What Defensive Coordinators Know About The Cowboys

[Yakuza Rich]

I remember Michael Strahan saying during is playing days the key to defeating Romo is keeping him in the pocket. If he rolls out, he's the most dangerous quarterback in the league, if I'm recalling correctly what Strahan said.

So you may be on to something.

There's no doubt in my mind when Romo steps up, into the front of the pocket, he's the most dangerous QB in the league. Seems like every time he steps up in to the pocket he makes a big time throw.




YAKUZA

 

[Eskimo]

I remember Michael Strahan saying during is playing days the key to defeating Romo is keeping him in the pocket. If he rolls out, he's the most dangerous quarterback in the league, if I'm recalling correctly what Strahan said.

So you may be on to something.

Reality was right that Romo did this with great efficiency in 2006 & 7. But the problem isn't that Garrett had Romo stop doing this - it was that defenses adjusted to his success by trying to keep him in the pocket during the blitz by maintaining outside contain. There is nothing Garrett can do this to counteract this except work with Houck on figuring out why the OL can't pickup blitzes. We are by far the worst team at blocking the blitz in the entire league - by far and the team that is the second worst is probably closer to the middle of the pack than they are to us. The OL and Houck ought to be ashamed to pick up their paycheques each week with their pathetic performance on the field this year.

 

[Eskimo]

There's no doubt in my mind when Romo steps up, into the front of the pocket, he's the most dangerous QB in the league. Seems like every time he steps up in to the pocket he makes a big time throw.




YAKUZA

When he can step through the pocket he is successful but the pocket is constantly collapsing on him so this is difficult for him to do in practice.

 

[NextGenBoys]

We do need some shorter routes, and we also need our Oline to play better.

They looked great early in the season, and they've looked below average the last few weeks.

 

[TheCount]

Good post, only thing I'd add is while our yearly 3rd down conversion rate is 39%, its been closer to 30 the last 4 or so weeks, which is pretty terrible. Even against the Raiders, we only converted 4 the entire game.

We havent shown a consistant ability to move the ball in nearly a month.

 

[Reality]

I don't recall us rolling Romo out much in the past - it was simply that he scrambled out of trouble and then made a great play.

That's exactly what I said .. a couple of years ago, he would roll out of the pocket at the first sign of pressure and he completed a high percentage of passes when he rolled out. They were not designed roll outs .. he simply rolled out to avoid the rush. This year it seems that Garrett is telling him to stay in the pocket if at all possible which explains the higher number of sacks this year.

 

[Eskimo]

That's exactly what I said .. a couple of years ago, he would roll out of the pocket at the first sign of pressure and he completed a high percentage of passes when he rolled out. They were not designed roll outs .. he simply rolled out to avoid the rush. This year it seems that Garrett is telling him to stay in the pocket if at all possible which explains the higher number of sacks this year.

But I actually doubt Romo is telling him to stay in the pocket and take sacks. I think the issue has been with fumbles and ill-advised deep throws when he has left the pocket.

When Romo has the chance, he does try to escape and get outside of the pocket. I do think DCs do want the ends to play some contain against him even in the blitzes.

I think Romo is actually a very good pocket passer so long as he is actually given a pocket and has an open receiver.

 

[T-RO]

Good point, especially with Felix and the screen passes. I think this whole thing is more of an indictment of our line than anything else. We just don't handle different blitz packages well. Is it communication, talent, execution?

+1 We have bigger linemen with less footspeed.

 

[Rampage]

+1 We have bigger linemen with less footspeed.

the Eagles line is just as big as ours and they're one of the better teams at screen passes.

 

[T-RO]

That's exactly what I said .. a couple of years ago, he would roll out of the pocket at the first sign of pressure and he completed a high percentage of passes when he rolled out. They were not designed roll outs .. he simply rolled out to avoid the rush. This year it seems that Garrett is telling him to stay in the pocket if at all possible which explains the higher number of sacks this year.

True but when Romo rolled out and extended the play...that's when he'd get blindsided and fumble. So I can understand Jason's thinking.

Inevitably you improve one thing and it hurts you in a different way.

 

[T-RO]

the Eagles line is just as big as ours and they're one of the better teams at screen passes.

Rampage I wasnt' talking about our ability to run screens - which is actually pretty good. I'm talking about lateral footspeed to pick up blitzers. Frankly it might also be a football IQ issue.

Bigg for instance can dominate---but he can be a big whiffer too.

 

[Rampage]

Rampage I wasnt' talking about our ability to run screens - which is actually pretty good. I'm talking about lateral footspeed to pick up blitzers. Frankly it might also be a football IQ issue.

Bigg for instance can dominate---but he can be a big whiffer too.

my bad, I thought you were talking about screens. yeah we seem to have trouble picking up blitzes except for on the right side imo. when they come from Romo's blind side and up the middle is where we really struggle.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

They blitz because if they don't they're screwed. Give Romo a little extra bit of time and he'll pick you apart.

50% of the time, and he still has a 93.9 QB rating. If they don't blitz, game over man, game over.

 

[Reality]

But I actually doubt Romo is telling him to stay in the pocket and take sacks. I think the issue has been with fumbles and ill-advised deep throws when he has left the pocket.

When Romo has the chance, he does try to escape and get outside of the pocket. I do think DCs do want the ends to play some contain against him even in the blitzes.

I think Romo is actually a very good pocket passer so long as he is actually given a pocket and has an open receiver.

Actually back in preseason in either an interview with Romo or Garrett it was said that they planned to keep him in the pocket more this year.

There is logic in doing that because it provides a little more time that he can watch the plays develop and it gives the receivers more time to establish their routes, especially deeper routes.

When he rolls out due to pressure, it turns into sandlot football. The thing is though is that he's pretty good at sandlot football based on his past success.

He does roll out still at times when the pressure is there but it seems the few times he has done it have always been on third downs or when time was about to expire in a half.

When the defense, especially the linebackers, know the quarterback is going to be in the pocket, they know they can rush to a spot rather than have to chase him.

The two things that I really wish Romo would do more of is roll out a little more often on first or second down even without pressure and most importantly, use the pump fake a lot more.

I have watched a lot of NFL games this year and it seems that there are a lot of interceptions by cornerbacks jumping routes. Even if the pump fake does not lead to a completion, it puts the idea in the cornerbacks' heads.


-Reality

 

[Beast_from_East]

The fact that we get blitzed on every other pass play is because we cant block it. It is really not that hard to understand when you watch our o-line play, they are absolutely the worst offensive line in the league at blitz pickup, seriously.

There is alway 1 or 2 guys that come through the line clean and have a free shot at Romo. Now sometimes Romo does his Houdini act and avoids the sack and throws a strike for a TD, and sometimes Romo gets blindsided and fumbles the ball. Defenses have decided that they will take the risk of a Houdini move if they can get a sack fumble along the way as well.

Like the OP said, this is not rocket science. Most of us on this board that watch the games each week know that we suck at blitz pick up, so it is not a big surprise that defensive coordinators who do this stuff for a living have noticed the same thing. That is exactly how I would attack Dallas, I would cover Austin and Witten and blitz Romo every freaking down. Sure Dallas might break a couple of long runs on me, but odds are I will get a sack or Dallas will committ a penalty before they score a TD on me. I will give up 3s all day to a team like Dallas, especially now that Folk cant hit the broad side of a barn.

Bottome line...................teams will keep blitzing until we start blocking it.