CFZ Why Defensive Coordinators stopped blitzing us last year

[CouchCoach]

This D alignment was borrowed from the DC at AR when he kept 8 in coverage and only rushed 3, 1 of those 3 was Ridgeway, and it was effective against SEC offenses. Those offenses had better talent on their side than AR had on their D, except for their LB’s, but it worked to confuse and frustrate the QB’s

This same approach was used by DC’s to slow Mahomes down and make him be more patient and that worked as well.

This approach works well against OC’s that want to pass the ball like DAL and KC.

 

[PAPPYDOG]

They stopped blitzing us because they realized our fraud QB can't handle a cover 2.

40 million a year and he's confused by the most basic of NFL defenses.

 

[RonnieT24]

4 receivers vs 7 or 8 defenders has nothing to do with “accuracy”.

Never let the truth get in the way of a good narrative. Dak is extremely accurate. At least he was before he lost the ability to rock and fire off his back leg after the calf injury. His mechanics got fouled up by that injury and I full expect him to get right back on track after a healthy offseason. People whining about his accuracy are just parroting. Dak is annually one of the 4-5 most accurate throwers in the game according the advanced metrics. His "off target throw" numbers are miniscule. But again, let us not mess up a good narrative with facts or anything.

 

[pitt33]

Very interesting post. Dak is not the most accurate QB, many times throws behind or under, he must improve his accuracy and trust his receivers to beat those defenses this coming season. And Zeke needs to run the ball effectively.

Dak isn’t changing anything.

He isn’t capable.

There is a large enough sample size. Seven years worth.

 

[DFWJC]

• Tampa Bay- L 31-29- they actually blitzed 50% of the offensive plays we ran and we lost. But we racked up a ton of yards and arguably should have won the game if the damn kicker didn’t miss XP and a chip shot FG.
• Denver- L- 30-15- they only blitzed 14% of our snaps. Denver was one of the first teams to recognize that blitzing us was a mistake. They usually rushed 4 and dropped 7 into coverage. Our second worst offensive game of the year.
• Kansas City- L- 19-9- they only blitzed 25% of our snaps. Using mostly the same approach as Denver, they frustrated us all day using mostly a 4 man rush.
  
• Las Vegas- L- 36-33- Amazingly, the raiders only blitzed us 4% of the time. We racked up yards but had loads of mistakes and our defense stunk it up. But again, the low blitz numbers resulted in a L.
• Arizona- L- 25-22- the cards did blitz 35% of the time and was able to frustrate our offense completely until the 4th qtr.
• SF WC game- L- 23-16- the niners only blitzed 18% of the time. Their front 4 were able to put pressure on Dak and also stop the run.

The teams that blitzed us a lot- Carolina, Minnesota, WFT and the Eagles- all got beat consistently. We beat them all. Bottom line- we have made blitzes pay. Now the offense must find a way to make the cover 2 no blitz D pay.

You could also say that for the most part, we lost to the better teams and beat the lesser teams.
Lessor teams sometimes have to overcompensate with the blitz, epsically if they are trailing.

 

[PAPPYDOG]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good narrative. Dak is extremely accurate. At least he was before he lost the ability to rock and fire off his back leg after the calf injury. His mechanics got fouled up by that injury and I full expect him to get right back on track after a healthy offseason. People whining about his accuracy are just parroting. Dak is annually one of the 4-5 most accurate throwers in the game according the advanced metrics. His "off target throw" numbers are miniscule. But again, let us not mess up a good narrative with facts or anything.

 

[noshame]

Make Dak find the tight windows and he pats the ball. He has to adjust this year or more of the same. Kellen needs to figure it out as well.

Will be fun to watch.

This

 

[noshame]

Dak won't throw into tight coverage.
Got to move him around to create separation. The brain trust must have spotted this and will adjust
Or else

 

[jrumann59]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good narrative. Dak is extremely accurate. At least he was before he lost the ability to rock and fire off his back leg after the calf injury. His mechanics got fouled up by that injury and I full expect him to get right back on track after a healthy offseason. People whining about his accuracy are just parroting. Dak is annually one of the 4-5 most accurate throwers in the game according the advanced metrics. His "off target throw" numbers are miniscule. But again, let us not mess up a good narrative with facts or anything.

Extremely accurate is an overstatement. He is accurate in the sense he will get in the vicinity of his receiver, he never was uber accurate enough to consistently hit his guy in stride. Maybe he does not anticipate where his guys will be in a route when he throws it. Either way his guys do a lot of reaching and coming back to his throws. Even his long throws guys have to adjust and instead of TD it is just a long gain.

 

[Bobhaze]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good narrative. Dak is extremely accurate. At least he was before he lost the ability to rock and fire off his back leg after the calf injury. His mechanics got fouled up by that injury and I full expect him to get right back on track after a healthy offseason. People whining about his accuracy are just parroting. Dak is annually one of the 4-5 most accurate throwers in the game according the advanced metrics. His "off target throw" numbers are miniscule. But again, let us not mess up a good narrative with facts or anything.

I’m neither a Dak apologist nor am I a Dak basher. He definitely has his weaknesses. But it amazes me how many fans here buy into the “Dak is not accurate” narrative. His stats say otherwise. But I always believe in criticizing QBs based on the actual facts, not perceptions.

The same people who say Romo was more accurate- and he was accurate- fail to notice that Dak has a higher career accuracy rate than Romo. Dak’s career completion rate is 66.6%. Romo’s was 65.3%. Romo threw way more interceptions. I’m not knocking either guy. Romo was a very good QB. He was better than Dak in certain areas and vice versa. But Dak is also a very good QB. Are they HOFers? No. Can Dak win playoff games? He still has a lot to prove. But with the right cast, I believe he can. We will see.

It’s always been popular to bash the starting QB in Dallas. Don Meredith was hounded by fans. Even Roger- yes Roger Staubach was booed a couple of times in Texas Stadium. Danny White was 62-30 as a starting QB here and won 5 playoff games. But he was never “good enough” in many fans eyes. He followed Roger and was always going to fall short of that standard. The grass is always greener until it isn’t.

Bottom line- IMO, Dak is good enough to win a SB. But it takes more than a great QB to win one. Matthew Stafford is not a great QB IMO. But he had Aaron Donald, Von Miller, Cooper Kupp and Sean McVey to work with too. Turns out the people around you matter too.

 

[Bobhaze]

Most NFL QBs given the time that a 3 or 4 man rush provides will find an open receiver. A good QB scrambles around, spots the opportunity, and puts the ball on the money no matter how many defenders there are. Just admit that Dak is not that accurate downfield.

Well Patrick Mahomes has also struggled at times against a 3 man rush 8 man coverage scheme. It’s what most teams who beat the chiefs early last year did to stymie that offense. The chiefs started last year 2-3 while Mahomes struggled to learn how to handle this approach.

He did figure it out. But Andy Reid and Eric Bienemy also made major offensive adjustments to offset what defenses were doing. Mahomes started running more and stopped trying to force deep passes into coverage and just started making defenses pay with shorter passes and his scrambling. I think Dak running more might help with this too.

 

[RonnieT24]

If I could take a moment to address this "Dak has accuracy issues" canard.

Here is a list of QB's and their percentage of "bad throws" according to Pro Football Reference.com's advanced passing "accuracy" numbers.
bad throws on target throws
Player A - 18.2% 77.3%
Player B - 18.0% 75.4%
Player C - 14.7% 77.3%
Player D - 18.8% 77.5%
Player E - 18.6% 76.6%

The Cowboys QB is in here somewhere.. the other four have all won Super Bowls. Who here can pick Dak out of this lineup?

 

[JW82]

Teams couldn't get away with this if the Offense could run down their throats when they have 4 man fronts, but they could not. That was the biggest issue. Of course a QB will find it tougher to pass vs 7 men in coverage instead of 5.

 

[Denim Chicken]

Dak won't throw into tight coverage.
Got to move him around to create separation. The brain trust must have spotted this and will adjust
Or else

 

[Cowboy4ever]

If I could take a moment to address this "Dak has accuracy issues" canard.

Here is a list of QB's and their percentage of "bad throws" according to Pro Football Reference.com's advanced passing "accuracy" numbers.
bad throws on target throws
Player A - 18.2% 77.3%
Player B - 18.0% 75.4%
Player C - 14.7% 77.3%
Player D - 18.8% 77.5%
Player E - 18.6% 76.6%

The Cowboys QB is in here somewhere.. the other four have all won Super Bowls. Who here can pick Dak out of this lineup?

What do they consider to be a "bad throw". Are completions considered a good throw because the ball was caught? I don't know how they define these things so they are pretty pointless. Dak completes a lot of throws but a lot of them I would consider to be bad throws - reciever had to slow down or stop his route to catch it, the WR had to climb the ladder to catch it when a good throw would have allowed him to run some. Or the wR had to slide to the ground to catch it, killing any chance of YAC. Now sometimes, those throws are good throws because that is where it had to be, but most of the time, they are just bad throws even though they were caught.

 

[RonnieT24]

What do they consider to be a "bad throw". Are completions considered a good throw because the ball was caught? I don't know how they define these things so they are pretty pointless. Dak completes a lot of throws but a lot of them I would consider to be bad throws - reciever had to slow down or stop his route to catch it, the WR had to climb the ladder to catch it when a good throw would have allowed him to run some. Or the wR had to slide to the ground to catch it, killing any chance of YAC. Now sometimes, those throws are good throws because that is where it had to be, but most of the time, they are just bad throws even though they were caught.

Whatever they consider to be a "bad throw" as long as they define it the same for everyone then it's fair. They also track throws they consider to be "on target" and Dak is as good as anybody on those as well. The "receivers had to slow down or stop" argument should end up on the same pile of dung as the accuracy canard. The Cowboys receiving corps was #1 in the NFL in yards after the catch through 5 games in 2020. For some reason they stopped being #1 after game 5. Wonder what happened in game 5 that changed things. I did not look up the yards after catch number for 2021 because no matter what the numbers say they won't change anybody's mind anyway. People will just come up with some other cockamamie rationale to disregard them.

 

[Ranched]

Dak leads the league in blitz rate (36.1%) & Lamar Jackson wasn't far behind at fourth (32.3%).

The answer for defenses isn’t as simple as to stop blitzing Dak because he’s killing defenses in a different way when the blitz doesn’t come. On those throws w/four or fewer pass rushers, Dak is completing a league high 81.5% of his passes. The next highest rate is 73.0%. Those aren’t just empty short completions, either. Dak’s 8.75 yards per attempt on those throws ranks fourth. (Lamar Jackson’s 9.02 yards per attempt rank third.)

Defenses across the league have started to ease off on sending extra pressure against the league’s best quarterbacks. It’s not a magic fix because these quarterbacks are quite good when not pressured. Yet it’s a huge gamble to send those extra pass rushers to get burned. One of many other topics the unknowledgable haters aren't aware of. Sad!

 

[RonnieT24]

Closing the loop:


Player name bad throws on target throws
Aaron Rodgers - 18.2% 77.3%
Tom Brady - 18.0% 75.4%
Dak Prescott - 14.7% 77.3%
Patrick Mahomes - 18.8% 77.5%
Matthew Stafford - 18.6% 76.6%

If Dak is not accurate it would certainly seem he's in pretty good company. I know the numbers don't add up to 100% so I assume they take spikes and intentional throwaways out of the equation.

 

[CCBoy]

Kellen Moore will be relieved of his duties before midseason
I wrote an article about my belief that the first four games of the season will be make-or-break for offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. I still believe that but I’m taking it a step further and saying that by the fifth game of the season he will no longer be the play-caller for the Cowboys, and head coach Mike McCarthy will take over and get the offense rolling again.

https://thelandryhat.com/2022/06/07/cowboys-bold-predictions-2022-season/3/

 

[CCBoy]

Prescott leads the league in blitz rate (36.1%) & Lamar Jackson wasn't far behind at fourth (32.3%).

The answer for defenses isn’t as simple as to stop blitzing Dak because he’s killing defenses in a different way when the blitz doesn’t come. On those throws w/four or fewer pass rushers, Dak is completing a league high 81.5% of his passes. The next highest rate is 73.0%. Those aren’t just empty short completions, either. Dak’s 8.75 yards per attempt on those throws ranks fourth. (Lamar Jackson’s 9.02 yards per attempt rank third.)

Defenses across the league have started to ease off on sending extra pressure against the league’s best quarterbacks. It’s not a magic fix because these quarterbacks are quite good when not pressured. Yet it’s a huge gamble to send those extra pass rushers to get burned. But what do I know.