Crown Royal
Insulin Beware
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EDIT: I should have called this thread "The short passing game."
I don't have time to study film so I can only go off my hunch. A big feature of the Cowboys attack this year was the deep pass (obviously), with some slants, a little bit of tunnel screen and the occasional dump off.
I feel like there are three concepts that are not a big piece of the playbook - looking to be challenged -
The drag route and hi-lo concept, and the comeback route and the seam attacks.
It's no secret that the NFL corrected this season to cover 2 shells. Lots of deep zone with either man under, cover 2, or even cover 4/cover 6 concepts (really decreasing traditional cover 3). THe way to combat these is to chip way underneath and stay patient until the defense adjusts.
In short - i feel like our offense RESENTED the short passing game. They would try to throw it out of necessity, but just assumed that if they did that, the defense would HAVE to respond. Rather than use it as a weapon and be totally find with the defense being stressed to stop the yardage.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this makes no sense. But it's how I feel even a week after the loss. We never figured out the short passing game. It kind of felt like the old Raiders teams of the mid 2000s when Al was still running the show. Vertical passing game or BUST.
I don't have time to study film so I can only go off my hunch. A big feature of the Cowboys attack this year was the deep pass (obviously), with some slants, a little bit of tunnel screen and the occasional dump off.
I feel like there are three concepts that are not a big piece of the playbook - looking to be challenged -
The drag route and hi-lo concept, and the comeback route and the seam attacks.
It's no secret that the NFL corrected this season to cover 2 shells. Lots of deep zone with either man under, cover 2, or even cover 4/cover 6 concepts (really decreasing traditional cover 3). THe way to combat these is to chip way underneath and stay patient until the defense adjusts.
- The Chiefs and Buccaneers LOVE the underneath passing game. Drag routes and hi-lo that forces the zone to make a decision are bread and butter. I feel like the nearest the COwboys tried with this was quick hits to Cedric Wilson and Schulz, but so often those routes are run and turn around in the soft zone. Which is fine, but not sustainable.
- Seam hits - how many times did Garappollo, Mahomes, Burrow, Stafford and others hit their TE RIGHT at the snap while running down field on the steam. No option route, not turn around and catch - catch it in stride and let them make a guy miss/run in the defense.
- You want to play soft zone? Fine - we'll influence your flat defense with a TE or RB, and hit CeeDee on the quick comeback since you're playing soft zone.
In short - i feel like our offense RESENTED the short passing game. They would try to throw it out of necessity, but just assumed that if they did that, the defense would HAVE to respond. Rather than use it as a weapon and be totally find with the defense being stressed to stop the yardage.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this makes no sense. But it's how I feel even a week after the loss. We never figured out the short passing game. It kind of felt like the old Raiders teams of the mid 2000s when Al was still running the show. Vertical passing game or BUST.