It really pains me that this is my first blog post, but it needs to be done. First off I don't pretend to be a professional at this, I played football for 6 years, all 4 in high school, and am trying to combine that experience with a passion for the game. That being said lets address this catastrophe.
The Cowboys did not play well. That is the end of it. So lets examine why
What Happened:
In what looked like a game film replay from last week, the defense STRUGGLED on the first few drives in the game. They put the offense in a hell of a hole. The problem was the coverage they were in. The Cowboys play best when they are in man coverage, strangely because they really don't have a great secondary (but thats a different post), The whole of the first quarter they seemed to be in a cover 2 zone or a cover 3 look. Doing this really hurt the cowboys on those plays where the Eagles lined up in trips left, and sent Sproles on a swing route, they then send Maclin on a go and that corner was forced to choose. That is the exact play that went down when the defense allowed a 59 yard conversion on a 3rd and long. Man coverage is the Cowboys friend, for some reason. Then there was the offense. There wasn't a lot going well for the offense. Tony Romo did not look like himself, not following through and not escaping pressure like he has, not going to speculate if the short week had something to do with it but I can't think it did any good. The running game was working, contrary to what people think, but the defense just gave up too much to quickly. This means that the Cowboys needed to go more to the pass and it takes away from the HUGE advantage that having a great running game gives you, balance. Now how do we fix this.
What Needs to Happen:
First the Defense needs to come out of the gate with anger and hate in their eyes. They need to not give up 3 touchdowns on three drives, they have a first class offense waiting on the sideline, give them the ball! It starts with the D line. If you can get pressure with the front 4 there is almost nothing you can't do defensively. Having to bring 6 or more is a recipe for disaster. After the D line gets pressure, now you need to work out coverage. Zone is really hurting us, but it works in a lot of situations, I am actually a fan of zone coverage it allows players to play more freely. But man is our strength, so playing to our strength and our coordinators philosophy, i would go into a cover 2 man or a cover 1 hole look where you can mix in zone and man defense, then you make the defense guess if it's zone or man and plays into our favor. Those two thing get done, we are in good shape, defensively. Offensively is another story. Again we have a tier one offense, but I think we are using it in the wrong way. DeMarco Murray is a big, strong, physical, contact loving back. He has a great trucking and pretty good speed, but we run to much stretch. Plays like power or trap and wrap are perfect for his style of running, let him get a head of steam and see who is man enough to come up and hit him. Stretch is a play that you do have to run, but we run it a disproportionate amount to interior run plays. Our Offensive line (the best in the league by a mile) is more than able to block anything, pass or run, take advantage of that. One thing that comes from such a great run game and pass protection is play action which I do not believe we do nearly enough of. And when we do run a play action, it's a stale play that isn't a dagger into the heart of the defense. Here is an example. If Murray is doing well on stretch and power (which he is always) have the line block stretch, or power without pulling anyone, mean while running this out of doubles, have Terrance Williams run a deep crossing route, Dez Bryant running a shallow crossing route, then Cole Beasly or Devin Street either a fade or a dig route, keep Jason Witten in for extra blocking. The run will make the LB's step up to stop Murray, then the combo of the deep and shallow crossing routes will force them to try and choose who they will guard, the safeties, if they don't come up, will see the deep crossing route before the fade and will most likely bite onto that. This leaves Tony, who is athletic enough to roll out after a play action fake, the choice of either a shallow route to the playmaker, Dez, a strike into enemy territory for the assassin Williams (cause he goes unnoticed by defenses a lot), or a deep ball to the big man Devin Street. This would work best against a cover 3 zone, cover 1 high safety man, or even could work on a cover 2 if you really are working the run.
In Conclusion:
Defensively: Play to your strength, which is man, but disguise it well and mix in zone. Also get that relentless rush going.
Offensively: Play to your strength, run the ball the way your beast of a RB is built to do. Downhill! Lets see who is brave enough to step up and hit Murray at full speed. Also take advantage of your wide outs and O line and athletic elite QB, run that play action! Trust your playmakers, thats what they do! Thanks for reading
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