Tony Pollard missing from the passing game

[Aviano90]

He missed a blitz pick up last night on 3rd down.

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

We didn’t run two back sets in the 90’s so it does compute for Jason Garrett

you can only run those so often.....pass protection and blocking would be an issue.....

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

He didn't look too good in the passing game last night. Couldn't seperate from a LB and took his eyes completely off the ball on screen before it even go to him. More effective as rusher than receiver right now.

running routes in NFL is a precise "science"...different than college and it takes Wrs usually 3 years to learn...much less a RB....

 

[quickccc]

We waste talent. First Rod Smith and now Tony Pollard. It's criminal.

Rod Smith was athletic but was never a talent. he wasn't a creator- Zero instincts.
the lanes and spaces have to be so wide open for him to have a chance of excelling.
It's a reason why we dumped him with the quickness after the 2018 season in his debut as the sole backup RB.

 

[quickccc]

and just as we were questioning the use of Pollard, the coaching staff actually did try to use Pollard in a various of ways,..
they tried him on a wheel route vs a defender in the red zone, where Pollard looked like he lost tracked of the ball,

- and a play or so later, Cowboys seemed to set up a well-developing screen that could have gone for a big play - but Pollard didn't coral the ball in and dropped it.

- add that to his nervousness on the kickoff return and it seemed like Pollard clearly had the shakes and nerves early on.

- but also keep in mind that we saw Pollard on a jet- sweep where he got positive yards on it. He also had a key blitz block on a plus play.

So maybe during the bye week, the coaches had a sit down and discuss getting playmaker Pollard more involved as a receiver and gimmick runner.

 

[Darthkuriboh]

He was targeted a couple of times last night. One was an end zone fade where the defender basically grabbed his jersey and held him from reaching speed with no interference called in the first quarter

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Gameday talent that rarely plays.

Tony Pollard.
Donovan Wilson.
Blake Jarwin.
Jourdan Lewis.
Joe Thomas.
Darian Thompson.

Well like in the case of Thomas, who'd you take out to play him? LVE? Smith? Lee? Thompson in place of Woods? Heath, maybe, but I don't see the coaches don't know Heath isn't that great, since they were supposedly interested in (sorry, can't remember his name, they mentioned him last night), so if they don't play Thompson that should tell us something. Wilson is a rookie, doubt he's ready to play.

Now I do wonder about Lewis and Jarwin, but just for grins, Witten has had 40 targets and 34 catches, or 85% catch rate, Jarwin is 12 of 16 for 75%. It appears to me the tight ends are used mainly for blocking, which fits in with the run-first scheme, and to make the defense back off Zeke, Cooper etc, not as a main weapon. So Witten's ability to get open is the reason he gets more targets. I agree Jarwin should be used more but that's not the way the coaches see him, apparently.

All but Jarwin are backups, I wouldn't expect them to play much, though I do think Lewis doesn't play much because Richard prefers taller DBs, but the others I don't think are used any less than they should be...