You have no problem with 4 throws/1 run on that drive when we were up 36-31 with four minutes left?
Stop the stupid comparisons to the New England game. We couldn't run at all in the game. We were gashing GB on the ground yesterday.
Your problem is that you're assuming we would be able to keep grinding out 1st downs on the ground even though Green Bay was selling out to stop the run. I don't have any data in front of me (AdamJT13?) but my guess is that NFL teams are generally pretty good at stopping the run in those sort of late-game situations where the offense is trying to end the game and the D is looking for a stop. They're stacking the box and selling out hard.
I'd honestly have been fine with either strategy because there's inherent pros and cons that come with each. Again, the PLAYERS need to execute the plays.
If we ran the ball and moved the chains, everyone's happy. If we ran the ball and DIDN'T move the chains, we give Green Bay the ball back and lose. Then everyone's blasting Garrett/Callahan for "going into a shell" or "not letting Romo win the game".
You have those numbers on how often they had 10 in the box? Are you talking about the next to last drive only?
It makes you wonder how any team who ever has a big lead ever runs the ball. I mean, the other team knows they want to run it, right?
It's just like joeboy said, and the same thing we went through after that Detroit debacle (the one from a couple years ago -- since we have to distinguish which Detroit debacle)... If you just keep the clock moving and get a few first downs, they don't have time to beat you barring a rash of turnovers or special teams scores.
Yes, I was talking about the next-to-last drive only. The INT to Miles that everyone's 2nd guessing with the benefit of hindsight.
I agree that we should have been more balanced overall. This thread was only supposed to be about "running out the clock" in the late 3rd-4th, or at least that's what I've been referring to.
It's easy to 2nd guess a play-call AFTER we see that it didn't work. But it would have worked if the players (Romo in this case) executed better.
The objective is ALWAYS to "get 1st downs and keep the clock moving" when you have a lead, so I find it comical that people are saying that's what we should have done.
As for the Detroit game in 2011...
The first pick-6 in the 3rd quarter came on the 1st play of the drive. There was still over 10 minutes left in the 3rd. Unless you're of the belief that you MUST ALWAYS run on 1st down when you have a big lead, even with PLENTY of time left on the clock, I don't see how you could really 2nd guess the call there. Sometimes you mix it up and throw it on 1st to keep the D honest.
The next pick-6 came on our next drive, on the 7th play of the drive.
For the first 6 plays of that drive, we ran it 5 times and passed ONCE (6-yard completion), but people STILL complained (and still complain to this day) that we "got pass-happy" and "should have been running out the clock".
It's silly. We were only up 17 at that point and there was still something like 23 minutes of football left. Far too early to go into "run on every single down" mode. But those complains speak to my point that fans just love 2nd-guessing anything that doesn't work and blaming the coaches for bad strategy.