Turkey Day do over? Jason Garrett Vs. John Marshall

[theebs]

There is something very similar about this turkey day with last year's turkey day. And that is the Matchup of Cowboys offensive Coordinator Jason garrett vs. Raiders defensive Coordinator John Marshall.

In case you havent realized yet, He was the seahawks defensive coordinator for the past 5 years.

So is this a positive or a negative for Dallas?

Last year we ended up scoring 34 points, 24 in the first half and dominating the seahawks defense. It was basically a no contest. So that should be a positive for Dallas right?

Well maybe, if you look at the numbers, and maybe they are skewed a little because we made some big plays, but we ended the day 2-9 on third downs, that is 22% and that is our problem right now. That could be trouble thursday.

Now the next concerning factoid, The guy who had the best day and made the second largest play of the game...Jason Witten. 9 for 115 a TD and a long of 36. Guess who might not play thursday? Jason witten.

So struggling on third down and losing the top weapon from last years game could be enough of a problem, but here is one more thing.

Marshall is a guy who believes in pressure and will bring it from all over. With the abilities of corner namdi A. he maybe able to just eliminate one side of the field and really cause confusion somewhere with the extra guy. We have had trouble identifiying and stopping pressure up the middle.

I was watching nfl matchup on espn sunday morning and ron jaworski broke down the stunts and blitzing that everyone is bringing up the middle on us. He blamed the mis-identification on Romo for calling the wrong protection and then missing the free rusher.

John marshall is known as a guy who will stunt up front and bring pressure, with maybe the only shut down corner in the league he should be free to dial it up all day.

Against philly, marshall blitzed once early and it worked....then he never stopped, they beat philly up front. I watched Tom Cable's two press conferences from the week today and he was asked about preparing for philly and Dallas and what the difference is. He said it was the running backs, tight ends and the offensive line leaning on you for so long. He also said it will be easier to generate pressure on Dallas because of their scheme...

So that tells me right there, they will run blitz and flood the gaps early and then be aggressive on third down.

I know no one wants to hear this, but we have some injuries that could make this pretty hairy on thursday. I have seen alot of people say to sit witten and let him get healthy and mike jenkins. I have to say I disagree. We will need them both playing at a high level to win this game.

Last year seattle played an extremely physical game on the sunday before we played them, it showed. I have to imagine John Marshall an old time coordinator like capers and nolan remembers last year vividly. THey stayed back on the two opening drives and we made them pay, then they started bringing pressure and he slowed us down. I can't imagine he makes the same mistake twice.

So who has the advantage here? Garrett or Marshall?

 

[Hoofbite]

Advantage. Me.

 

[dcfanatic]

There is something very similar about this turkey day with last year's turkey day. And that is the Matchup of Cowboys offensive Coordinator Jason garrett vs. Raiders defensive Coordinator John Marshall.

In case you havent realized yet, He was the seahawks defensive coordinator for the past 5 years.

So is this a positive or a negative for Dallas?

Last year we ended up scoring 34 points, 24 in the first half and dominating the seahawks defense. It was basically a no contest. So that should be a positive for Dallas right?

Well maybe, if you look at the numbers, and maybe they are skewed a little because we made some big plays, but we ended the day 2-9 on third downs, that is 22% and that is our problem right now. That could be trouble thursday.

Now the next concerning factoid, The guy who had the best day and made the second largest play of the game...Jason Witten. 9 for 115 a TD and a long of 36. Guess who might not play thursday? Jason witten.

So struggling on third down and losing the top weapon from last years game could be enough of a problem, but here is one more thing.

Marshall is a guy who believes in pressure and will bring it from all over. With the abilities of corner namdi A. he maybe able to just eliminate one side of the field and really cause confusion somewhere with the extra guy. We have had trouble identifiying and stopping pressure up the middle.

I was watching nfl matchup on espn sunday morning and ron jaworski broke down the stunts and blitzing that everyone is bringing up the middle on us. He blamed the mis-identification on Romo for calling the wrong protection and then missing the free rusher.

John marshall is known as a guy who will stunt up front and bring pressure, with maybe the only shut down corner in the league he should be free to dial it up all day.

Against philly, marshall blitzed once early and it worked....then he never stopped, they beat philly up front. I watched Tom Cable's two press conferences from the week today and he was asked about preparing for philly and Dallas and what the difference is. He said it was the running backs, tight ends and the offensive line leaning on you for so long. He also said it will be easier to generate pressure on Dallas because of their scheme...

So that tells me right there, they will run blitz and flood the gaps early and then be aggressive on third down.

I know no one wants to hear this, but we have some injuries that could make this pretty hairy on thursday. I have seen alot of people say to sit witten and let him get healthy and mike jenkins. I have to say I disagree. We will need them both playing at a high level to win this game.

Last year seattle played an extremely physical game on the sunday before we played them, it showed. I have to imagine John Marshall an old time coordinator like capers and nolan remembers last year vividly. THey stayed back on the two opening drives and we made them pay, then they started bringing pressure and he slowed us down. I can't imagine he makes the same mistake twice.

So who has the advantage here? Garrett or Marshall?

You don't know how mad I was when the Raiders benched Jamarcus Russell.

I really wanted to see DeMarcus Ware hanging off his neck like five times in this game.

 

[Hostile]

Good info theebs. Thank you.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

Thanks for the information, Theebs. Very insightful. At some point, the Cowboys must break out of this offensive slump. Right?

Hopefully, Garrett can repeat his success on first and second down against Marshall.

The Raiders' run defense ranks 30th in the league, and the Raiders' offense scores an average of 10 points per game. If there was ever a week to call an excessive number of rushing plays, this is it.

 

[BAT]

Not disagreeing w/Theebs, but EVERY opposing team is going to blitz Dallas from here on out, GB did it successfully against us and its a copycat league. Dallas is going to have to show the world that it can burn the blitz or score big in the running game.

 

[ROCstar]

A very interesting sub-plot going on in Oakland right now.

Typically Al Davis "prefers" his DC's not to blitz and run a real old-school/vanilla/man scheme.

However, twice Marshall has broken out of this mold and put pressure on the QB with some blitz schemes... and both those times we have been victorious.

One of those times being last week vs Cinci.

So we'll see what happens this week, should be interesting.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Based on what decent running offenses have done against Oakland, there isn't much reason to throw any more than we have to. They've played 5, count 'em 5 games against the 30th, 31st, and 32nd teams in yards per rushing attempt and still their defensive rushing stats are bad.

They've allowed 316, 220, 215, and 177 rushing yards to teams that average less per carry than Dallas.

We should be able to realistically drop 175-235 yards rushing on Oakland, so let 'em bring that blitz. Shotgun draw anyone?

 

[theebs]

Not disagreeing w/Theebs, but EVERY opposing team is going to blitz Dallas from here on out, GB did it successfully against us and its a copycat league. Dallas is going to have to show the world that it can burn the blitz or score big in the running game.

Yea your right, but it started before green bay.

Denver blitzed like crazy, atlanta and seattle brought pressure up the middle also that we didnt handle that well.

 

[malbis030347]

I just hope JG has an alternate plan in case Marshall dials up the blitz packages up the middle as described...this almost sounds like what Jim Johnson did to us every time he played us and it worked every time for him
...after 3 weeks of JG seeing this scheme working against us, you would think we can come up with some answer that will make them pay.

 

[theebs]

I just hope JG has an alternate plan in case Marshall dials up the blitz packages up the middle as described...this almost sounds like what Jim Johnson did to us every time he played us and it worked every time for him
...after 3 weeks of JG seeing this scheme working against us, you would think we can come up with some answer that will make them pay.

well that is the thing. Its been happening for more than 3 weeks.

and if you believe ron jaworski, its romo mis-identifying the protection and missing the free rusher.

 

[adbutcher]

This won't be an easy game but winnable, that is all we can ask for. Our D will need to come up big and hopefully Red will have some screens dialed up when the Raiders try to bring pressure.

 

[FLcowboy]

Shotgun draw anyone?

And it's not that other teams have ever seen the shotgun draw either.:laugh2:

 

[coblue]

I would say screens to Jones and Bennett and quick routes to Crayton, Austin etc...

I would say toss the ball to run wide and runs on the adge and outside the tackles.

But Garrett, eh.

 

[NinePointOh]

Bruce Gradkowski was also Tampa Bay's QB on Thanksgiving Day 2006, when we won 38-10. Gradkowski was 10-20 for 120 yards and 2 INTs. Romo, of course, had 306 yards and 5 TDs.

 

[DaBoys4Life]

Good info.

 

[MapleLeaf]

Not disagreeing w/Theebs, but EVERY opposing team is going to blitz Dallas from here on out, GB did it successfully against us and its a copycat league. Dallas is going to have to show the world that it can burn the blitz or score big in the running game.

...agree with this.

Dallas is going to have to show it can beat the run blitz with Doug Free starting plus Barber, Felix and Gurode dinged up.

Beat the blitz on passing downs with Romo finding the "hot route" and the WR catching ball no matter how off target he is.

If defences get beat on their strategies they may back down. It won't happen unless the offence can show they can capitalize on the blitzes.

If I was a DC I would blitz the Cowboys on 90% of the downs to disrupt their rhythm. The only down I wouldn't blitz on is the obvious passing 3rd down. I would play zone and force Cowboys WR to catch the ball first.

This is a team whom I would look to force them into a passing third down because they haven't shown that they can handle that type of game scenario properly.

I would sell out on the run and put Namdi on Austin. With Witten out you know they will put Bennett in to pass block so for the majority of first and second downs you can hold Martellus in for protection with a fierce rush or 8 and 9 men in the box.

Change looks on Martellus or overload him multiple times in the game. See if this kid can handle the pressure on being the #1 TE for a game.

Lots of run blitzes. Stack the lines early in the game to scare Garrett from putting Felix in the game. Barber would not scare me knowing that he's not going to be good enough to break any 40 yard runs on me with his gimpy thigh. If he runs for a few first downs call that expected collateral damage from blitzing. Keep Felix out of the game knowing that Garrett doesn't trust him so much with pass protection.

If RW lines up on Adams side of the ball I would zone blitz that passing play and see if RW can hook up with Romo on bracketed coverage.

If Austin rolls over to Adams side I would slide the Safety to Austin and rush through Adams to force Romo to look for RW on the other side.

As a DC I am looking for one hit on Romo and I would ask my players to make it a good one. Specifically Romo's back. I would have to believe that if we can re-injure his back at best he's going to have a lousy day, but it wouldn't surprise me if he packed it in.

I would be challenging Romo's resilience thinking this guy is a quitter. The defensive mantra of the day - he's no Roethlisberger ( so he can't outmuscle a tackle) and he's no Peyton ( so he can't find the open WR).

If there was one part of the offence I would attack on the Cowboys it would be Gurode and Kosier with my fiercest pass rushers and blitzers. I would challenge their communications skills, their physical abilities and Romo being able to see the blitzer coming from that side.

That's what I would do as a DC.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Good info theebs. I'm also one who is upset that they benched Russell before this game. I really wanted us to destroy that kid and the game against us to be the reason they put him on the bench.

Oh well.