Time of possession. Now our enemy?

[Redball Express]

One of the biggest trends I notice which is killing us and making games close is TOP.

We are losing that battle.

Which previously was strictly our strength.

It is reflected in the gross downward spiral with 3rd down conversions being non-existant.

And it starts with conservative play calling on 1st down and continues with 3rd and longs now.

It affects the defense the most because they end up on the field and get worn down.

So what was working has dissapeared now.

What is the answer here?

We must find a way to get back to what got us here before the season ends or we are in trouble.

Like to hear opinions and possible solutions from the population.

I do not want to see us drop to a Wild Card in the next 3 weeks.

Over to the braintrust.

 

[Doomsay]

Worst current 3rd down conversion rate, the real enemy. That and walki talkies, apparently.

 

[Redball Express]

Worst current 3rd down conversion rate, the real enemy. That and walki talkies, apparently.

What ever happened to hand signals?

 

[Macnalty]

We have played in the last four weeks the #1(Ravens),2(Giants),5(Vikes), and 26th defenses(Washington). I think that tells a story on how a offense can be affected. We have coming up Bucs(13th), Lions(25th), and Eagles(8th) the snow is not as deep anymore. In the playoffs it is going to get deep again so hang on unless we can scheme something to neutralize their effect on our running and passing game. This is seasoning this team for January IMO.

 

[1972COWBOY]

One of the biggest trends I notice which is killing us and making games close is TOP.

We are losing that battle.

Which previously was strictly our strength.

It is reflected in the gross downward spiral with 3rd down conversions being non-existant.

And it starts with conservative play calling on 1st down and continues with 3rd and longs now.

It affects the defense the most because they end up on the field and get worn down.

So what was working has dissapeared now.

What is the answer here?

We must find a way to get back to what got us here before the season ends or we are in trouble.

Like to hear opinions and possible solutions from the population.

I do not want to see us drop to a Wild Card in the next 3 weeks.

Over to the braintrust.

What do you mean by conservative play calling? Can you give an example? I'm still not clear on it.

 

[Redball Express]

What do you mean by conservative play calling? Can you give an example? I'm still not clear on it.

Trying to force Zeke into 8 man fronts and relying on the OL to control everything.

We need to pass on early downs and open up the running with it.

Where are those 4 man WR sets we used to use on early downs spreading out the defense where Zeke can run better?

Things like benching Lucky Whitehead when he contributes with jet sweeps is just dumb.

When the offense is sputtering..you don't play games with the personnel.

Is Whitehead worst than Dez at missing meetings?

Doubt it..never saw Dez suspended ever for it.

So Garrett is being inconsistent in his actions and the players see it.

Wrong on a team that claims it's very close with each other.

 

[Doomsay]

We have played in the last four weeks the #1(Ravens),2(Giants),5(Vikes), and 26th defenses(Washington). I think that tells a story on how a offense can be affected. We have coming up Bucs(13th), Lions(25th), and Eagles(8th) the snow is not as deep anymore. In the playoffs it is going to get deep again so hang on unless we can scheme something to neutralize their effect on our running and passing game. This is seasoning this team for January IMO.

The tough defenses have been an issue for sure, but beginning with the Washington game, our offense has actually played worse against these defenses on a points per drive basis than the average teams the Skins Vikes and Giants have faced.

It doesn't look like we are a cold weather passing team at the moment, the good news is that if we win these next two home games in the comfort of the ATT, we won't have to play a meaningful game in the cold through February.

 

[BoysWin]

One of the biggest trends I notice which is killing us and making games close is TOP.

We are losing that battle.

Which previously was strictly our strength.

It is reflected in the gross downward spiral with 3rd down conversions being non-existant.

And it starts with conservative play calling on 1st down and continues with 3rd and longs now.

It affects the defense the most because they end up on the field and get worn down.

So what was working has dissapeared now.

What is the answer here?

We must find a way to get back to what got us here before the season ends or we are in trouble.

Like to hear opinions and possible solutions from the population.

I do not want to see us drop to a Wild Card in the next 3 weeks.

Over to the braintrust.

2 for the last 27 on 3rd will quickly lose football games. This is an indictment on Garrett, Linehan and Dak.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

TOP can often be the enemy. That's one of the things that the people that prefer the passing game have a good point on. But, it's really more about the # of possessions and the likelihood of scoring on those possessions. If you're likely to score 3.5 points per possession and your opponent is likely to score 2.5 points per possession, the fewer the amount of possessions the score gets closer and then you get into those games where 1 play can cost you a victory (like it did against the Giants).

So, with 6 possessions per team, the score is 21-16. But at 12 possessions per game, the score is 42-30.

And with a run oriented offense, you are more likely to have fewer possessions. However, the strength behind the 2014 team and this team earlier in the season is that we could score more quickly while still running the ball. That's a deadly combination to have because you're going to control the clock, but ramp up those possessions so you put yourself in position to put games out of reach. It's essentially a conservative style of play that creates an explosive amount of scoring which is really the zenith of offensive football.

That's one of the reasons why I'm for the offense picking up the pace instead of audibling a gazillion times and letting the playclock go down to zero. Not only do I think the offense executes better with less audibles, but it picks up the pace enough to increases possessions and increase our lead.




YR

 

[Nexx]

Trying to force Zeke into 8 man fronts and relying on the OL to control everything.

We need to pass on early downs and open up the running with it.

Where are those 4 man WR sets we used to use on early downs spreading out the defense where Zeke can run better?

Things like benching Lucky Whitehead when he contributes with jet sweeps is just dumb.

When the offense is sputtering..you don't play games with the personnel.

Is Whitehead worst than Dez at missing meetings?

Doubt it..never saw Dez suspended ever for it.

So Garrett is being inconsistent in his actions and the players see it.

Wrong on a team that claims it's very close with each other.

So happy you're not our offensive coordinator

 

[big dog cowboy]

Last 2 games we got away from what works. Fix that and we are golden again. Not hard to figure out.

 

[percyhoward]

Beginning with the Washington game, our offense has actually played worse against these defenses on a points per drive basis than the average teams the Skins Vikes and Giants have faced.

Beginning with the Vikings game anyway. Although we were a little better than the average of the rest of the league in games at Minnesota.

Against the Skins, we had 31 points on 7 drives, which is 4.43 per drive. They allow 2.34 against the league.

 

[xwalker]

One of the biggest trends I notice which is killing us and making games close is TOP.

We are losing that battle.

Which previously was strictly our strength.

It is reflected in the gross downward spiral with 3rd down conversions being non-existant.

And it starts with conservative play calling on 1st down and continues with 3rd and longs now.

It affects the defense the most because they end up on the field and get worn down.

So what was working has dissapeared now.

What is the answer here?

We must find a way to get back to what got us here before the season ends or we are in trouble.

Like to hear opinions and possible solutions from the population.

I do not want to see us drop to a Wild Card in the next 3 weeks.

Over to the braintrust.

The defense played really well in the loss and only allowed 10 points.

TOP didn't hurt the defense.

 

[Doomsay]

Beginning with the Vikings game anyway. Although we were a little better than the average of the rest of the league in games at Minnesota.

Against the Skins, we had 31 points on 7 drives, which is 4.43 per drive. They allow 2.34 against the league.

I believe that there were actually 9 drives against Washington, can't remember what washington's ppd allowed was a few weeks ago, but when I ran the numbers, I think that you are right, the average allowed was slightly below what we scored. The home vs. away points per drive - not enough data points for the average to be as meaningful as the full season average at least at that point in the season IMO.

After week 1, we had been pretty consistently better than ppd allowed averages up to the Washington game even though we had a good offensive effort, that was the inflection point that I noticed.

Don't have the data in front of me though.

 

[percyhoward]

I believe that there were actually 9 drives against Washington.

We only had 7 possessions when we were trying to score, plus 2 more that ended in kneel downs.

 

[MileyDancer]

What do you mean by conservative play calling? Can you give an example? I'm still not clear on it.

The pitch on 3rd and 11.

 

[DFWJC]

Same people saying we should pass on 1st down would be saying the opposite if we weren't using our best weapon, Zeke, pounding it with the run.
Guaranteed.

Anyway, by now I'm sure that Dak has the option to check in or out a run play.

 

[erod]

15 possessions against New York.

12 were five plays or less.

There you go.

 

[MileyDancer]

Same people saying we should pass on 1st down would be saying the opposite if we weren't using our best weapon, Zeke, pounding it with the run.
Guaranteed.

Anyway, by now I'm sure that Dak has the option to check in or out a run play.

What happened to the design rollout we were doing in the beginning of the season (on 1st down)? They worked pretty well; I would like to see a few more throws on 1st down at least for the sake of predictability.

 

[ShiningStar]

i hate to say it but it seemed this team scored better without Dez. Not a shot, i like Dez, but when the game planning was without Dez, the team moved better.