Vela chats with KC Joyner who suggests the #Cowboys may be in a philosophical bind

[WoodysGirl]

Dr. Jeckyll or Mr. Martz? A Chat with ESPN's K.C. Joyner

Posted by Rafael at Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Cowboys Nation begins a week-long chat with ESPN Insider and Scientific Football publisher K.C. Joyner. K.C. brings his fresh 2012 metrics to the discussion of all matters related to the Cowboys offense and the team's passing defense. Today, he suggests the team's game planning was out of sync with its personnel in 2012.

Cowboys Nation: We can start this going in ten different directions with the Cowboys. There was a lot of flux last year on the offense. Every name player went up, went down, had injury issues. Every player has question marks entering the 2013 season.

Let's begin with the lightning rod, Tony Romo. I imagine his bad decision metrics skewed the wrong way in 2012, especially after he was coming off a career year in 2011.

K.C. Joyner: I'm looking at him now. Romo tied for 24th in bad decision percentage, [with a 2.3% number]. He tied with Colin Kaepernick. I don't know if that's good or bad to be tied with a first-year starter who was thrown in halfway.

To put him in perspective, Phillip Rivers had a 2.4% bad decision metric and he was seen as having a bad year. Ben Roethlisberger had a 2.4, and it was hardly his best year. From that perspective, Romo's 2.3 looks bad, but I'm of two minds with Tony Romo.

Upside, 2.3% if you're a risk taker of the caliber of Tony Romo, where he likes to take a lot of chances, make a lot of risky passes down the field, that's not a bad rate for a guy like him.


Read the rest: http://www.cowboyszone.com/2013/05/dr-jeckyll-or-mr-martz-chat-with-espns.html

 

[DallasDW00ds0n]

"bad decision percentage"? I feel like some guys try too hard. Bad decision based on what? What if a WR like hmmm say... Ogletree? ran a bad route and the pass was INT'd?

 

[Califan007]

"bad decision percentage"? I feel like some guys try too hard. Bad decision based on what? What if a WR like hmmm say... Ogletree? ran a bad route and the pass was INT'd?

I don't think Joyner bases a "bad decision" strictly on result.

 

[Nation]

This IMO is the biggest structural problem with the Cowboys organization

Until they decide we're going to change our personnel to match our philosophy or change the philosophy to better match the personnel, they're always going to under-perform.

 

[Nation]

"bad decision percentage"? I feel like some guys try too hard. Bad decision based on what? What if a WR like hmmm say... Ogletree? ran a bad route and the pass was INT'd?

It is defined as:

1. Forcing a pass into coverage
2. Staring at a receiver
3. Throwing the ball despite being tackled
4. Misreading a zone defense and not seeing a defender in the passing lane

 

[CATCH17]

What exactly is our philosiphy again?

 

[jobberone]

Good read. Thanks for posting. I agree they need to go more up tempo and let Romo do his thing. They should be using Dez, Austin, Escobar and Williams down the field and putting pressure on the D and DBs. We had a much better offense playing loose than we did trying to play a controlled game.

 

[Nation]

What exactly is our philosiphy again?

Space-based and speed as opposed to wearing teams down

 

[ABQcowboyJR]

He has an interesting take on our personnel vs. style of football. I want to see what the play calling is like with an improved offensive line. They were so bad that it often didn't make a lot of sense to try and run the ball.

 

[egn22]

"bad decision percentage"? I feel like some guys try too hard. Bad decision based on what? What if a WR like hmmm say... Ogletree? ran a bad route and the pass was INT'd?

+1

 

[CATCH17]

Space-based and speed as opposed to wearing teams down

We look all over the place if you ask me.

We're trying to be a power team most of the game. Even though we don't have the players to run it.

Then after we've had a few penalties or we need to actually make a play we spread it out and do some space based stuff.


Then you hear we're going to a zone running scheme and then you hear well not really.


All I know is we are at our best when we our playing with urgency and tempo.

90's Cowboys football doesn't work with this team.

 

[Bullflop]

Raphael would like to see the passing game morph into more of a downfield-type mode but what he neglects to take into account is that an o-line which consistently fails to afford its QB the required time for longball pass protection simply doesn't mesh well with that type of aerial attack. Any offense that can't go downfield effectively and can't run the ball consistently becomes predictable. Dink and dunk is the alternative.

 

[ABQcowboyJR]

We look all over the place if you ask me.

We're trying to be a power team most of the game. Even though we don't have the players to run it.

Then after we've had a few penalties or we need to actually make a play we spread it out and do some space based stuff.


Then you hear we're going to a zone running scheme and then you hear well not really.


All I know is we are at our best when we our playing with urgency and tempo.

90's Cowboys football doesn't work with this team.

I completely agree. I also think that when we go to an open high tempo offensive it speaks to what Romo's skills are tailored to. He doesn't have an elite arm but can make most throws. He can make all the reads quickly and influence defenses pre-snap. This lends itself to a Brady kind of offense where you let Romo create the miss matches pre snap with his great football knowledge. What helps his down the field game is ability to avoid the rush and extend plays, but most of the time this just lends its self to improvisation. This in a way is puzzling to me as well because we have the kind of receivers to run a Norv down the field passing game. Which IMO is how JG's offense is built. I guess you just try to get as many versatile guys on offense who can be match-up problems for a defense....Wit, Escobar, Hannah, Dez, Miles.

 

[jobberone]

Raphael would like to see the passing game morph into more of a downfield-type mode but what he neglects to take into account is that an o-line which consistently fails to afford its QB the required time for longball pass protection simply doesn't mesh well with that type of aerial attack. Any offense that can't go downfield effectively and can't run the ball consistently becomes predictable. Dink and dunk is the alternative.

And you would be correct. We can be more up tempo though and Romo moves around enough to generally buy time if necessary to hit those intermediate and longer developing routes. Romo is fine out of the pocket but his efficiency goes way down into the 40s if he is too pressured when throwing. It would be nice for the OL to give him time to throw from the pocket.

 

[CF74]

"I have a theory as to why that is, so overall, when you're looking at Tony Romo, his 2.3 bad decision percentage would not be bad if he was playing in a higher-risk offense, but when they're dinking and dunking, it's not as good a rate as it might appear."

 

[Bullflop]

And you would be correct. We can be more up tempo though and Romo moves around enough to generally buy time if necessary to hit those intermediate and longer developing routes. Romo is fine out of the pocket but his efficiency goes way down into the 40s if he is too pressured when throwing. It would be nice for the OL to give him time to throw from the pocket.

I'm reasonably confident the majority of us are hoping that Travis Frederick's presence will make a noticeable difference in resolving at least a portion of that problem. It will also be interesting to see what progress the youngsters such as Parnell, Leary, Kowalski, etc, etc can bring to an OL that sorely requires bolstering. If the football gods are so kind as to allow us to accomplish that, we're destined for bigger and better things. If not, well, let's not think about that, OK?

 

[Idgit]

We look all over the place if you ask me.

We're trying to be a power team most of the game. Even though we don't have the players to run it.

Then after we've had a few penalties or we need to actually make a play we spread it out and do some space based stuff.


Then you hear we're going to a zone running scheme and then you hear well not really.

All I know is we are at our best when we our playing with urgency and tempo.

90's Cowboys football doesn't work with this team.

Honestly, between the penalties, turnovers, and porous secondary the last few season, it'd be more surprising to have a team that wasn't all over the place. Success gives you continuity, because it means you're consistently able to do things other teams can't stop. We show flashes of doing that, and then the odd penalty or a bad route adjustment and we effectively stop ourselves. If that stuff ever gets cleaned up, we'll see the team get suddenly a lot more consistent philosophically.

 

[jobberone]

I'm reasonably confident the majority of us are hoping that Travis Frederick's presence will make a noticeable difference in resolving at least a portion of that problem. It will also be interesting to see what progress the youngsters such as Parnell, Leary, Kowalski, etc, etc can bring to an OL that sorely requires bolstering. If the football gods are so kind as to allow us to accomplish that, we're destined for bigger and better things. If not, well, let's not think about that, OK?

I think Smith will be a little better and hopefully more in the running game. Fred should help anchor the middle some and provide something with the run, too. RT won't be worse and should be better some I expect at least an avg RT there. We'll see about Leary, Arkin, and Ski. Hopefully one will step up and the two guards will play better. Not sure where Costa fits but at least backup center. We should be better.

 

[erod]

"Bad decision percentage"?

LOL, and these guys wonder why they can't get dates.

There are WAY too many stats in the world for people who never had an athletic moment in their life.

 

[Doomsday101]

If Romo is not taking risk this offense does not move, we sputter. We are not getting the blocking up front and this leads to Romo trying to make plays on the move. While you can get away with it sometime it will burn you as well.

Only way to change this, the guys up front need to do a better job in protection and in the running game so that we can run plays as designed not an offense that operates by the seat of their pants.