, my focus today is on how Marinelli employs his understanding of this effect to his approach in creating a defensive game plan, as well as, the type of players he begs the team to draft and acquire via Free Agency as a result. The Marinelli front-four rotation is perhaps the most obvious tool he employs to use the cascade effect to his advantage.
But first, let’s focus on the players Marinelli likes and why he likes them.
The first thing he wants out of his defensive lineman regardless of position is a quick first step. Getting penetration, after all, is the line one responsibility for his defenders in the Marinelli 4-3. He wants his guys shooting gaps and making the quarterback uncomfortable (if not getting the sack, of course) and/or to funnel the ball carrier to the linebackers waiting in the gaps left open.
Second, size matters. He likes his defensive lineman to have length in body as well as long arms to assist in keeping the offensive lineman off of them as they go by. But he also wants that length to be supplemented by muscle not only for the additional strength to use that length to their advantage in winning the leverage race that it provides, but also for the additional weight the opposing offensive lineman will have to deal with play in and play out throughout the game.
Lastly on Marinelli’s checklist of desired attributes for his defensive linemen is technique and talent. He is not as concerned with these attributes as he was with the first two because this area can be coached up. Granted, without talent and technique, you most likely will not see the field very often if at all, but if Marinelli had to choose 2 attributes out of 3 that he absolutely needs his players to have, he would choose the first two simply because at this point in a players career there is little to nothing he can do to help a lack of explosiveness and/or ideal size.
So how then do those first two attributes help create a cascade effect over the course of a game?
By using a rotation of anywhere between 8 and 10 defensive lineman over the course of a game will exhaust the 5 opposing offensive lineman tasked with stopping them…and that is especially the case with how Marinelli wants his guys to attack…even if it ultimately means attacking in what ends up being the wrong direction on a given play. So long as they keep up that intensity play in and play out, play assignment sound football and ultimately do their job, the opposing offensive lineman by the fourth quarter will have nothing left in the tank. And when that happens, no amount of talent or technique is going to save an offensive lineman; the most pedestrian of defensive lineman can abuse the most technically-sound and/or talented (but exhausted) offensive lineman.
Not to take anything from the potential of David Irving, but you may have noticed some of his best work in 2016 had a tendency to occur in the fourth quarter. Why? Because while he was enjoying a rotation throughout the game, the opposition he was lined up across from played every snap. Therefore, ultimately, it was Irving’s conditioning that was the difference, not necessarily his overall talent/technique that afforded him the ability to take over those few games where he showed up in a big way.
But the cascade doesn’t finish at one exhausted offensive lineman; that is actually where it begins. As an offensive coordinator starts to slide help towards the one offensive lineman, other players will become exhausted as the distribution of help is now interrupted and centered on one player. From there the cascade becomes an avalanche as player after player eventually taps out towards the end.
Furthermore, as the offense becomes exhausted, it becomes more difficult for them to collectively maintain drives and to play mistake-free football, which in turn leads to the opposition’s defense being put back on the field. Because the Cowboys offense grounds and pounds better than just about any other team in the league, by that point the opposition’s defense is also exhausted making it even easier for the Cowboys offense to cut into, take, or increase the lead.
In a type of two-part harmony, both the offense and defense working in concert, employ a strategy that puts the oppositions overall conditioning to the test on both sides of the ball. For it to create a cascade effect, the offense absolutely has to establish a run game (which they are presently setup to do better than any team in the league) and transversely the defense has to shut down the oppositions run game (#1 in 2016, although that offense clearly helped) and force them to live by a dink and dunk approach through the air, which is why the Cowboys use the bend don’t break defense overall.
The Cowboys as a whole wants to keep the oppositions offense off the field as much as is possible to avoid over-exposing the defense overall lack of talent. However, once the opposition’s offense is on the field, they actually want to force the opposition to drive down the field in small manageable bites. This necessitates the opposing offense playing mistake-free football and it exposes the offensive line to more work against the Cowboys rotation of defensive lineman. Over the course of the game, the opposition’s offense will make mistakes; ideally in the form of turnovers, but almost as helpful are those mistakes that lead to a steady course of three-and-outs.
Therefore, while having superior talent is certainly a nice-to-have, it comes nowhere close to being a have-to-have. The Cowboys have to have guys that buy in to this strategy. The Cowboys have to have guys who are coachable, particularly if they only come armed with the athletic and physical gifts necessary to this approach. The Cowboys have to have superior conditioning to outlast their opponent. And the Cowboys have to have bigguns on both sides of the ball to cut into the conditioning of the opposition…after all, nothing saps into a player’s energy more than facing the ever-so-coveted unmovable object; which likely also factored into the Cowboys decision to draft Taco (6’6” 273 lbs.) over TJ Watt (6’5” 236 lbs.).
The Cowboys have the have-to-haves on both sides of the ball for the 2017 season; more so now than at any other time in Garrett’s regime as head coach. Across the league, there are few offenses (if any) that anyone would take over the collection the Cowboys have amassed on the offensive side of the ball. The defense, on the other hand, is another story…unless you were to ask Marinelli. Marinelli would most likely say this is the best group of young men wearing a blue star he has had the pleasure to coach…he might even go as far as to say “best group ever with or without a star.”
Typical coach hyperbole aside, there may be some (albeit not a lot of) truth to it. Granted, he doesn’t have the talent collection he had with the 2002 Bucs that featured the likes of Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice, Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber and John Lynch. But if you consider the youth, speed and athleticism injection that every level of the Cowboys defense is getting, you should be able to at the very least understand his unbridled optimism.
To the line that garnered #1 run defense honors in the league last year he is adding Taco Charlton, Demontre Moore, Stephen Paea, and Charles Tapper. To the linebackers whom may be the most responsible for that #1 rush defense ranking (thanks Sean Lee), he is adding Jaylon Smith and John Lotulelie. And to his secondary he is adding Chidobe Awuzie, Nolan Carroll, Joudan Lewis, and Xavier Woods. Meanwhile, he has Tyrone Crawford, Demarcus Lawrence and David Irving fighting to stay in the NFL being in their final year under contract with the Cowboys. So rather the players are new to the system and playing to make the final 53 or most likely a lock for the 53, but are playing for their NFL lives, there is plenty to fuel their collective motivation and Marinelli knows it. He will not hesitate to ask for more even when they are giving their most.
While the headcount for the defense is a few months away, I feel confident that the 24 to 26 players that emerge from preseason uncut and unscathed will be one of the best defensive groups seen in Dallas in over 10 years. By season end, each and every one of the players that make the game day 46 will have an imperative part in the Symphony of Exhaustion…we might not see Super Stars in Marinelli group of misfits and mighty orphans, but the opposition will definitely be seeing stars by the time they hear the final whistle.
Thoughts?
For the laymen, a cascade effect is similar to a domino effect. Typically, this effect is used to describe ecosystem failures; though it is also used to explain a myriad of different scientific phenomenon. For example, let’s say in a controlled environment you have created a self-preserving ecosystem. What that essentially means is that you don’t have to do anything for this ecosystem to persist…it is principally on autopilot; theoretically, no further interference on your part is needed for it to continue indefinitely.
Let’s say that in this self-made ecosystem, you have an insect that acts as the primary source of food for the animals in that system. The plants and trees in this ecosystem are reliant on the animal’s fertilizer and water from the atmosphere. And obviously, the oxygen and by extension the atmosphere in this ecosystem is dependent on the plants and trees. What happens should the aforementioned insects become extinct for any reason?
A cascade effect.
Soon the animals will die off due to lack of nourishment. The plants and trees will eventually die off due to lack of fertilizer. And oxygen and by extension atmosphere will, in a manner of speaking, evaporate due to the lack of photosynthesis (the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water, the byproduct of which is oxygen) taking place in the plants and trees.
No more ecosystem.
That is why for many scientist seeing an animal species go extinct can be a huge red flag for the occupants of earth, in general. Was this animal a necessary cog in the wheel that makes the world continue to rotate? Could this animal’s extinction be the first of many steps towards a devastating and life-ending worldwide collapse? The underlying definition to cascade effect is that once it starts, there is typically no stopping it from reaching its ultimate goal which is utter and complete destruction of the system the cascade began in.
On a much smaller scale, a similar phenomenon occurs in football on every play and over the course of every game. This effect can ultimately decide how both a play and the game, in general, culminates. Understanding how this influences the conclusion of plays and games grants us a unique point-of-view on how different positions work together to achieve essentially the same task and why overall talent comparisons can sometimes be extremely misleading…especially when attempting to project how an entire team will compete with that collection of talent or lack thereof.
While cascade effects can be found in every play and throughout every game, my focus today is on how Marinelli employs his understanding of this effect to his approach in creating a defensive game plan, as well as, the type of players he begs the team to draft and acquire via Free Agency as a result. The Marinelli front-four rotation is perhaps the most obvious tool he employs to use the cascade effect to his advantage.
But first, let’s focus on the players Marinelli likes and why he likes them.
The first thing he wants out of his defensive lineman regardless of position is a quick first step. Getting penetration, after all, is the line one responsibility for his defenders in the Marinelli 4-3. He wants his guys shooting gaps and making the quarterback uncomfortable (if not getting the sack, of course) and/or to funnel the ball carrier to the linebackers waiting in the gaps left open.
Second, size matters. He likes his defensive lineman to have length in body as well as long arms to assist in keeping the offensive lineman off of them as they go by. But he also wants that length to be supplemented by muscle not only for the additional strength to use that length to their advantage in winning the leverage race that it provides, but also for the additional weight the opposing offensive lineman will have to deal with play in and play out throughout the game.
Lastly on Marinelli’s checklist of desired attributes for his defensive linemen is technique and talent. He is not as concerned with these attributes as he was with the first two because this area can be coached up. Granted, without talent and technique, you most likely will not see the field very often if at all, but if Marinelli had to choose 2 attributes out of 3 that he absolutely needs his players to have, he would choose the first two simply because at this point in a players career there is little to nothing he can do to help a lack of explosiveness and/or ideal size.
So how then do those first two attributes help create a cascade effect over the course of a game?
By using a rotation of anywhere between 8 and 10 defensive lineman over the course of a game will exhaust the 5 opposing offensive lineman tasked with stopping them…and that is especially the case with how Marinelli wants his guys to attack…even if it ultimately means attacking in what ends up being the wrong direction on a given play. So long as they keep up that intensity play in and play out, play assignment sound football and ultimately do their job, the opposing offensive lineman by the fourth quarter will have nothing left in the tank. And when that happens, no amount of talent or technique is going to save an offensive lineman; the most pedestrian of defensive lineman can abuse the most technically-sound and/or talented (but exhausted) offensive lineman.
Not to take anything from the potential of David Irving, but you may have noticed some of his best work in 2016 had a tendency to occur in the fourth quarter. Why? Because while he was enjoying a rotation throughout the game, the opposition he was lined up across from played every snap. Therefore, ultimately, it was Irving’s conditioning that was the difference, not necessarily his overall talent/technique that afforded him the ability to take over those few games where he showed up in a big way.
But the cascade doesn’t finish at one exhausted offensive lineman; that is actually where it begins. As an offensive coordinator starts to slide help towards the one offensive lineman, other players will become exhausted as the distribution of help is now interrupted and centered on one player. From there the cascade becomes an avalanche as player after player eventually taps out towards the end.
Furthermore, as the offense becomes exhausted, it becomes more difficult for them to collectively maintain drives and to play mistake-free football, which in turn leads to the opposition’s defense being put back on the field. Because the Cowboys offense grounds and pounds better than just about any other team in the league, by that point the opposition’s defense is also exhausted making it even easier for the Cowboys offense to cut into, take, or increase the lead.
In a type of two-part harmony, both the offense and defense working in concert, employ a strategy that puts the oppositions overall conditioning to the test on both sides of the ball. For it to create a cascade effect, the offense absolutely has to establish a run game (which they are presently setup to do better than any team in the league) and transversely the defense has to shut down the oppositions run game (#1 in 2016, although that offense clearly helped) and force them to live by a dink and dunk approach through the air, which is why the Cowboys use the bend don’t break defense overall.
The Cowboys as a whole wants to keep the oppositions offense off the field as much as is possible to avoid over-exposing the defense overall lack of talent. However, once the opposition’s offense is on the field, they actually want to force the opposition to drive down the field in small manageable bites. This necessitates the opposing offense playing mistake-free football and it exposes the offensive line to more work against the Cowboys rotation of defensive lineman. Over the course of the game, the opposition’s offense will make mistakes; ideally in the form of turnovers, but almost as helpful are those mistakes that lead to a steady course of three-and-outs.
Therefore, while having superior talent is certainly a nice-to-have, it comes nowhere close to being a have-to-have. The Cowboys have to have guys that buy in to this strategy. The Cowboys have to have guys who are coachable, particularly if they only come armed with the athletic and physical gifts necessary to this approach. The Cowboys have to have superior conditioning to outlast their opponent. And the Cowboys have to have bigguns on both sides of the ball to cut into the conditioning of the opposition…after all, nothing saps into a player’s energy more than facing the ever-so-coveted unmovable object; which likely also factored into the Cowboys decision to draft Taco (6’6” 273 lbs.) over TJ Watt (6’5” 236 lbs.).
The Cowboys have the have-to-haves on both sides of the ball for the 2017 season; more so now than at any other time in Garrett’s regime as head coach. Across the league, there are few offenses (if any) that anyone would take over the collection the Cowboys have amassed on the offensive side of the ball. The defense, on the other hand, is another story…unless you were to ask Marinelli. Marinelli would most likely say this is the best group of young men wearing a blue star he has had the pleasure to coach…he might even go as far as to say “best group ever with or without a star.”
Typical coach hyperbole aside, there may be some (albeit not a lot of) truth to it. Granted, he doesn’t have the talent collection he had with the 2002 Bucs that featured the likes of Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice, Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber and John Lynch. But if you consider the youth, speed and athleticism injection that every level of the Cowboys defense is getting, you should be able to at the very least understand his unbridled optimism.
To the line that garnered #1 run defense honors in the league last year he is adding Taco Charlton, Demontre Moore, Stephen Paea, and Charles Tapper. To the linebackers whom may be the most responsible for that #1 rush defense ranking (thanks Sean Lee), he is adding Jaylon Smith and John Lotulelie. And to his secondary he is adding Chidobe Awuzie, Nolan Carroll, Joudan Lewis, and Xavier Woods. Meanwhile, he has Tyrone Crawford, Demarcus Lawrence and David Irving fighting to stay in the NFL being in their final year under contract with the Cowboys. So rather the players are new to the system and playing to make the final 53 or most likely a lock for the 53, but are playing for their NFL lives, there is plenty to fuel their collective motivation and Marinelli knows it. He will not hesitate to ask for more even when they are giving their most.
While the headcount for the defense is a few months away, I feel confident that the 24 to 26 players that emerge from preseason uncut and unscathed will be one of the best defensive groups seen in Dallas in over 10 years. By season end, each and every one of the players that make the game day 46 will have an imperative part in the Symphony of Exhaustion…we might not see Super Stars in Marinelli group of misfits and mighty orphans, but the opposition will definitely be seeing stars by the time they hear the final whistle.
Thoughts?
