Yakuza Rich
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Dallas vs. NY Giants Game Preview
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com/
DALLAS (-1) VS. NEW YORK GIANTS
AT GIANTS STADIUM
NOVEMBER 11, 2007 4:15 PM EST
WHEN DALLAS IS ON OFFENSE
While it’s been widely noted that the Giants have changed their defensive strategy and are a much more effective defense, it’s been much less publicized that the Cowboys have changed their offensive strategy the past few weeks and it may be making for a more effective offense.
First, we get to the Giants whom in week 1 utilized mostly a basic 4-3, Cover 2 scheme against the Cowboys and got torched for 45 points. They were unable to stop Jason Witten and when they got some tighter coverage on Witten they wound up getting burned by Terrell Owens.
What was perhaps the oddest part of the game was that the Giants defense, now being headed by Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo…a long time assistant under Philadelphia’s Jim Johnson…was quite bland for a coordinator coming from a blitz happy system. But come week four against Spagnuolo’s former team the Eagles, the Giants defense suddenly became this blitz happy defense that the organization anticipated it would be all along.
Instead of using a standard four man rush, the Giants started stacking the line with seven and even sometimes eight defenders and making it difficult for offenses to decipher who was going to blitz and who was going to drop back in coverage. They also started to put all four of their pass rushing defensive ends (Strahan, Umenyiora, Tuck, and Kiwanuka) on the defensive line at once in order to bring as much pass rush pressure as they could. The results have been quite dramatic for the Giants defense and after an 0-2 start, they are now 5-2 and in second place in the division.
But while that’s been happening, there have been changes in the Cowboys attack on offense. Early in the year the plan was to primarily attack defenses with the deep ball an it worked splendidly. But after the Bills and Rams game it was apparent that teams were going to protect against the deep ball as much as they could and it almost cost Dallas the Bills game. After the Bills game the passing game has not been afraid to take what the defense gives them by hitting intermediate routes to the receivers and Jason Witten or using screens and dumpoffs to the tailbacks. And when that part of the game starts working the defense starts to have their secondary creep in a little bit and then the Cowboys start attacking with the deep ball.
One of the problems the Giants faced against Dallas the first time around is that they knew they had to keep Romo in the pocket at all costs. Last season they did a good job of that in the week 13 game in the Meadowlands until Umenyiora lost containment on Romo trying to go for the sack, Romo rolled out to his left and hit Witten on a beautiful 44 yard pass that set up the game winning field goal. It was quite obvious that the Giants and Umenyiora didn’t want to pay for that mistake again. But in order for that not to happen, that would mean a lot less edge rushing or pure pass rush moves by Umenyiora and that would play in Flozell Adams’ hands since he outweighs Umenyiora by roughly 70 pounds. Umenyiora played the containment game and was hardly noticeable in the game.
To combat that the Giants will probably move Umenyiora around more as they have been doing over the past few weeks. In fact, we may see some times where he stands up like a linebacker and rushes the passer. They may have somebody like Kiwanuka or Tuck play the containment game against Flozell, but if it gives Umenyiora a better opportunity to attack Romo they’ll probably go this route.
While the Giants exotic blitz packages are fun to watch and have been effective, there are some holes in this plan of attack. For starters, a disciplined offense with a good Quarterback who likes to work shotgun can give them problems. So I expect quite a bit of shotgun and Romo trying to find ways to hit Owens with quick hot reads. According to John Madden, Owens was questioning why they don’t run him on slant patterns anymore (he’s not the only one), but against the Eagles they started to do so and he had great success. The other plays that work against this type of defense are screens and the draw, both of which the Cowboys had success against the Eagles with.
In order to combat this, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of zone blitzes from the Giants in order to take away the quick slants and underneath routes to Witten. The Patriots and Vikings did some zone blitzes, but they didn’t have much success in doing so. One of the flaws in the Vikings zone blitz packages is that they usually had defensive tackle Kevin Williams dropping off in coverage and while he’s a great athlete, that’s not his forte. With the Giants utilizing the 4 defensive end package, they have some better suited players to drop off in coverage.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON DEFENSE
While the Dallas offense has made some changes to their plan of attack, the same could be said for the defense. In the beginning of the year the Cowboys were a blitz and stunt happy squad that sent a lot of 5 man pass rushes. They are still a squad that likes to blitz and they are far more aggressive than they were in the Parcells/Zimmer era, but their blitzing percentages have tailed off a bit and the return of Greg Ellis may have something to do with that.
The Cowboys played a lot of nickel and probably played more dime than they have all season long against the Eagles last week. That may not mean a lot since the Eagles like to throw the ball and they were concentrating on the fast and quick Brian Westbrook all game long. The Giants don’t have a Westbrook on their offense, but their passing game has given the Cowboys fits over the years.
In the week 1 game the Giants were very aware that the Cowboys would be blitzing them and they focused heavily on defending DeMarcus Ware. The Giants utilized 7 man protection schemes against Dallas 4 and 5 man pass rushes any time the Giants were using a 5 step or 7 step dropback pass patterns. The only times that they didn’t use a 7 man protection scheme was on 3 step drops.
There are two reasons why the Giants passing game has given Dallas troubles. For starters, Dallas corners have struggled against big wide receivers for years and Plaxico Burress tends to throw the Cowboys fits. He’s a bit too fast for Anthony Henry, he’s way too physical for Jacques Reeves, and while Newman can do a decent job of sticking with him…he does have some issues with Burress’ height advantage. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of dime packages from Dallas in order to get the 6’5” safety Pat Watkins to help out on the 6’6” Burress. However, the main issue with that is the dime package makes them susceptible to the Giants running game behind 265 pound tailback Brandon Jacobs.
The other reason why Dallas has problems with the Giants passing game is that they seem to have some major issues against the Giants play action pass. The Giants have made almost countless big play after big play off of play action passes and if Dallas starts to use dime packages, the Cowboys may be really biting on the play fakes.
My guess is that Dallas will utilize quite a bit of dime packages, but they will step up the times they blitz in order to help out against the Giants running game. This will force the Giants to bring in extra protection help or use some screen passes in which Roy Williams could play a major factor in the outcome of the game. But if Dallas can contain the run and the screens along with containing Burress, they could be in great position to win the game.
PREDICTION
I think the Cowboys are in a position where if they win this game, they should almost definitely win the NFC East and probably look at a 13-3 and maybe 14-2 record provided they stay relatively injury free. But come November winning on the road becomes increasingly more difficult, the Giants probably need this win more, and they G-Men are coming off a bye week. So I see Dallas losing a bit of a heartbreaker here.
YR’S PREDICTED SCORE: NY Giants 30 Dallas 27
by Yakuza Rich
http://yakuzarich.blogspot.com/
DALLAS (-1) VS. NEW YORK GIANTS
AT GIANTS STADIUM
NOVEMBER 11, 2007 4:15 PM EST
WHEN DALLAS IS ON OFFENSE
While it’s been widely noted that the Giants have changed their defensive strategy and are a much more effective defense, it’s been much less publicized that the Cowboys have changed their offensive strategy the past few weeks and it may be making for a more effective offense.
First, we get to the Giants whom in week 1 utilized mostly a basic 4-3, Cover 2 scheme against the Cowboys and got torched for 45 points. They were unable to stop Jason Witten and when they got some tighter coverage on Witten they wound up getting burned by Terrell Owens.
What was perhaps the oddest part of the game was that the Giants defense, now being headed by Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo…a long time assistant under Philadelphia’s Jim Johnson…was quite bland for a coordinator coming from a blitz happy system. But come week four against Spagnuolo’s former team the Eagles, the Giants defense suddenly became this blitz happy defense that the organization anticipated it would be all along.
Instead of using a standard four man rush, the Giants started stacking the line with seven and even sometimes eight defenders and making it difficult for offenses to decipher who was going to blitz and who was going to drop back in coverage. They also started to put all four of their pass rushing defensive ends (Strahan, Umenyiora, Tuck, and Kiwanuka) on the defensive line at once in order to bring as much pass rush pressure as they could. The results have been quite dramatic for the Giants defense and after an 0-2 start, they are now 5-2 and in second place in the division.
But while that’s been happening, there have been changes in the Cowboys attack on offense. Early in the year the plan was to primarily attack defenses with the deep ball an it worked splendidly. But after the Bills and Rams game it was apparent that teams were going to protect against the deep ball as much as they could and it almost cost Dallas the Bills game. After the Bills game the passing game has not been afraid to take what the defense gives them by hitting intermediate routes to the receivers and Jason Witten or using screens and dumpoffs to the tailbacks. And when that part of the game starts working the defense starts to have their secondary creep in a little bit and then the Cowboys start attacking with the deep ball.
One of the problems the Giants faced against Dallas the first time around is that they knew they had to keep Romo in the pocket at all costs. Last season they did a good job of that in the week 13 game in the Meadowlands until Umenyiora lost containment on Romo trying to go for the sack, Romo rolled out to his left and hit Witten on a beautiful 44 yard pass that set up the game winning field goal. It was quite obvious that the Giants and Umenyiora didn’t want to pay for that mistake again. But in order for that not to happen, that would mean a lot less edge rushing or pure pass rush moves by Umenyiora and that would play in Flozell Adams’ hands since he outweighs Umenyiora by roughly 70 pounds. Umenyiora played the containment game and was hardly noticeable in the game.
To combat that the Giants will probably move Umenyiora around more as they have been doing over the past few weeks. In fact, we may see some times where he stands up like a linebacker and rushes the passer. They may have somebody like Kiwanuka or Tuck play the containment game against Flozell, but if it gives Umenyiora a better opportunity to attack Romo they’ll probably go this route.
While the Giants exotic blitz packages are fun to watch and have been effective, there are some holes in this plan of attack. For starters, a disciplined offense with a good Quarterback who likes to work shotgun can give them problems. So I expect quite a bit of shotgun and Romo trying to find ways to hit Owens with quick hot reads. According to John Madden, Owens was questioning why they don’t run him on slant patterns anymore (he’s not the only one), but against the Eagles they started to do so and he had great success. The other plays that work against this type of defense are screens and the draw, both of which the Cowboys had success against the Eagles with.
In order to combat this, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of zone blitzes from the Giants in order to take away the quick slants and underneath routes to Witten. The Patriots and Vikings did some zone blitzes, but they didn’t have much success in doing so. One of the flaws in the Vikings zone blitz packages is that they usually had defensive tackle Kevin Williams dropping off in coverage and while he’s a great athlete, that’s not his forte. With the Giants utilizing the 4 defensive end package, they have some better suited players to drop off in coverage.
WHEN DALLAS IS ON DEFENSE
While the Dallas offense has made some changes to their plan of attack, the same could be said for the defense. In the beginning of the year the Cowboys were a blitz and stunt happy squad that sent a lot of 5 man pass rushes. They are still a squad that likes to blitz and they are far more aggressive than they were in the Parcells/Zimmer era, but their blitzing percentages have tailed off a bit and the return of Greg Ellis may have something to do with that.
The Cowboys played a lot of nickel and probably played more dime than they have all season long against the Eagles last week. That may not mean a lot since the Eagles like to throw the ball and they were concentrating on the fast and quick Brian Westbrook all game long. The Giants don’t have a Westbrook on their offense, but their passing game has given the Cowboys fits over the years.
In the week 1 game the Giants were very aware that the Cowboys would be blitzing them and they focused heavily on defending DeMarcus Ware. The Giants utilized 7 man protection schemes against Dallas 4 and 5 man pass rushes any time the Giants were using a 5 step or 7 step dropback pass patterns. The only times that they didn’t use a 7 man protection scheme was on 3 step drops.
There are two reasons why the Giants passing game has given Dallas troubles. For starters, Dallas corners have struggled against big wide receivers for years and Plaxico Burress tends to throw the Cowboys fits. He’s a bit too fast for Anthony Henry, he’s way too physical for Jacques Reeves, and while Newman can do a decent job of sticking with him…he does have some issues with Burress’ height advantage. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of dime packages from Dallas in order to get the 6’5” safety Pat Watkins to help out on the 6’6” Burress. However, the main issue with that is the dime package makes them susceptible to the Giants running game behind 265 pound tailback Brandon Jacobs.
The other reason why Dallas has problems with the Giants passing game is that they seem to have some major issues against the Giants play action pass. The Giants have made almost countless big play after big play off of play action passes and if Dallas starts to use dime packages, the Cowboys may be really biting on the play fakes.
My guess is that Dallas will utilize quite a bit of dime packages, but they will step up the times they blitz in order to help out against the Giants running game. This will force the Giants to bring in extra protection help or use some screen passes in which Roy Williams could play a major factor in the outcome of the game. But if Dallas can contain the run and the screens along with containing Burress, they could be in great position to win the game.
PREDICTION
I think the Cowboys are in a position where if they win this game, they should almost definitely win the NFC East and probably look at a 13-3 and maybe 14-2 record provided they stay relatively injury free. But come November winning on the road becomes increasingly more difficult, the Giants probably need this win more, and they G-Men are coming off a bye week. So I see Dallas losing a bit of a heartbreaker here.
YR’S PREDICTED SCORE: NY Giants 30 Dallas 27
