Zeke's impact is bigger than we care to admit

[Hawkeye0202]

Pretty simple, we are a run first team. Our plays are designed to feed off this scheme. Offensive personnel is built around the scheme. The biggest problem in order for it to work, defenses HAVE to respect it. If they don't they'll pretty much trust their front four to stop it and focus on taking away your coverages. Notice how Rivers picked the defense apart and many their receivers were not only open but open by a bunch. The same as last week with the Eagles. Those schemes are built for passing or relying on their QB to win games. Their base offense a lot time STARTS three wrs. Hell, look like there were a few plays where Chargers lined up 5 wrs. In other words, here my point, when left he took the heart, straw, speed, and soul of this offense with him.

Without Zeke, defensive coors have no reason to respect the running game, which as mention before is our base offense. Neither Morris or Smith scare anyone and some odd reason, the fastest RB is apparently buried in coaches doghouse. This offense has to force defenses to respect the run to be successful. Good example, dial back to 2015 our first year w/o DeMarco Murray. Randell and Mc/Fadden actually outpaced Murray in yards per carry as a using the running back by com attack but just like now, we still couldn't move the ball or score as an offense. Same issue now IMO, with no respect for the current RBs, mays much easier for teams take away Dez, Beasley, and Witten ( especially with no speed) which I'm pretty sure are the QB first three options on most passing plays. Add to this an OL that's struggling with protection.

Bottom line, losing Zeke, is on par with Green Bay losing Rogers, or Eagles losing Wentz...... impacts the entire team.

 

[EPL0c0]

The idea that any RB can run behind this online has been debunked.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

The idea that any RB can run behind this online has been debunked.

Exactly......Zeke scares the hell out defensive coor. Morris and Smith do not.........

 

[Typhus]

Bottom line, losing Zeke, is on par with Green Bay losing Rogers, or Eagles losing Wentz...... impacts the entire team.

No its not,
Any team that looses their franchise QB is probably doomed.
Loosing a franchise RB is next man up for prepared franchises.
NE likes to trade away guys like Blount, but they flood Brady with passing catching options out of the backfield when they don't have that big bruising style RB, which is becoming a thing of the past in this modern NFL anyway.
Having a Zeke is a luxury item, but definitely not a fundamental.
A coaching staff that thinks out side of the box, and gives your offense the "ability" to do the simple stuff first, is what scares opposing defenses.
Believe what you will, but 280lb plus defenders fear 13 play drives more than any single stud offensive weapon.

 

[Silver N Blue]

Not me been saying it for two years. Zeke is special there is no other way to say it.

 

[Jake]

Pretty simple, we are a run first team. Our plays are designed to feed off this scheme. Offensive personnel is built around the scheme. The biggest problem in order for it to work, defenses HAVE to respect it. If they don't they'll pretty much trust their front four to stop it and focus on taking away your coverages. Notice how Rivers picked the defense apart and many their receivers were not only open but open by a bunch. The same as last week with the Eagles. Those schemes are built for passing or relying on their QB to win games. Their base offense a lot time STARTS three wrs. Hell, look like there were a few plays where Chargers lined up 5 wrs. In other words, here my point, when left he took the heart, straw, speed, and soul of this offense with him.

Without Zeke, defensive coors have no reason to respect the running game, which as mention before is our base offense. Neither Morris or Smith scare anyone and some odd reason, the fastest RB is apparently buried in coaches doghouse. This offense has to force defenses to respect the run to be successful. Good example, dial back to 2015 our first year w/o DeMarco Murray. Randell and Mc/Fadden actually outpaced Murray in yards per carry as a using the running back by com attack but just like now, we still couldn't move the ball or score as an offense. Same issue now IMO, with no respect for the current RBs, mays much easier for teams take away Dez, Beasley, and Witten ( especially with no speed) which I'm pretty sure are the QB first three options on most passing plays. Add to this an OL that's struggling with protection.

Bottom line, losing Zeke, is on par with Green Bay losing Rogers, or Eagles losing Wentz...... impacts the entire team.

Get ready for someone who doesn't get it to tell you we're running "reasonable well" without Zeke. Bottom line is as you stated it, no one is afraid of Morris beating them. They're focusing on the pass and living with his plodding runs.

When Zeke is back there they have to stop him first. If they don't, he'll control the game and the play action pass becomes a legitimate threat.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Exactly......Zeke scares the hell out defensive coor. Morris and Smith do not.........

It’s not as bad as you say. Zeke is great but smith was out for two of three games. And Martin got hurt and was out in the first qtr of this game. And the coaching is just horrid. They don’t stick with the run games despite its working. They do, however definitely miss zeke.

 

[robjay04]

No its not,
Any team that looses their franchise QB is probably doomed.
Loosing a franchise RB is next man up for prepared franchises.
NE likes to trade away guys like Blount, but they flood Brady with passing catching options out of the backfield when they don't have that big bruising style RB, which is becoming a thing of the past in this modern NFL anyway.
Having a Zeke is a luxury item, but definitely not a fundamental.

How could you compare Zeke to Blount? Be serious. Don’t compare an all pro, elite RB that has a rare power and speed combination to a glorified short yardage back.

You don’t have a BAD point but...compare losing Zeke to the Steelers losing Bell or the Cardinals losing Johnson.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

Hell Beasley was our leading WR last year. Teams have practically shut him down. Now add Dez issues, a slow Witten, it's no wonder the QB is struggling. Yes, he missing throws, that's going to happen, but more times than his first three reads are covered.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Get ready for someone who doesn't get it to tell you we're running "reasonable well" without Zeke. Bottom line is as you stated it, no one is afraid of Morris beating them. They're focusing on the pass and living with his plodding runs.

When Zeke is back there they have to stop him first. If they don't, he'll control the game and the play action pass becomes a legitimate threat.

I agree with that. They flood the passing game and don’t respect the run.

 

[Typhus]

How could you compare Zeke to Blount? Be serious. Don’t compare an all pro, elite RB that has a rare power and speed combination to a glorified short yardage back.

You don’t have a BAD point but...compare losing Zeke to the Steelers losing Bell or the Cardinals losing Johnson.

If you interpreted a direct comparison on talent, than no that was not my intention. The point I was making is that an offense can have the same impact without a focal point RB, the adjustment was the point, there has been none. We are trying to be the same offense without Zeke with Morris and Smith,, not going to happen, never will.
Zeke like I said is a luxury,, an extremely special talent, that not only makes Dak better, but the entire team.
But loosing Zeke, should never implode an entire team, loosing Zeke only exposed the bigger weakness on this franchise.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

No its not,
Any team that looses their franchise QB is probably doomed.
Loosing a franchise RB is next man up for prepared franchises.
NE likes to trade away guys like Blount, but they flood Brady with passing catching options out of the backfield when they don't have that big bruising style RB, which is becoming a thing of the past in this modern NFL anyway.
Having a Zeke is a luxury item, but definitely not a fundamental.
A coaching staff that thinks out side of the box, and gives your offense the "ability" to do the simple stuff first, is what scares opposing defenses.
Believe what you will, but 280lb plus defenders fear 13 play drives more than any single stud offensive weapon.

First the Pats offensive scheme is built around Brady whereas our is built as a run-first. Think outside the box with what? New plays, new designs? That may be true but that's training camp talk. From my understanding, most have little if any times to input new plays during the season.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

Get ready for someone who doesn't get it to tell you we're running "reasonable well" without Zeke. Bottom line is as you stated it, no one is afraid of Morris beating them. They're focusing on the pass and living with his plodding runs.

When Zeke is back there they have to stop him first. If they don't, he'll control the game and the play action pass becomes a legitimate threat.

Now if Morris starts breaking off 10 - 20 yard runs or to take a couple to the house......then we'll see the same Zeke impact imo

 

[Birch_Wood]

No its not,
Any team that looses their franchise QB is probably doomed.
Loosing a franchise RB is next man up for prepared franchises.
NE likes to trade away guys like Blount, but they flood Brady with passing catching options out of the backfield when they don't have that big bruising style RB, which is becoming a thing of the past in this modern NFL anyway.
Having a Zeke is a luxury item, but definitely not a fundamental.
A coaching staff that thinks out side of the box, and gives your offense the "ability" to do the simple stuff first, is what scares opposing defenses.
Believe what you will, but 280lb plus defenders fear 13 play drives more than any single stud offensive weapon.

2016, Brady and the Team captain out (4) games, (3) wins, (1) loss.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

We haven't ran the ball all that bad without EE. Now, there are yards left on the field without him because he's so good, but it's not like we don't have a running game.

Our passing game has been abysmal. We don't have him as a threat in the passing game nor as a blocker. And the O-Line has not played all that great. But, we have also gameplanned ourselves into a dink-n-dunk offense. And we don't have the personnel, outside of Beasley...for a dink and dunk schematics. Guys like T-Will, Dez and Witten shouldn't be running curl routes short of the first down marker. Beasley can...but when you have everybody running short it clogs up the middle for him.

This is the same exact problem we had when Tony was here. When we started to use a dink-n-dunk scheme we couldn't move the ball. I can understand some of the logic behind using shorter passes as the pass pro since Tyron got hurt hasn't been there. But Tweedledumb and Tweedlemoron refuse to open the offense up. They'll do it for a play and somebody will miss an assignment or they're covered and then they go right back to short curls, slants and hitches. And it's easy to tell what type of passing routes are coming by the formation.

I think EE is a future HoF'er if he stays healthy and out of trouble. And I think some of Dak's skills have regressed to a degree...but we have ran the ball respectably well and there are far bigger issues than Dak and it starts with the coaching staff.




YR

 

[Typhus]

We haven't ran the ball all that bad without EE. Now, there are yards left on the field without him because he's so good, but it's not like we don't have a running game.

Our passing game has been abysmal. We don't have him as a threat in the passing game nor as a blocker. And the O-Line has not played all that great. But, we have also gameplanned ourselves into a dink-n-dunk offense. And we don't have the personnel, outside of Beasley...for a dink and dunk schematics. Guys like T-Will, Dez and Witten shouldn't be running curl routes short of the first down marker. Beasley can...but when you have everybody running short it clogs up the middle for him.

This is the same exact problem we had when Tony was here. When we started to use a dink-n-dunk scheme we couldn't move the ball. I can understand some of the logic behind using shorter passes as the pass pro since Tyron got hurt hasn't been there. But Tweedledumb and Tweedlemoron refuse to open the offense up. They'll do it for a play and somebody will miss an assignment or they're covered and then they go right back to short curls, slants and hitches. And it's easy to tell what type of passing routes are coming by the formation.

I think EE is a future HoF'er if he stays healthy and out of trouble. And I think some of Dak's skills have regressed to a degree...but we have ran the ball respectably well and there are far bigger issues than Dak and it starts with the coaching staff.




YR

Thank you Yakuza, excellent post.
The point I'm making is that its symbiotic, short game and long game,, both work together in order to achieve the perfect game plan.
An effective short game will open up the long game, but much harder to achieve considering the current design of this offense, without Zeke, with under achieving, bad design adjustments, and until that changes, and this team does have the components to make that attempt, than Dak will continue to come up short.

 

[sweetness0986]

There’s a reason he was the 4th pick in the draft. Kid is special.

 

[Grevus]

Pretty simple, we are a run first team. Our plays are designed to feed off this scheme. Offensive personnel is built around the scheme. The biggest problem in order for it to work, defenses HAVE to respect it. If they don't they'll pretty much trust their front four to stop it and focus on taking away your coverages. Notice how Rivers picked the defense apart and many their receivers were not only open but open by a bunch. The same as last week with the Eagles. Those schemes are built for passing or relying on their QB to win games. Their base offense a lot time STARTS three wrs. Hell, look like there were a few plays where Chargers lined up 5 wrs. In other words, here my point, when left he took the heart, straw, speed, and soul of this offense with him.

Without Zeke, defensive coors have no reason to respect the running game, which as mention before is our base offense. Neither Morris or Smith scare anyone and some odd reason, the fastest RB is apparently buried in coaches doghouse. This offense has to force defenses to respect the run to be successful. Good example, dial back to 2015 our first year w/o DeMarco Murray. Randell and Mc/Fadden actually outpaced Murray in yards per carry as a using the running back by com attack but just like now, we still couldn't move the ball or score as an offense. Same issue now IMO, with no respect for the current RBs, mays much easier for teams take away Dez, Beasley, and Witten ( especially with no speed) which I'm pretty sure are the QB first three options on most passing plays. Add to this an OL that's struggling with protection.

Bottom line, losing Zeke, is on par with Green Bay losing Rogers, or Eagles losing Wentz...... impacts the entire team.

Yep. It also doesn't help that when we are running the ball with success, we immediately go to the empty set with no RB just telling the defense that hey, we know were running well, but we're going to pass now. Dak has 2-3 seconds to read the defense and try to find that 1 WR that might have 1/2 inch of separation.

 

[PA Cowboy Fan]

That's what I've been saying for years. I said it with Murray and it's even truer with Zeke. That's how the offense is set up.